What happened to Bush's promise about parks?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By JOEL CONNELLY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

NEWHALEM -- With a wild, fiercely beautiful 684,000-acre domain, the North Cascades National Park complex is one place on Earth that will never have problems keeping up appearances.

Appearances deceive, however. Here, as in other Northwest parks, managers do not have adequate money for basic operations, overdue repairs and dealing with such emergencies as flash-flood damage.

"They have fewer than half the wilderness rangers who were on patrol 12 years ago. They have six major staff positions, starting with deputy superintendent, that are not filled," said Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash.

A senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, Dicks has spent this week inspecting Washington's three national parks.

What he heard from rangers in the field is far different from the upbeat, rosy -- and comically unreal -- scenario depicted by Interior Secretary Gale Norton in a speech to conservative state legislators meeting in Seattle last week.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/185067_joel06.html

[indepat]

1. Parks, smarks!