The American national park system is a source of great pride for our nation. We enjoy having a vast enough landscape to set aside large tracts of it for the citizenry to enjoy it as it was, relatively wild and untrammeled. And, of course, these lands and the facilities that enable people to travel to and enjoy them require staffing. We should also be glad for the people who work in these parks, often out of sight and underappreciated.
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But, fiscal realities are what they are, and with the current belt-tightening, even national park employees may see some reductions; one such is Texas’s Big Bend National Park. A recent piece is bemoaning that park’s decrease in staffing, but I have a few questions.
Big Bend, one of the largest national parks in the U.S., is now operating with just half the staff it needs. As part of a