Re: Thoughts on the NPS
Jim,
You may have misinterpreted what the folks at Shiloh were trying to say. Rather than take it in a negative sense, they were trying to comiserate with the reenactors, and the expenses on their part (that we don't see) are part of the zero sum game played out every year with the budget, and the FFY 2008 and 2009 budgets are likely to be hurting pretty bad in the maintenance area due to rising fuel costs, which translates into scrambling for money to keep the mowers running, and a whole host of bugetary fun. Staff was just mentioning they took a hit, and the prep work is not free.
Sometimes I do think we could get involved in ways other than interpretation, and some groups do. We did some fence demolition work as part of the Columbia Rifles' 2nd Bull Run NPS LH in 2006, and yesterday a few of us literally picked up a bunch of junk on the border of the Malvern Hill-Glendale battlefield as park volunteers, and we could easily spend at least three more days out there doing the same. I'm hoping the site staff feels that little clean up job was as much of a win-win situation as we do.
Keep the faith.
Jim,
You may have misinterpreted what the folks at Shiloh were trying to say. Rather than take it in a negative sense, they were trying to comiserate with the reenactors, and the expenses on their part (that we don't see) are part of the zero sum game played out every year with the budget, and the FFY 2008 and 2009 budgets are likely to be hurting pretty bad in the maintenance area due to rising fuel costs, which translates into scrambling for money to keep the mowers running, and a whole host of bugetary fun. Staff was just mentioning they took a hit, and the prep work is not free.
Sometimes I do think we could get involved in ways other than interpretation, and some groups do. We did some fence demolition work as part of the Columbia Rifles' 2nd Bull Run NPS LH in 2006, and yesterday a few of us literally picked up a bunch of junk on the border of the Malvern Hill-Glendale battlefield as park volunteers, and we could easily spend at least three more days out there doing the same. I'm hoping the site staff feels that little clean up job was as much of a win-win situation as we do.
Keep the faith.
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