The Greater Yellowstone Coalition held their 18TH annual meeting in West Yellowstone on June 8 - 9. Outgoing superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, Mike Finley, spoke outlining the Park's major problems. Key threats include inadequate budgets, habitat fragmentation, and invasive species.

One of his most important observations has profound implications: "In my 32 year career (with the Park Service), I never worked at a park that was adequately funded.ŠWe [Yellowstone] can't afford to fill 15% of our permanent positions." Yet, he claimed, that the Park Service is better off than the nation's other land management agencies including the U.S. Forest Service and BLM.

Clearly, Yellowstone's problems are not new and are pervasive throughout the entire park system. National parks and monuments suffer from neglect-deteriorating roads, buildings, sewage treatment plants, and environmental threats-and they will continue until we adopt fundamental institutional change. We must understand the cause of these problems before we can successfully address them.

Given American's long love affair with our parks, how can we account for this pervasive and corrosive situation? The reason is straight forward: government management inevitably means political management. For example, congress gets more publicity and votes from creating new parks than from prudent management and maintenance of existing ones. As a result, sensible priorities are ignored as powerful members of Congress earmark funds for questionable pet projects.

Steamtown, a railroad museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania exemplifies the problem. Scranton representative Joseph McDade who served on the House Appropriations Committee spent $40 million to get the Park Service to take over the museum, even though there were already 14 other rail museums in Pennsylvania. In 1993, Steamtown's construction budget was $12.9 million, more than any other national park except Yosemite.

The fundamental problem is not one of bad people but rather inappropriate institutional arrangements. Finley is correct in noting that more funding is required to solve the national parks' problems.

But how, after witnessing 32 years of failure to acquire adequate funding through political means, can Mr. Finley expect change? It is time to try alternatives. Success lies in creating institutions where support and management of our national heritage comes from the people who most appreciate and benefit from those parks. The key to reform lies in understanding that public does not equal governmental.

Consider creating non-governmental endowment boards, or trusts to operate our parks. Our legal tradition includes over 400 years experience with trusts. We have seen success with schools, hospitals, and museums. Board members have fiduciary responsibility for their organization's mission. In the case of parks, each board would be charged to prudently manage for the highest values of that park: habitat preservation, recreation, and scenery.

The endowment board for each park would include regional and national members. This would help ensure sensitive stewardship and freedom from parochial Congressional politics.

For example, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Monticello, Jefferson's home, is a public foundation that receives no regular federal or state budget support for its mission of preservation and education. The foundation has steadily grown with support of voluntary donations. Other successful public, non-governmental museums include well established and recently formed Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon. America also boasts thousands of land trusts including our Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT).

User fees, gifts from membership organizations, concessionaire contracts, and corporate sponsorships all produce revenue. Endowment boards generating and managing these funds foster more support, sensitivity, and responsibility than any political bureaucracy can sustain.

No single set of arrangements is appropriate for all circumstances. However, endowment boards, with their membership drawn from environmental, community, business, and science leaders, have incentives to seek subtle, tasteful sponsorship and wide public support. If trustees fail to honor a binding mandate to foster values specific to each park, then they suffer reputation and other losses.

Mike Finley is now president of the successful and world renowned Turner Foundation. After 32 years experience with the U.S. Park Service, he may recognize the value of new solutions to persistent problems. He is in a great position to initiate and foster a public trust system for our national parks.

Creating national parks was one of the world's best ideas. However, long term and consistent experience exposes their major weakness--political management. Together Mr. Finley and Mr. Turner have the opportunity to create and implement a new model which would stand in history.