Better Management Of National Park Concessions Can Improve Services Provided To The Public

Better Management of National Park Concessions Can Improve Services Provided to the Public

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management of concession operations by the National Park Service (NPS). GAO found that concessioner performance evaluation would be more effective if visitors' opinions and comments were used in appraising concessioner performance. Existing concessioners already have a competitive advantage over others who want to operate in the parks, they do not need additional legal advantages. By using single concessioners to provide the services in a park, NPS has limited its options for requiring improvement without seriously disrupting service to the public. As a result, NPS does not take necessary corrective actions. GAO also found that concession rates are not always studied, justified, or documented before approval, and the quality of facilities is given little or no consideration in approving the rates.

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the management of concession operations by the National Park Service (NPS). GAO found that concessioner performance evaluation would be more effective if visitors' opinions and comments were used in appraising concessioner performance. Existing concessioners already have a competitive advantage over others who want to operate in the parks, they do not need additional legal advantages. By using single concessioners to provide the services in a park, NPS has limited its options for requiring improvement without seriously disrupting service to the public. As a result, NPS does not take necessary corrective actions. GAO also found that concession rates are not always studied, justified, or documented before approval, and the quality of facilities is given little or no consideration in approving the rates.

"This Land Use Bibliography contains citations and abstracts of land-related documents released by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) from January 1979 through December 1982"--Introduction.

The national parks of North America are great public treasures, visited by 300 million people each year. Set aside to be kept in relatively natural condition, these remarkable places of forests, rivers, mountains, and wildlife still inspire our "capacity for wonder." Today, however, the parks are threatened by increasingly difficult problems from both inside and outside their borders. This book, enriched with personal anecdotes of the author's trips throughout the parks of North America, examines changes in the park services of the United States and Canada over the past fifteen years. William Lowry describes the many challenges facing the parks—such as rising crime, tourism, and overcrowding, pollution, eroding funding for environmental research, and the contentious debate over preservation versus use—and the abilities of the agencies to deal with them. The Capacity for Wonder provides a revealing comparison of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the Canadian Parks Service (CPS). The author explains that, while the services are similar in many ways, the priorities of these two agencies have changed dramatically in recent years. Lowry shows how increasing conflicts over agency goals and decreasing institutional support have make the NPS vulnerable to interagency disputes, reluctant to take any risks in its operations, and extremely responsive to political pressures. As a result, U.S. national parks are now managed mainly to serve political purposes. Lowry illustrates how in the 1980s politicians pushed the NPS to expand private uses of national parks through development, timber harvesting, grazing, and mining, while environmental groups push the NPS in the other direction. Over the same period, the CPS enjoyed a clarification of goals and increased institutional supports. As a result, the CPS has been able to decentralize its structure, empower its employees, and renew its commitment to preservation. Lowry considers several proposals to change the institutions governing the parks. His own recommendations are more in line with proposals to revitalize public agencies than with those that suggest replacing them with private enterprise, state agencies, or endowment boards. Lowry concludes that preserving nature should be the primary, explicit goal of the park services, and he calls for a stronger commitment to that goal in the United States.

Catalog of reports, decisions and opinions, testimonies and speeches.