No geologist

I said it to Grandma in the car yesterday, and Dennis Foster said it today on his blog.

What on Earth does Grand Canyon NP need with a geologist?

The president of the Grand Canyon Foundation publicly complained to a congressional delegation yesterday that Grand Canyon NP, renowned for its geological wonders, has no full-time, professional, staff geologist. Seems shocking, doesn't it? Well, it's not. Refer back to Dennis for details, but in short, we have a whole federal agency packed to the brim with geologists, and numerous universities falling over themselves to poke about in the canyon.

Does this mean that there are no geologists on the staff? Very unlikely. Odds are that a decent minority of staff members, in a wide variety of interpretation, resources, and protection positions have a solid background in geology.

Likewise at my park, there was no "Historian" on staff. But I was a historian, and I was on the staff.

This knee-jerk "The parks are underfunded" claim, by so many people who have no way of knowing the difference, is why I was so very careful never to get into a discussion on the topic with a visitor. It was part of my responsibility to be neutral, and I extended that to not griping about budget issues that I know nothing about.