ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – Park officials on Tuesday announced $500,000 in budget cuts that will reduce staff and services at the park this summer and warned visitors to brace themselves for “dramatic cuts” next year if park funding doesn’t improve soon.

“As hard as the cuts are this year, they still are the easier cuts – ‘easier’ is in quotes – compared to what we will have to do next year,” Superintendent Sheridan Steel said Tuesday.

“If we have a similar situation next year, there will be further cuts; quite dramatic cuts, probably,” Steel said.

The budget cuts announced Tuesday include a hiring freeze for all permanent full-time employees; less maintenance and upkeep of park property, including public restrooms; taking vehicles and equipment that need repairs out of service for the foreseeable future; and cutting educational programs led by park rangers.

The National Park Service budget for fiscal year 2005, which begins Oct. 1., shows no significant increase in funding for Acadia, the officials said.

“I’m not optimistic that it’s going to be any better next year,” Steel said.

Once this year’s cuts are factored into the park’s operational budget, officials will have to find new cuts next year.

Assistant Superintendent Len Bobinchock said he cannot recall when the park made similar reductions in employees and services in his 15 years at Acadia.

“I think we’re going to make it through the summer,” he said. “[Acadia] won’t be as nice as in previous years, but I think visitors will still enjoy the park.”

Acadia is a popular part of the national park system, attracting millions of visitors a year and ranking ninth among the most visited parks in the United States, according to 2003 NPS visitor figures.

In a major new federal study issued Tuesday, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association presented a bleak outlook for the future of America’s most beautiful places.

Not only are parks across the nation cutting services, access, hours, rangers and educational programs, but lack of funding and staffing also has allowed historic treasures to be pillaged at some parks and illicit drugs planted along side the mighty sequoias in one of the country’s most treasured national parks.

“America’s national park rangers have become endangered species,” NPCA President Thomas Kiernan said in releasing the Endangered Rangers study. “President Bush – and some of his predecessors – made strong commitments to the American people about protecting our national parks.

“But when push comes to shove, the parks are underfunded year after year by Washington.”

The NPCA called for Congress to immediately increase funding by $50 million to offset Homeland Security costs that have been drained from the NPS budget, and increase annual funding by $600 million to ensure the park service can adequately protect and maintain the almost 400 national parks and historic sites in the system.

Bobinchock said Acadia is more fortunate than most national parks because it has a sizable cadre of summer workers that gives the park some flexibility when making spending cuts.

Many parks are cutting full-time permanent jobs, Bobinchock said. Although Acadia won’t be hiring full-time employees any time soon, and the seasonal work force will be reduced, there are no layoffs planned at this time, he said.

Stephanie Clement, conservation director for Friends of Acadia, said the Bar Harbor philanthropy is “very much” concerned about what looks like a lasting trend in national park funding.

Friends groups across the nation annually raise about $100 million for national parks, but none of them do it to replace public funding, according to the NPCA report.

Clement agreed. “We never want our funding to replace what is basically congressional responsibility” to fund the national parks, she said Tuesday.

Friends of Acadia has raised millions for the Mount Desert Island park. The money helps finance trail maintenance and improvement, diesel-powered public buses to reduce congestion and pollution on MDI, and a separate summer work force that augments Acadia’s staff, among many other efforts.

Acadia National Park budget cuts

. Hiring freeze: Permanent full-time positions will not be filled until further notice, including four existing job vacancies: two rangers, an interpreter and a maintenance position.

. Seasonal job cuts: Seasonal work force will be cut by 20 to 30 positions from a total of 135, resulting in fewer services to visitors.

. Fewer programs: Some 40 educational programs led by park rangers will be eliminated, affecting an estimated 65,000 visitors.

. Museum closure: Islesford Historical Museum, which includes a public restroom, on Little Cranberry Island will not open for the 2004 season. About 11,000 people visited the museum last summer.

. Late opening: Hulls Cove Visitors Center in Bar Harbor, the park’s main visitors center, will open in mid-May, one month late, affecting 40,000 visitors. The park will not provide staffing for the Thompson Island Visitor Center in Trenton, relying on the regional chambers of commerce to keep it open.

. Reduced upkeep: Bathrooms at the busiest park destinations, such as the summit of Cadillac Mountain or Sand Beach, will be cleaned only once a day rather than the usual four or five daily washings during the height of the tourism season. Other routine maintenance will be curtailed, also, such as mowing, which will be cut by 30 percent.

. Parking vehicles: Four vehicles have been taken out of service, including Acadia’s only snowplow, and will not be replaced. ANP has asked for emergency funding to replace the snowplow.

Source: Acadia National Park