The Growth of VIPs

Here's a little follow-up to my post on the intrusion of volunteers into the national park landscape. It's a telling chart Brodie Farquhar made up to go with his story on park volunteers. Unfortunately, it didn't make it into the newspaper. Take a good look at it, particularly the growth of VIPs versus that of full-time NPS staff as well as the park staff that volunteers "replaced."

Year Volunteers Replaced staff NPS budget Full-time staff

1973 8,328 147 $498 M 7,133

2006 154,000 2,451 $2,653 M 20,056

Grew 1,849% 1,667% 530% 280%


Source: National Park Service Human Affairs