A River of Money from Congress, a Trickle for Grand Canyon

Politics is the art of making yourself look good, so maybe that’s why there’s so much finger pointing about how many jobs really have been created by the borrowed money flowing from Congress.

Think about it. It’s like a river of money, or should I say, a river of red ink. A torrent of billions of dollars cascading out of Washington, D.C., feeding a variety of bureaucratic streams with millions of greenbacks, and the millions then flowing into numerous regional creeks, brooks and rivulets that trickle tens of thousands of bucks into local work projects. And, of course, someone says he or she was responsible for the bounty.

For the moment, forget where the billions come from (you know: it’s us). So where does it all go?

Usually I scratch my head in wonder, but one place where I can see how the latest federal largesse is having some kind of a positive impact is at Grand Canyon National Park, funding some of the much-needed repairs and deferred maintenance projects.

Earlier this month I received a press release from the rangers at Grand Canyon, updating OldWestNewWest.com Travel & History Magazine on some of those projects.

According to the release, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed earlier this year earmarked $3 billion to the Department of the Interior. Of that amount, the National Park Service received $750 million. Grand Canyon received about $10 million of that sum to pay for 11 park projects.

You get the picture – first a river, then a stream, then a creek.

Now for me, $10 million still is a lot of money. However, while nice to receive, the $10 million is only a drop in the bucket for Grand Canyon National Park’s needs.

“Grand Canyon has a total deferred maintenance of well over $262 million, $24 million of which is attributed to trails and over $9 million of which is attributed to housing,” park superintendent Steve Martin was quoted in the press release.

Huh? How Much?

I digress.

Two projects getting ARRA money and now underway at Grand Canyon are the repair of historic North Rim forest trails (some of them damaged by wildfire), and replacing the roofs on 59 employee houses and nine garages on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. You can see at the right one of the workers replacing shingles in this National Park Service photo.

Dollar-wise, that means $495,000 is going to trails projects and $194,000 for the reroofing.

The Uncle Jim Trail is the primary focus of the North Rim forest trails project, which is a five-mile-long trail winding through the forest to a point that overlooks the canyon. Also used by concessionaire mules, the trail starts at the North Kaibab Trail parking lot.

In the release, rangers said the money is being used to buy supplies and equipment, and to hire crews. Workers are rebuilding structures to hold the trail in place, replacing water bars, building hitching posts, and creating a gravel trail near the trailhead to a new composting toilet.

When that’s finished, crews will start on other North Rim trails, specifically the Ken Patrick Trail, Widforss Trail, and the Transept Trail. Completion date is late 2010.

“Work on these two projects would not have been possible without funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” Martin said in the press release. “In addition to reducing the park’s deferred maintenance, these funds also help in creating local jobs, and help support the tourism industry that is so important to the economic vitality of the Grand Canyon region and the state of Arizona.”

I was glad to receive the update from our friends at Grand Canyon National Park, and I’m happy that some repairs are being made, but for me a couple of questions remain.

First, if the park is so important for tourism, and the economic health of the Grand Canyon region and the state of Arizona, why isn’t Congress allocating rangers what they need to make those other repairs? Second, if there’s $262 million in deferred maintenance at Grand Canyon, just how bad is the situation at other parks, especially those in the West?

Maybe Congress and the White House should take a long, hard look at the many pork barrels stacked up in Washington and rethink their funding priorities. And maybe our politicians should take another look at Ken Burns’ excellent documentary on our national parks (as if they need a reason), but then I’m assuming they even bothered to watch it in the first place.

If you’re thinking along the same lines, maybe you should call or write the superintendent at your favorite (or nearest) national park and ask if they are facing deferred maintenance issues. If the answer is yes (I’m guessing it is), drop a note to your senator or congressional representative (or event President Obama) and tell them they need to take care of our national treasures.

Not later. Now. Not after the pork barrels get filled to the brim. Now.

To see a list of the other Grand Canyon projects planned for the ARRA money, go to www.nps.gov/grca/parkmgmt/arra.htm#CP_JUMP_401763 at the park’s Web site.

And if you want to discover places in the West to visit, explore, go camping, hiking or sightseeing, visit OldWestNewWest.com Travel & History Magazine at http://www.oldwestnewwest.com/ for some ideas.

Grand Canyon’s Dia de la Familia a Big Success

Wow! Who ripped a couple of months out of my calendar?


Here I was, smugly thinking I had everything under control, and wham! Today starts the second week of November, and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.


One of the things I had wanted to share with you was some of the back story and successes concerning Grand Canyon National Park’s first (and they hope annual) Dia de la Familia, or Day of the Family, celebration, held Sept. 26, 2009. It coincided with this year’s National Public Lands Day, and also tapped into National Hispanic Heritage Month.


Well, thinking about Thanksgiving over the weekend made me think of my family, and voila! I remembered the Dia de la Familia pre-event story that we did for you back in September. If you’d like to see the story, click on the following link: http://www.oldwestnewwest.com/national-state-parks/grand-canyon/grand-canyon-national-park-to-celebrate-first-annual-dia-de-la-familia.html


Last month I had a chance to catch up with Dave Smith, district interpreter on the South Rim at Grand Canyon, and we chatted about the park’s first Dia de la Familia, how it came about and how successful it was.


“For many years, we’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that our user base doesn’t demographically match with the whole, and we’re always looking for ways to broaden our message to all our audiences,” he told me. “Our big challenge is: how can we make the park mean something to all of our country’s diverse communities?”


Specifically, he was talking about the nation’s growing Hispanic population, especially since the Hispanic community makes up a big slice of the demographic pie in the Southwest.


Coming up with a tie-in to National Hispanic Heritage Month (actually, the observance stretches between September and October), and leveraging off National Public Lands Day was a natural. Why not leverage the two events to try and reach a new group of potential park visitors – Hispanic families?


According to the press release put out by the Grand Canyon staff, “The National Park Service team that developed and promoted the Dia de la Familia idea was made up of recent graduates of the park’s first GOAL (Generating Organizational Advancement and Leadership) Leadership Academy. The academy brought together a promising group of diverse Grand Canyon employees to work together to develop leadership skills. As a part of the program, participants were expected to develop new relationships with existing and potential park partners while implementing a program that achieved park and NPS goals.”


Dia de la Familia team members partnered with the US Forest Service, who provided staff, an appearance by Smokey the Bear, and information on recreational and job opportunities to assist with the event. Team members also coordinated with the new director of the Western Discovery Museum (planned for development in Tusayan), who was planning a privately sponsored, community fiesta the night before the event.


According to Smith, the results of the first Family Day event was good, with Rangers making more than 2,600 visitor contacts that would not otherwise have been made.


Dia de la Familia was a bilingual celebration, he said, that commemorated the Hispanic heritage of the American Southwest and of Grand Canyon National Park.

The group brought in six artists from Oaxaca, Mexico, to demonstrate such skills as weaving, sculpting, candle making and other art forms. Each artist had an English translator on hand to answer questions from those not speaking Spanish. On the right, Sofia Ruiz Lorenzo of Oaxaca, Mexico, demonstrates traditional candle making and decorating skills. NPS photo.

An added bonus: The entrance fee was waved on that day because of Public Lands Day.

“We also did a lot of kids programs, a star walk, we had daytime astronomy programs, and reading circles,” Smith added. There was even a job fair, an effort to make the National Park Service work force more diverse.

He rated the day a good first effort at reaching out to Hispanic families, from Phoenix to Flagstaff.


And for 2010?


We definitely will do a Dia de la Familia next year,” he said. “We’ll do even more outreach with the Hispanic community.”


Good work, and congrats to Dave and everyone else at Grand Canyon who worked so hard to make Dia de la Familia a success.