|
Without the work of volunteers who maintain and run facilities, historic sites like Ellwood in Orange County could not stay open. |
FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON--The National Park Service's new director says the agency will increasingly look to outside sources for money to help maintain parks.
"We're much more business-savvy than we used to be," said Mary Bomar, a career employee who became director in October, in one of her first interviews as head of the agency.
A Government Accountability Office report last year said the Park Service is increasingly cutting back on visitor services, education programs and protections for natural and cultural resources because funding has failed to keep pace with operating costs. The agency also has a huge maintenance backlog.
In the Fredericksburg area, for example, the park service does not have enough funds to do more than stabilize and maintain the historic Ellwood estate in Orange County. The Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield group has stepped in, raising funds to return the house to its appearance when it served as Union headquarters during the battle.
"Work is to begin in February to restore the first two rooms," said Greg Mertz, the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park's supervisory historian. "If not for them, that building would just be some stark walls."
Bomar said the Park Service acknowledges it has challenges, including shrinking staff, aging facilities and a diminished visitor experience. Parks have also lost some of their relevancy and connections to younger generations, she said.
She said philanthropy will be a big part of a plan to revitalize and restore parks for the agency's 100th anniversary in 2016, announced this year as an effort called the "centennial challenge."
The agency wants to "look at projects where we could match and leverage funding," she said. "Why not?"
The agency is bringing in around 12 percent of its budget from outside sources, while a decade ago almost all of the budget was federally appropriated. Officers have been holding meetings with private interests to increase awareness of the agency's fundraising efforts.
Besides the Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield, area park officials have gotten valuable help from a number of other friends of Civil War battlefields groups. The Central Virginia Battlefields Trust and national Civil War Preservation Trust, for example, have donated services and money, and buy up important land in and around the parks' boundaries.
These include last year's purchase of Slaughter Pen Farm, a key component of the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, and additional land that was part of first-day fighting in the 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville in Spotsylvania County.
Additional help has come from such groups as the Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields which, among other things, helps coordinate with area Scouts the Memorial Day luminaria at Fredericksburg National Cemetery at Marye's Heights.
Much of the private support for national parks comes through the National Park Foundation, chartered by Congress in 1967. In past years, companies such as American Airlines Inc., Discovery Communications Inc., Eastman Kodak Co. and Ford Motor Co. have each donated millions to parks.
Some critics have been concerned that more private funding could cross a line. In 2004, the agency proposed letting some employees solicit donations, accepting alcohol and tobacco company donations for the first time and giving donors the right to put their names on rooms, benches and bricks.
Those proposals were scuttled last year after criticism, and Bomar said she has no plans to revisit them.
As part of the centennial challenge, the parks plan several "signature projects," including a new visitor center at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii and restoration of Ellis Island in New York Harbor.
The Park Service has acknowledged that the aging Ellis Island complex has been neglected over the years, and the agency hopes to use some private dollars in an effort to restore the historic immigrant gateway.
Bomar said she has no plans to reopen the Statue of Liberty's crown, however, which has been closed to visitors since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
She was less forthcoming about other park policies, saying it would be "inappropriate to discuss" the issue of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.
A temporary plan caps the number of snowmobiles entering Yellowstone at 720 a day and allows 140 snowmobiles a day to enter Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Parkway, which connects the two parks.
Critics say the vehicles contribute to noise and air pollution in the parks.
Late last year, the agency issued a draft statement proposing to maintain the current plan. A final decision is expected by next winter.
