FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Betsy Rossini (906)487-7142
FY 2002 Budget and Annual Performance Plan for Isle Royale National Park are Available for Public Review
Isle Royale National Park Superintendent, Phyllis Green, today announced that the park’s annual performance plan and documents providing details about the appropriated budget and fee revenues for FY 2002 are available for public review as required by the "National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998." Highlights of the park’s budget, which funds specific goals in the annual performance plan, include:
$448,055 for resource preservation and management: This will fund ongoing inventorying and monitoring of island resources including the winter survey of moose-wolf populations. Development of a wilderness and backcountry plan will continue this year. Some other areas of emphasis will include the continuation of a study of moose herbivory impacts to the fire regime, a coaster brook inventory project, continued air quality monitoring, continued mapping and containment of exotic species and continued support for an on-going GIS program. Additionally, the park will be conducting planning efforts for water resources and fishery management.
The park’s cultural program will continue to monitor and survey archeological sites, cultural landscapes and historic structures. Some highlights of this year’s efforts include: the continuation of a cultural demonstration of commercial fishing at Edisen fishery, repair work on the Rock Harbor Lighthouse, stabilization of a Wright Island residence foundation, immediate stabilization of Passage Island Lighthouse and emergency stabilization of the Passage Island Pump house. Maintenance of shipwreck mooring buoys will be conducted as well as continued monitoring of submerged sites.
$1,087,533 to address visitor services: The full array of visitor services including interpretation, law enforcement and search and rescue will be funded. $53,718 in estimated fee revenues would be used to staff parkwide visitor centers and fee collection operations.
$1,694,412 for facility operations and maintenance: Much of this allocation will be devoted to routine and preventative work to maintain park structures, vehicle and boat fleets, docks, campgrounds, amphitheater, visitor centers and trails. $119,798 in estimated fee revenues will supplement the following projects including replacement of docks at Wright Island and Snug Harbor, reconstruction of dock at Crystal Cove, repairs to the Windigo main dock, maintenance on Siskiwit, and Daisy Farm docks, installation of fenders at Mott Island dock, rehabilitation of Todd Harbor, Duncan Bay, Malone Bay and Chippewa Harbor campgrounds, continued rehabilitation of Feldtman trail, trail improvement below Coyote Ride, from Siskiwit Bay to Carnelian Beach, Hatchet Lake to Todd, sections of Greenstone ridge trail and Minong trail. A Student Conversation Association Crew will perform trail maintenance on the Rock Harbor Trail and the Sierra Club will work on the Scoville Point Trail.
Funding from other sources will be dedicated to a variety of maintenance projects this year including cyclic trail maintenance, painting and staining of parkwide structures, rehabilitation of the park’s four primary work boats, rehab of a seasonal communal kitchen facility, removal of a substandard residence at Windigo. This season will see the replacement of the house lost to fire at Windigo. Concession franchise fees will also be used to install fall protection the park’s tank farms.
A copy of Isle Royale National Park’s complete annual performance plan, prepared in accordance with the "Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA)," is available by writing to National Park Service, 800 East Lakeshore Drive, Houghton, MI 49930 or on our web site www.nps.gov/isro. The goals described in the park’s annual performance plan are derived from the 1997 NPS Strategic Plan, which establishes a performance management process for the Service and incorporates the requirements of GPRA. The Strategic Plan is available on the Internet at www.nps.gov.
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February 6, 2002
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We welcome your comments and suggestions to editor: Smitty Parratt