WHAT WE DO

   Great Smoky Mountains National Park was designated in 1934 and later declared both an International Biosphere Reserve and a World Heritage Site because of its irreplaceable ecological values. One of the largest protected areas in the East, the park covers a half million acres in Tennessee and North Carolina. It is home to an abundance of plant and animal species and preserves a variety of structures from a rich human history, including early settlers' cabins, barns, churches, and gristmills.

   Great Smoky Mountains is the nation's most-visited national park, but like most, suffers with only two-thirds of the needed funding-an annual shortfall of more than $11 million-which cripples its ability to protect 500,000 acres of old-growth forest and meet the needs of more than 9 million people every year.

   Cost of living increases and other unfunded mandates continue to erode the park's budget. In 2003, the park was approximately $300,000 short of the funds needed to give employees the pay raises approved by Congress, so Great Smoky Mountains covered costs by leaving 19 critical positions unfilled and limiting research and preservation projects to match the existing staffing level. A curator, for example, is needed to oversee the park's extensive cultural resource collections, which tell the story of hundreds of years of regional human history.

   Great Smoky Mountains will be able to staff the popular Cades Cove area of the park with only 1.5 resource education rangers this summer, so most of the Cove's 2 million visitors won't encounter a ranger. The park is unable to fund any seasonals this year from its operating budget-any seasonals hires will be funded by donations. Funding for repairs to the Chimney Picnic Area is available through the park friends group-but for lack of staff to carry out repairs, visitors may have to sit on crumbling picnic tables.