A 13 percent reduction in its operating budget in the last three years has seriously curtailed the ability of the National Park Service to maintain critical wildlife habitat, keep up recreational facilities and protect natural resources, a report released Thursday says.
The report, “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” was prepared by Environment America, a coalition of 29 privately funded state advocacy groups that address national environmental issues at the local level.
Funding cuts forced a reduction of $335,000 in the Mesa Verde National Park budget, which resulted in leaving full-time jobs unfilled and reducing the park vehicle fleet, the report said. Mesa Verde did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The superintendent at Hovenweep National Park had to leave job vacancies unfilled and redistribute duties, the report said.
A total of $113 million was cut from the Park Service operating budget by the March 2013 sequester, which required an across-the-board 5 percent reduction for the final six months of the fiscal year (March through September).
The sequester was the coup de grâce to budget reductions that began in 2011. The Park Service lost a total of $350 million in the three years, Environment America said.
The report comes in response to ongoing budget negotiations in Congress and in anticipation of the upcoming congressional appropriations process, said Aaron Weil with Environment Colorado.
“It is a testament to the tangible and debilitating impacts that our country’s national parks, seashores, monuments and historical sites are facing as a result of increasing funding cuts to the National Park Service,” Weil said.
Among National Park Service-operated venues are parks, seashores, monuments and historic sites.
Colorado has 17 of 401 National Park Service units. Among the 730,000 acres in the 17 units are Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. In 2012, the state received 5.8 million visitors who contributed an estimated $319 million to national park tourism.
“The report looks at the cuts through the lens of the March sequester and the 5 percent across-the-board cut that all Colorado National Park Service units were forced to incorporate,” Weil said.
At Rocky Mountain National Park, the Glacier Basin campground was closed all summer, the main visitors center also was shuttered all summer, hours were cut at a satellite visitors center and interpretive programs were reduced 35 percent.
“Although shown through the lens of the recent sequester, the challenges facing our national park system are the result of being shortchanged for years,” Environment America said. “It was the exacerbation of these hardships due to the sequester that made the impacts so tangible.”
Environment America recommends that Congress restore full funding to the Park Service.
daler@durangoherald.com
