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Teton park to cut staff
Agency looks to offset rising costs and meager budget increases by outsourcing camp jobs.

By Rebecca Huntington

Grand Teton National Park will hire a smaller workforce this summer and contract out campground operations next summer to save money and stay within a tight budget.

Park bosses are trimming expenses by hiring fewer employees and leaving some jobs vacant. A leaner workforce will likely mean fewer educational programs and shorter hours at some visitor centers this summer.

Next summer, Grand Teton will turn over campgrounds to private contractors in order to avoid spending $10 million to renovate the facilities.

Grand Teton is whittling down costs by focusing on the park's basis job, which is protecting resources and serving the public, said park spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo.

"We're going to hone down to that core mission," she said Friday. "That's just the reality of the times that we live in."

But park advocates are not convinced the National Park Service can still meet its obligations with all the belt tightening underway. In addition, critics contend Grand Teton's rush to privatize developed campgrounds did not take into account impacts to natural resources, the public or park employees.

The budgetary pinch at Grand Teton mirrors concerns raised in a report released last month by the National Parks Conservation Association. The report estimated national parks are underfunded by an estimated $600 million nationwide.

That estimate is based on business plans that NPCA helped develop for many parks, including Grand Teton. The plans are designed, in part, to give Congress more specific information about park finances.

"The entire Congress needs to take a hard look at what the needs of the national parks are," said Tim Young, a Jackson representative for NPCA.

"In park after park where high-quality business plans are conducted, the parks are roughly a third underfunded," Young said. That includes Grand Teton, according to NPCA.

Indeed, Anzelmo confirmed that Grand Teton will hire fewer employees this summer due to budget constraints. Grand Teton has approximately 130 permanent positions and last summer had approximately 200 seasonal employees.

For example, the interpretive division, which runs visitor centers, guided hikes and educational programs, will hire four to five fewer seasonal employees. Those employees staff visitor centers, give interpretive campfire talks and guide hikes. Fewer staff will mean fewer programs.

But Anzelmo said: "There still will be a good variety of interpretive programs offered to the public."

In addition, visitor center hours may be reduced slightly at Colter Bay Village and the Flagg Ranch Visitor Contact Station, Anzelmo said.

Some seasonals will work shorter seasons. Melissa Decker, who works at the Colter Bay Visitor Center, will start at the end of May about two weeks later than in previous years. In addition, Decker expects her season to end earlier.

The shortened season will make it more difficult for Decker to sublet her apartment in Summit County, Colo., where she works for a ski resort in winter.

"It makes my life more complicated when the season is really short," Decker said. "I guess that's my choice until I can get a permanent job."

Decker was hoping to eventually become a permanent park employee but those positions are becoming scarce as well, prompting her to rethink her career path.

Also in the interpretive division, two permanent supervisory posts, which oversee programs at Moose and Jenny Lake, will go unfilled for now, according to Anzelmo.

The ranger division will be down seven seasonal rangers, including law enforcement and Jenny Lake Subdistrict climbing rangers. Those seasons also will be shortened with rangers arriving later and leaving earlier, Anzelmo said. That could have implications for law enforcement during the fall elk hunt inside Grand Teton with fewer rangers on patrol.

One full-time supervisory ranger position will remain vacant to save money. But the chief ranger position, which is considered critical, will be filled as soon as possible, Anzelmo said.

The maintenance division is taking a different tack. Seven or eight permanent or semi-permanent positions will be filled by seasonals to save money on benefits and other expenses, Anzelmo said. Seasonals also can be terminated more easily if budgets run out.

"It is a more economical way to fill positions, however, we have a hard time completing workloads with seasonals," she said.

The maintenance division also is shuffling funds to pay for high-priority projects, such as replacing deteriorating bridges, she said.

While parks are shrinking staff to stay within budgets in the short-term, former Grand Teton Superintendent Steve Martin approved a plan to privatize campgrounds to save the park money over the next several years.

Most park campgrounds are in need of renovations, which could cost an estimated $10 million, Anzelmo said.

Instead of taking money out of the park budget or tapping into entrance or campground fees, Martin decided to turn campground operations over to private concessionaires, who would then be responsible for improvements. The Park Service, however, would still be responsible for basic infrastructure, such as water and sewer, Anzelmo said.

Contracts will go out for bid this summer and the switch could be complete by next summer. Under the plan, the company that wins the bid to operate the lodging and stores, currently run by Grand Teton Lodge Company, would also have to pick up Colter Bay, Jenny Lake and Gros Ventre campgrounds.

The company that wins the bid for Signal Mountain Lodge and Leeks Marina would take on Signal Mountain and Lizard Creek campgrounds.

Martin, who is now the Park Service's regional boss, has stressed the need to find different ways of doing business without always relying on taxpayers to foot the bill.

"It's more than just give us more money so we can do things the way we've always done it," Martin said in an interview last month about park budget woes. "It has to be a whole array of solutions. It's a changing world."

But turning campgrounds over to concessionaires does have costs, according to an anonymous letter from "concerned" park employees sent to the News&Guide and an employee, who confirmed the concerns outlined in the letter under the condition of anonymity. Nationally, park employees have come under fire for speaking out on budget concerns and these employees wrote that they would lose their jobs if their names were used.

Contracting out the campgrounds would eliminate 13 seasonal park employees, who often work in campgrounds as a stepping stone to permanent ranger positions, the letter states.

The employees work hard to ensure "natural quiet" at night, keep bears from reaching campers' food, provide first-aid, support search and rescue missions and fight fires, the letter states.

"Only through the consistent efforts of campground rangers are bears not seeking or obtaining food in campsites," the letter states. The same dedication will not be expected of concessioners, which likely will pay lower wages to campground staff, the letter states.

The campgrounds actually generate revenue through fees, but with a private company taking a cut those fees likely will have to be raised, the letter warns. Meanwhile, the Park Service will continue to pay for water and sewer services.

Park employees will lose jobs, visitors will pay higher camping fees and resources, such as wildlife, will receive less protection, the letter warns, arguing that those downsides were not thoroughly considered.

"To date we have not encountered one fellow employee who supported this decision in fact there was no discussion, no study to determine whether this served the public or resource, and certainly no cost benefit study," the letter states.

According to park officials, however, the numbers were looked at carefully and the proposal will save money.

"It gives us that savings that we need to use limited dollars for maximum benefit," Anzelmo said.

By not paying for campground renovations, the Park Service has more flexibility to fund repairs of other aging park infrastructure, such as water and sewer systems, Anzelmo said.

Also, while campers will wind up paying higher fees, they will get modern amenities and a nicer setting in return once campgrounds are rehabilitated, she said.

"We hear a lot from campers who say 'We want better bathrooms, nicer tent pads, rehabilitated sites," Anzelmo said.

Grand Teton has a base operating budget of more than $9 million annually and a total budget, which includes money from other sources, in excess of $12 million. Grand Teton also oversees the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway, which has a base annual budget of $461,000.

Park and NPCA estimates suggest the park needs another $3 million to $5 million annually to meet desired goals, ranging from adequate staffing to complying with federal environmental laws. Grand Teton also is facing costly repairs for an aging infrastructure.

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