While visiting – and camping in – Australia’s magnificent national parks isn’t always as cheap or sometimes as ‘perfect’ as some grey nomads would like it … we should perhaps count our blessings.
Over in the United States, the national park experience – like many other aspects of American life – is about to suffer due to the ongoing political impasse over there. The inability of the politicians to reach a budget deal has triggered ‘sequestration’ or drastic automatic budget cuts … and it’s not going to be pretty!
The Park Service alone has been ordered to cut a total of US$134 million from its nationwide budget. In California’s iconic Yosemite, park officials have got to find ways to cut US$1.5 million from their budget. Options include closing visitor centres, cutting back ranger-led programs, or cutting back on jobs. Indeed so-called ‘backcountry’ rangers who patrol remote locations, provide safety messages, and check fire rings, will almost certainly be axed.
And it’s not just Yosemite feeling the squeeze. Parks authorities across the country are scratching their heads and sharpening their pencils. Picnic areas and campgrounds are expected to close in the Great Smoky Mountains, the visitor centre at Cape Cod National Seashore probably won’t open this northern summer, and that’s just the thn end of the wedge.
“Visitors will still be able to enjoy national parks,” says Joan Anzelmo, from the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. “They just won’t have the same experience.”
Are we lucky to have the national parks and services we do? Comment below
