Let's face it the NPS and public lands in general are not something most people remotely care about. Given this and the fact we are 23 trillion in debt makes the funding issue unlikely to change in the near future, if ever. We can argue why this is in a partisan manner, but that doesn't change the situation.Well, news flash, it costs money to manage public land, and I don't expect people to work for free, not have a pension, or a competitive salary/benefit package.
I would venture a guess, that the park employees making 60K a year or less, outnumber those making anything close to 150K.
When you look at the number of citizens who enjoy our National Parks, I'd say the cost is worth it.
With just a guess...I was pretty close:
Average National Park Service Park Salary in 2024 | PayScale
The average salary for National Park Service Park employees is $66,619 in 2024. Visit PayScale to research National Park Service Park salaries, bonuses, reviews, benefits, and more!www.payscale.com
National Park Service Salary Statistics
www.federalpay.org
Total payroll expenses for NPS is about 1.1 billion...DOD spending on payroll and benefits in 2013 was 150 Billion.
Costs of Military Pay and Benefits in the Defense Budget
For fiscal year 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) requested about $150 billion to fund the pay and benefits of current and retired members of the military. That amount is more than one-quarter of DoD’s total base budget request.www.cbo.gov
No one at the helm of America's national parks
- Thread starter mfb99
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406dn
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There could be fifty different reasons that the NPS salaries jumped between 2016 and 2017. The one I most suspect was that retirement openings were just left being vacant. Generally speaking, new hires are going to bring down the average salary.
Those salaries are not excessive in my mind. To me they are in the wheelhouse of the middle class, certainly not higher. It is proper in my opinion that an employee of the Federal government make a salary that allows for a middle class lifestyle.
Those salaries are not excessive in my mind. To me they are in the wheelhouse of the middle class, certainly not higher. It is proper in my opinion that an employee of the Federal government make a salary that allows for a middle class lifestyle.
Me, with two that come to mind without giving it hardly any thought. At least if these examples qualify for what you mean as "directly affected." And none of those would be considered good, from the standpoint of a hunter.
The area I used to hunt in Wyoming for pronghorn with 2 points is a complete industrial complex of gas wells, pump stations, and huge structures that I have no clue what they are for. I hunted it in 2014 and 2018. The level of disturbance was far higher and given the amount of dirt turned up for new projects, it looks like if I draw in the coming years I will see even more disturbance.
My Uncle Larry's elk hunt this year has a huge high voltage power line being built that will go through the middle of the BLM in that unit. New roads, big parking lots, etc. It looks like the staging area for building the football stadium in Las Vegas. The elk we found in last year in these now disrupted areas were not there this year, rather having moved a few miles away.
I suspect if I looked at the hunts I did in the last five years, a little more thought could get me to remember a couple more.
Hilljackoutlaw
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This is the type of answer I was looking for. Now let's get to the nuts and bolts of these projects on these parcels of public land. Now I cant answer these questions so I dont expect my fellow HTers to know the answers either. But what policy or policies made these projects possible at the federal level and state levels? When were these policies born into existence? What's the long term effect these projects will have on these areas? Why were these projects needed to be done? Will these projects hurt anyone or benefit anyone in the long term? See if we can narrow this down and find out which people are directly responsible for the actions taken on these public lands.
If we can do this I'm all for playing the blame game but this country has been in existence a long time. We have had multiple Democrat and Republican presidents during that time. The east has been industrialized basically since day one and over all these years steps taken by multiple people have managed to keep the west pretty open and accessible for us public land users. So I feel like we as a whole with government have done a decent job at balancing public lands and industry over the last almost 250 years. But according to mark and some others one administration is gonna ruin it all in 8 short years. I highly doubt it.
Hilljackoutlaw
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Our voices need to be heard on these issues that's one of the main reasons we still have the lands we do. But if your gonna be a voice make it matter, make sense, and know the real facts of what your talking about. Otherwise your not helping anything.
Broad statements like Trump hates public lands or obama hates america makes you sound ignorant. These statements arent true they just have different views than you or I and different visions of what will work or not work for the country. I'm glad I'm not president of this great country and making these decisions we'd be doomed.
Broad statements like Trump hates public lands or obama hates america makes you sound ignorant. These statements arent true they just have different views than you or I and different visions of what will work or not work for the country. I'm glad I'm not president of this great country and making these decisions we'd be doomed.
BuzzH
Well-known member
I tend to disagree...cutting the NPS budget to shore up a 23 trillion dollar debt, is akin to asking someone swimming in debt from buying boats, motorcycles, ATV', cars, trucks, etc. etc. that the $3 Starbucks is going to shore up their personal finances....aint happening.
I also disagree that NP's are not something that people remotely care about...
National parks attract millions of visitors each year owing to their vast capacity for outdoor recreation - an estimated 331 million people visited national parks in the U.S. in 2017.
That's a pretty fair turnout for people not remotely caring about national parks...don't you think?
BuzzH
Well-known member
Our voices need to be heard on these issues that's one of the main reasons we still have the lands we do. But if your gonna be a voice make it matter, make sense, and know the real facts of what your talking about. Otherwise your not helping anything.
Broad statements like Trump hates public lands or obama hates america makes you sound ignorant. These statements arent true they just have different views than you or I and different visions of what will work or not work for the country. I'm glad I'm not president of this great country and making these decisions we'd be doomed.
Yeah, maybe take your own advice...and make it a double scoop.
BuzzH
Well-known member
I have in lots of ways and places...way more bad than good.
I'm not going to take the time to type it all out, but the shit show of farm bill funding (thing CRP payments and enrollment) has had a huge negative impact on the deer and bird hunting for me personally.
If you're looking for explanations, Whit Fosburgh does a pretty succint job of encapsulating this administration's work on public lands and waters. There has been some good, but a lot of bad as well. Can I say that without referencing something Obama did?
If you're looking for explanations, Whit Fosburgh does a pretty succint job of encapsulating this administration's work on public lands and waters. There has been some good, but a lot of bad as well. Can I say that without referencing something Obama did?
It's not a matter of using the NPS budget to deal with the national debt. It's a matter of squeaky wheels getting the grease in times of tight budgets.
I am not sure how those visitor numbers are figured, but I would bet many are repeats and foreign tourists. Other wise just about every person in the country would visit a NPS property every year and we both know that's not true.
Sometimes by the time your effected the damage is already done. Just the fact that the Pebble mine and Mining in boundary waters were put back on the table by this administration should point to unhealthy bent in favour of business over our environmental.
Funny how conservatives arent conservative with our environment and public lands.
Funny how conservatives arent conservative with our environment and public lands.
Another disastrous policy for hunters (not directly tied to public land) was ethanol subsidies. It goes back over a decade.
e360.yale.edu
The Case Against More Ethanol: It's Simply Bad for Environment
The revisionist effort to increase the percentage of ethanol blended with U.S. gasoline continues to ignore the major environmental impacts of growing corn for fuel and how it inevitably leads to higher prices for this staple food crop. It remains a bad idea whose time has passed.
e360.yale.edu
Disasters come in various shapes and sizes from loss of family jobs mining / timber industry to canopy overgrowth that could use a good thinning that supports flora and fauna.
Also not a fan of wind turbines placed on our public land supported by those who profess to be conservation minded orgs.
Shit can be slapped for and against. The pendulum effect, in full swing.
Also not a fan of wind turbines placed on our public land supported by those who profess to be conservation minded orgs.
Shit can be slapped for and against. The pendulum effect, in full swing.
T
tjones
Guest
As Buzz would say “ anyone with 2 brain cells firing...”Hey Tony, you Mark?
BuzzH
Well-known member
Tight budgets?
Yeah, OK.
Winners and losers from the $1.3T omnibus
Congress is on the verge of passing a $1.3 trillion omnibus that would fund the government through September and provide the biggest federal spending increase in years.The bill is loaded with provi…
thehill.com
Perhaps the biggest question is why there should be a "tight budget" what, with how well this roaring economy is doing and all.
Its almost like someone cut revenue and increased spending or something of the sort?
Irrelevant
Well-known member
I wish we'd just STFU about public lands sometimes, it is rather trivial compared to the big picture. How about clean air and clean water?
What Are We Doing to Our Public Lands and Waters?
Are we willing to pick up the fight for our public lands?
www.fieldandstream.com
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BluegrassBilly
Active member
<sarcasm>You misspelled "patriots."</sarcasm>
WildWill
Well-known member
How about focusing on fixing a broken two party political system that continues to divide our country so our politicians can focus on long term problems like clean air, water, and energy. While we're at it maybe review congressional and senatorial terms and salary.I wish we'd just STFU about public lands sometimes, it is rather trivial compared to the big picture. How about clean air and clean water?
What Are We Doing to Our Public Lands and Waters?
Are we willing to pick up the fight for our public lands?
VikingsGuy
Well-known member
I’ve been pleased to know some true patriots over the years. Pretty sure everyone of them would kick the crap out of one of those kids for showing disrespect to the flag and the uniform showing up like that.
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