Changes at Mt Rainier -- road closed Tues, Weds

"By focusing staff on fewer days, the park will be better able to provide access and services during times of greatest visitation, including more consistent road plowing and emergency patrols for visitor safety, than by distributing those same resources seven days per week. Specifically, plowing and patrol operations will be available to work longer shifts and will be more available to respond to emergencies on the five days that the road is open. This one of many changes, large and small, that Mount Rainier National Park is making to make its operations more efficent and responsive to public needs with limited resources available."

This heart-warming justification was almost surely not written by the park superintendent, even though the press release bears his name.  Most parks have a full-time Public Relations Specialist, making probably fifty grand a year, to crank out their propaganda.  Larger parks like Yosemite and Grand Canyon have several of these positions with a PR supervisor.  It's basically taxpayer-funded spin supporting management's decisions.

Edits for spelling

Approaching the park service people with a confrontational, dismissive and disrespectful attitude seems unlikely to result in any changes for the better.

I seriously doubt the Hurricane Ridge folks were "confrontational, dismissive, or disrespectful".  They even brought a big bag of money to the table and were still screwed by frequent closures and late openings for two winters, until management abandoned even the pretense of weekday opening.  ONP got a new plow and several new job positions for their well-oiled nepotism/cronyism machine.

NPS management feels that rules and regulations are for the public, not themselves.  There's a thoroughly documented list of their regulatory shortcomings at:  www.freehurricaneridge.blogspot.com/

I think its time for an access-fund styled organization for human-powered, winter sports.  Even the sled-heads are better organized than this.  In this vein, I'm going to contact the Washington Climber's Coalition and the Access Fund about start-up strategies.  Anyone else interested in this cause?

Yes! I tried contacting SkiWA a few weeks back but got no reply, worth a shot with WA climbers coalition (though their website seems pretty screwed up right now).

[...
This heart-warming justification was almost surely not written by the park superintendent, even though the press release bears his name.  Most parks have a full-time Public Relations Specialist, making probably fifty grand a year, to crank out their propaganda.  Larger parks like Yosemite and Grand Canyon have several of these positions with a PR supervisor.  It's basically taxpayer-funded spin supporting management's decisions.

Edits for spelling

IMHO, Randy King, the MRNP Supt. is genuinely a nice guy, based on a number of interactions with him that I personally have had; I know other people in the hierarchy, from Randy down to the LEOs, Maintenance crew, and gate/visitor people; the ones I know are all really nice people.  Gary, I know you know many nice Park people, but sometimes you come across as if you do not.  Some Park people may be really psychopathic or criminal or parasites on the American people--but I don't know them, although I had met and talked with the very personable Supt. Uberuagua on a number of occasions and he turned out to be borderline criminal, according to the Inspector General who referred him for prosecution; he was also very embarrassed in a public meeting when he tried to assuage the public with untrue statements and was rebutted by a Pierce County employee.  I suspect the PR person and the Community Outreach person earn substantially more than $50k/year.

I do think, based on IMHO, that Park decision makers can be, often are, subject to group think (if you google it, you will find there was a book written on it) and tend to be inward looking, not outward looking.  I think NPS group think have led them astray from their founding legislations.  I really do believe they could benefit from an advisory committee that would be their to challenge group think, provide constructive criticism, engage in fruitful discussion, and support the Park when consensus has been achieved.  I have watched National Forest Provincial Advisory Committees in action, interacting with the Forests and lobbying for the Forests after constructive interaction.

I would much rather be in collaborative interactions with the Park than in adversarial ones.  But that is up to the Park.

Andrew I think your comments above are spot on. Park employees are (mostly) good people, but they operate in a bubble. See my rant on management turnover. www.freehurricaneridge.blogspot.com/2012...hy-all-turnover.html

A prime example is your earlier comment about how the MTTA can do what I would consider more (provide access to a consistant trail system) with less resources. In the case of Hurricane Ridge their requirement of $775,000 to keep the road open. Yes they can certainly spend that much for the Taj Mahal treatment, but allowing access to the snow could be done for essentially $0.

We all can understand their budget pressure, but I think the NPS has lost touch with their mission when the first reaction is closing gates.

Where I (and the PA community including County and City government and not just on the HR access issue) have become very frustrated is their unwillingness to engage in the "how can we help" conversations. Despite their national management policies that explicitly say that they will cooperate with local governments etc. For example the recent cooperation on the New Buffalo River NP ( www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2012/11/bu...winter-closures10861 ) shows that cooperation can in fact happen as long as the individual park managers are willing. But we shouldn't have to hope for a responsive superintendent for that type of cooperation to happen.

Sorry Andy, I don't recall ever disrespecting any Park staff by name on this board, except Mr. Uberalles, the poster-boy for NPS corruption.  My sincere apologies to those who feel otherwise.  I've always tried to treat NPS field staff with respect.  I was one for almost half my life and have some idea of how management can make a tough job even harder.  The last thing some poor overworked ranger or volunteer needs is more demands from the public or me while they're on-duty.  

During my carreer, I knew quite a few employees who volunteered their time, working on their days off for nothing on SAR's and park rehab projects.  For others, it was not just a job, but a religion; 60-hour weeks at the office were common, frantically trying to accomodate their supervisor's shifting demands.  When I had a kidney-stone attack returning to Narada, the road-patrol ranger dropped everything at closing time to escort our vehicle down.  I'm sure they miss many a dinner with their families because of some pilgrim's foolishness, and sometimes they don't come home at all...  

On the other hand, a faceless unaccountable bureaucracy seems to me to be fair game for criticism; I consider that a patriotic duty!  It's not so much that the National Park Service is more corrupt than most human endeavors, but that the gap between the agency's carefully manicured public image and reality is so large, IMO and it's willingness to acknowledge any shortcomings, except in its funding, is almost nonexistent.  

I'm sure Andy is right that Supt. King is a nice guy; Uberuaga has got to be a tough act to follow.  I've never spoken with him, although I was told by his secretary when he was Acting that the superintendent's approval was required to release budget information.  My FOIA request was probably just misplaced, eh?

I think this bureaucracy's problems go deeper than 'group think'.  Most of those nice folks in the gray & green don't last long or go far without learning that dissent is ruthlessly punished.  PJ Ryan, the author of the wickedly funny Thunderbear ("The Oldest Alternative Newsletter in the Federal Government") put it best:  "All agency resources, local, regional. and national, are instantly mobilized to crucify the whistleblower."  Here's just the most recent episode of this long-running soap opera:  www.nationalparkstraveler.com/review/2012/worth-fighting9835  

NPS management displays unmistakable cultlike characteristics; the following indicators and concluding quote are snipped from:
www.prem-rawat-talk.org/forum/uploads/CultCharacteristics.htm

The group has authoritariansim without meaningful accountability.
The group is elitist and has a special mission.
The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality.
There is no tolerance for questions or critical inquiry; questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
There is no meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget or expenses.
Members need to ask permission for major decisions.
Members may be underpaid or unpaid, and work in unsafe environments.
There are excessive demands on the time and energy of group members.
Members are physically and/or psychologically isolated from society.
There is strong behavioral control of where, how and with whom the member lives and associates with; what clothes, colors, hairstyles the person wears, etc.
Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
"If a group has more than half of the cult characteristics on the list, then you should be concerned."