Dear editor:

“Funding national parks” (article, Jan. 6), emphasizes continual “insufficient funding” and “staffing shortages” in Yellowstone, as outlined in the “State of The Park” report, a 1999 National Park Service publication printed on recycled glossy paper with color pictures.

On Jan. 13, I attended an NPS public meeting in Gardiner, Montana, regarding a new Yellowstone North Entrance road.

According to the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) representative in attendance, most new road construction in the park and subsequent maintenance — chip sealing and overlays — is primarily funded by the FHWA. NPS funding is minimal. 

Sixteen NPS staffers who attended the meeting representing 21% attendance does not reflect “staffing shortages." The Tribune article notes Yellowstone had “about 750” employees in 2023, the latest official NPS guess. Astonishingly, the NPS musters the ability to inventory $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance, but can’t provide an employee headcount for 2024 or 2025, or an exact total for 2023.

As for “insufficient funding”, at the meeting three NPS staffers’s annual salary totaled $515,410 in 2024 (openthebooks.com), not including 30%-40% in extravagant benefits. One staffer had a 54% pay increase from 2017 to 2024. Nothing like a COLA and smile! COLA means Cost Of Living Allowance, a mandatory pay increase. Of course we’re relentlessly told inflation is chewing up Yellowstone’s budget. Here, we see otherwise.

According to the 1999 133-page “State of The Park” report printed on recycled glossy paper with color pictures, Norris Campground was closed in 1998, as $70,000 was unavailable for “operational costs." One hundred summer days at $12 per site, with 116 sites totals $139,200 in 20th century math.

The NPS is incapable of operating a simple, profitable cash-cow campground. The same holds true in every maintenance task throughout the park. 

Deferred maintenance example: Average monthly rent for employee housing is $500-$600, not enough to cover basic maintenance. As a result, maintenance is neglected to the point of unrepairable, thus, the need for expensive new replacement housing. Extremely low rent is charged to employees as part of their previously illustrated exorbitant salary.

As the campground closed, so too should under-maintained employee housing close.  Converting employee housing into visitor lodging can’t come soon enough.  

Maintenance will be contractually bound to concession operators passing expenses on to customers as opposed to taxpayers. This creative new form of funding will fetch millions of dollars in concession franchise fees, substantially reducing maintenance costs.

Funding misappropriation example: In 1997, the new fee demonstration program allowed Yellowstone to keep a portion of increased entrance fees to conduct such wasteful projects as restoration of the age-old Turbid Lake Road. Restoration involved removing asphalt to achieve “naturalness.” New-growth trees growing through the abandoned road surface were bulldozed in the asphalt recovery process. This was conducted in a restricted access bear management area.

Nationwide in 1999 there were 375 NPS administered units. Today, there are 58 additional “pork parks” shoring-up congressional reelections everywhere, inflating the total number of underfunded parks, monuments, battlefields, seashores and historic sites to 433. Inflation is tough.

Currently and before 1999, the NPS removes unsafe leaning trees along roadways and in developed areas. Downed timber is also removed following blow-down events in developed areas.  

This timber harvesting has become a dependable firewood source for employee housing and an assortment of NPS facilities. The resultant blue smoke haze is on a par with blue smoke exhaust from unwanted snowmachines in 1999. 

Those 300-year-old trees will never naturally decay closing the cycle of natural ecological processes, which provide endangered grizzly bears a necessary nutritious food source in the form of bugs and ants.  

So much for saving trees using recycled paper.

Steve Torrey

Wapiti