The Trump Administration is calling for a $736 million cut to the National Park Service, about 25 percent of its budget.
How, when and where Yosemite National Park would sustain such deep cuts has not been revealed, but Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said there will be a realignment of resources toward “visitor facing roles.”
That shift likely spells trouble for conservationists and the park’s phalanx of rangers who have scientific and research roles.
NPS is expected to offer a deferred resignation program and buyouts.
The risk, former park officials say, is that generational knowledge of the park — how it operates, how it can be endangered — may soon be walking out the door.
‘Catastrophic’ and ‘Terribly wrong’
“There is something terribly wrong with this budget picture,” Robert Binnewies, a former superintendent of YNP, told the Mariposa Gazette in a statement.
“Recently, the National Park Service, including Yosemite, has absorbed significant protection, maintenance and educational reductions. Another 25 percent budget cut predictably will do harm to an agency that is so popular with the public,” Binnewies said.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) offered an even grimmer prediction.
“A cut this massive would be catastrophic,” said John Garder, budget director for NPCA.
“This proposal would only accelerate the damage, putting our national parks at even greater risk and further cut the park staffing that is needed to care for our national treasures,” Garder wrote in a statement.
The Trump Administration is framing the budget cuts as an opportunity for reform.
“Effective stewardship requires disciplined management of the resources entrusted to us,” said Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. “By modernizing our operations, we’re strengthening our ability to carry out Interior’s mission and deliver world-class service for the American people.”
Conservationists are not buying it.
“This is the Trump administration’s familiar formula: dress up layoffs as ‘reform’ and force the public to accept less,” Gerry James of the Sierra Club’s Outdoors For All campaign told Outside.
D.C. & Alcatraz
While NPS gets its budget for park’s slashed, the Trump Administration’s budget includes some curious priorities that are getting a massive influx of cash.
A new capitol construction and beautification project for the Washington, D.C. area, in time for 250th U.S. July 4 celebrations, will cost $10 billion.
Trump also wants to turn Alcatraz back into a federal prison, at a cost between $1.5 to $2 billion.
The National Park Service took over Alcatraz in 1972.
For Binnewies, the former YNP superintendent, the expense of converting it back to a federal prison doesn’t make sense, given the annual operating costs of the island penitentiary were three times that of any other federal prison.
“Today, about 1.6 million appreciative visitors each year buy tickets and board boats to venture out to the island, generating a surplus in revenue of $60 million over NPS operating costs,” Binnewies said.
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