This is one of those times i'm glad i'm a lower-level government employee, far away from the bureaucracy and the people who spend all day indoors - never mind those who spend all day indoors in an office in a big city nowhere near a freaking NPS site.
I speak of the two positions cut at DNM - the curator and fossil preparator. I'm getting more and more steamed at our superintendent and regional director and NPS director and Dept. of Interior director just thinking about it. This damn budgetary shuffle has gone on long enough. I've heard (and i'd love it if any of y'all could confirm or deny this) that shooting down the satellite cost $40 million, and I know the Air Force wants another $20 billion. Meanwhile, Congressionally mandated and publicly adored parks are falling apart - and senior managers are barred from saying what's really happening: budgets are getting chopped, and the rare 'increases' are not enough to keep up with federally mandated yearly salary increases.
But enough from me. For a paleontological perspective, visit paleochick.blogspot.com - and note the Feb 11 Dale Gray comments. Dale is a volunteer - but literally puts in more hours than most of the paid full-time staff, and is head of the Uinta Basin Chapter of the Utah Friends of Paleontology.
Finally: all those times people say write your member of Congress? It works. When enough people speak out, they listen, especially on park issues. Even if it's not related to my corner of the Interior - make your voice heard. Who knows - you might be the straw that broke the camel's (elephant's? donkey's?) back. (note: even though I live in the reddest state in America - I still have a Democratic Congressional representative! Yay!)
Find Your Senator (look in the upper right corner)
Find Your Representative (top center of page)
Ms. Mary Risser, Superintendent
Dinosaur National Monument
4545 Highway 40
Dinosaur, CO 81610
Phone: 970-374-3001
Fax: 970-374-3003
mary_risser@nps.gov
Mr. Mike Snyder
Intermountain Regional Director
National Park Service
P.O. Box 25287
Lakewood, CO 80225-0287
Phone: 303-969-2503
Fax: 303-969-2785
mike_snyder@nps.gov
Ms. Mary A. Bomar
Director
National Park Service
1849 C Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-4621
Phone: 202-208-6843
mary_bomar@nps.gov
Mr. Dirk Kempthorne
Secretary of the Interior
1849 C Street Northwest
Washington, DC 20240
Phone: 202-208-3100
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3 comments:
You have a BAD attitude. You work in a National Park and you're disgusted!!? Too bad for the tourists who get you as a ranger. Why don't you quit and leave those National Park Ranger jobs for someone who gives a damn.
You call yourself a “lower level government employee” but of course you know better than everyone else what is going on and what should be done. And you back yourself up by quoting a volunteer!! Priceless! How typical. The guy in the mailroom always knows more than the CEO. HA!!!
Yes, I devote my life (not just career, but life) to a job paying less than $25,000 per year and have an inside track to watching the desicration of our cathedrals - but I don't give a damn.
The question is: why aren't *you* disgusted?
And yes, I stand behind quoting a volunteer - someone who spends their life doing scientific research and study and work for NO PAY.
More 'anonymous' dribble...come out, come out, where ever you are!
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