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Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins was emotional when he said the national park system can learn a lot from the collaboration in his park during a season expected to be the second busiest.
“There’s magic in this place,” he said beneath smoky peaks near Jenny Lake before an audience of about 100. “There is magic in this place because of these people. The way that we work together to be stewards of this place.”
The park leader has faced 25% of his full-time staff cut since February, according to the National Park Conservation Alliance.
He was one of many pushing lawmakers to reauthorize the Great American Outdoors Act during a panel meeting of seven U.S. House Natural Resources Committee members inside the park on Sept. 5.
U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) sits on the committee and was centered at the table of lawmakers. She said it’s not a question of whether Congress will reauthorize the funding package, but how.
“We just put $16 billion into the program as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” Hageman told KHOL after the meeting, “So obviously we’re investing the money. The question becomes what kind of reforms and modernization needs to be done for the act.”
Lawmakers hinted changes could include “modernizing” the act by broadening its scope to focus on new projects, not just maintenance.
The act passed to bipartisan applause in 2020, funding a backlog of maintenance, improvements and land purchases throughout federal land agencies.
Over half a billion dollars invested on federal land across Wyoming has meant improvements on Moose-Wilson road and a dent in the now about $343 million maintenance backlog at Grand Teton. It also supported land purchases like the Kelly Parcel.
But the act expires on Sept. 30 and without congressional action, the faucet could shut off.
“Always hiring more people isn’t necessarily the answer if they’re not doing the job the way it needs to be done,” Hageman said.
Reauthorization would be welcome news for environmental advocates and protesters outside the meeting.
Kristin Combs (center) leads Wyoming Wildlife Advocates. She and others protested to keep grizzlies protected as an endangered species outside the Sept. 5 meeting. (Dante Filpula Ankney / KHOL News)
However, they also want Congress to go a step further, halting proposed budget cuts and reversing federal firings that have left federal land agencies like the park service understaffed.
They say national parks are in “crisis” and without adequate staffing, the projects this act would fund may not get done.
