The Trump administration has held up millions of dollars in funding for outside partner groups to do stewardship projects in national parks. The blocked agreements would have paid organizations leading environmental and cultural resource work in parks.
The Washington Post reported there were more than 130 projects affected, according to internal National Park Service data. An agency spokesperson told the paper that the organizations were working against administration priorities.
Peter Woodruff, the CEO of the Great Basin Institute in Reno, found that bewildering. He emphasized that the nonprofit, which supports environmental research and conservation work on public lands, is nonpartisan.
“We’re 100% in lockstep with the agency's priorities as driven by the secretary and the president’s office,” he said.
Still, his group learned indirectly that it had 78 upcoming projects disapproved or in limbo — the most of any organization affected, according to the Post.
“Interruptions to these working partnerships puts the safety and land stewardship projects on hold,” Woodruff said.
The Great Basin Institute's projects totaled $12.7 million. Congress appropriated the funding, and the agreements appeared to have received multiple levels of internal approvals.
The nonprofit Center for Western Priorities mapped all of the blocked agreements, and the majority were across the West. One that the Great Basin Institute held would have supported cultural resource inventories in Death Valley, which are needed to complete road repairs after flooding. Another would have paid a youth intern to staff the visitor center at Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. In Utah, a blocked agreement would have supported digitizing museum collections in Zion National Park.
Other work that appears to have been held up includes a $3.5 million effort by the Desert Research Institute to identify locations for new roads and recreational opportunities at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and an agreement with a consulting firm to provide communications staffing at several park sites in southern Idaho.
In response to questions about the park projects, a spokesperson for the Interior Department wrote that the agency "is ensuring that taxpayer dollars are being used to make life more affordable for Americans and expand access to our public lands. The Department will continue to prioritize funds that best serve the American people and keep our parks safe, affordable, and open.”
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
