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In its 2001 report, the National Park System Advisory Board recommended that the National Park Service "embrace its mission, as educator, to become a more significant part of America's educational system by providing formal and informal programs for students and learners of all ages inside and outside park boundaries."
Easily awed by their majesty and touched by their history, national parks can truly come alive for visitors through interpretation programs. Unfortunately, tight budgets have forced superintendents to make tough budget decisions-and interpretive programs and the seasonal rangers that offer them are often on the chopping block. As a result, park visitors suffer.
- The National Park Service has approximately one interpreter for every 100,000 visitors.
- This year, Everglades National Park cut ranger-led education programs from 115 a week to less than 40 a week.
- Next year, Acadia National Park may be forced to cut as many as 40 weekly interpretative programs.
- Budget cuts at Yosemite National Park have reduced the number of popular ranger-led public education activities, such as daily walks and memorable campfire programs and the number of interpretive rangers on staff is at the lowest level in more than a decade. In September 2004, there were no ranger programs in Yosemite Valley three days out of the week.
- Lack of funding for interpretation limits Colorado National Monument's ability to educate people about the history of the parks petroglyphs. Ten years ago at Grand Junction, park visitors could gather in a rock amphitheater every night for a program about the history of the awe-inspiring rock spires and desert canyons. Now, a seasonal ranger conducts those programs only once a week.
- Only 8 percent of the Glacier National Park's 1.6 million annual visitors have the opportunity to participate in a formal, interactive outdoor educational experience.
- Ranger tours and education programs at Gettysburg National Military Park reach less than 5 percent of nearly 2 million park visitors annually. The park must deny education program requests from one out of every four schools-affecting 2,500 students annually.
- Yellowstone National Park is able to provide only 6 percent of its 2.8 million visitors annually with an educational experience. This past September, the park cut all educational programs, which affected an average of 13,500 people a day.
- Pennsylvania's Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site used to have 25 seasonal employees in costume each year to share the park's story about life in the 1800s; this summer, the park could not afford to hire any seasonal help.
- For the first time in Olympic National Park's history, operating hours at the park's visitor centers have been reduced and public education programs have been cut. More than 40 percent of the park's interpretive programs were cut this summer, and without Kodak-funded presenters, that number would be even lower.
- Apostle Islands National Lakeshore reduced its 2004 seasonal workforce from 14 to eight, therefore visitor center hours and interpretive opportunities will be limited.
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