Letter to Bomar/Kempthorne

August 25, 2007

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
Department of the Interior
1849 C Street NW
Washington DC 20240

Director Mary Bomar
National Park Service
1849 C Street NW
Washington DC 20240

Dear Secretary Kempthorne and Director Bomar:

On this, the 91st Anniversary of the establishment of the National Park Service, we want to convey our appreciation for being invited to participate in your conference call on Thursday, August 23 prior to the “rollout” of the first project and program proposals for the "National Park Centennial Challenge." We want to add our congratulations to those of others on the excellent job both of you have done in achieving the results to date. We also wish to very strongly commend the superintendents and staffs in the field for developing many superb proposals—all while many parks were right in the middle of their heavy visitation period.

While you can be assured that the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees supports these proposals and the efforts you both are making to assure that they are funded, we want you to know that we also continue to have some uneasiness.

This is an initiative that concentrates on corporate and philanthropic partnerships exclusively. Because of that, the projects, while impressive on the surface and certainly needed, do not represent the highest priority of needs for the National Park Service, but rather are a cross section of excellent projects selected through the filter of first having a viable corporate or philanthropic partner available. This initiative does not yet truly represent a sustained effort to restore the National Park System to a level of operational effectiveness and solve some of the systemic challenges the Service faces.

The Coalition believes that one of the most basic of these systemic challenges is reestablishing the view that parks represent such a fundamental public value that their three core operations—preserve and protect resources, provide quality visitor services, and maintain productive relationships with park interest groups—should be funded by appropriations. Philanthropy should provide the "margin of excellence" that enhances these core operations and should not be counted on to provide 50% of every program and project. Only sustained public financing will assure that parks will endure forever and that Americans will continue to enjoy them as they have for the 91-year history of the National Park Service.

We urge you expand your focus and emphasis for this initiative to include the following criteria, which should be used to evaluate the success of efforts to revitalize the national parks, not only by 2016, but well beyond that:

1. Provide a sustained level of investment of public funds that ensures preservation of the national parks;

2. Heed and incorporate science in management decisions and planning;

3. Ensure the highest degree of protection of national parks, consistent with the law;

4. Preserve the uniqueness and special role of units of the National Park System; and

5. Respond with urgency to the growing impact of climate change.

Moreover, we urge you to go on the record with statements that show that you recognize that the Centennial is more than an occasion to unveil a substantial funding initiative—that it is also an opportunity to take a more in-depth look at what the National Park Service should be and do in its second century to properly manage America’s premier heritage areas. There are myriad other issues and challenges that stand in the way of the most effective governance and institutional processes involved in managing the National Park System.

The National Park Service Centennial is too important to be marked solely by a series of "projects" (although projects there must be) and instead must be thought of as the fulcrum event in a long-term but steady realignment of public opinion, not only in support of a healthy National Park System but also in support of a sustainable planet.

Sincerely,

J. W. “Bill” Wade
Chair, Executive Council