Lake Roosevelt Administrative History

Staff Reorganization

Over the years, there have been various reorganizations of the staff at LARO, primarily reflecting changes in emphasis within the National Park Service. For instance, the ranger and interpretation divisions merged in 1969 to form the division of Interpretation and Resource Management. This divided once again in 1977 to form two new divisions: 1) Visitor Protection and Resource Management and 2) Interpretation and Visitor Services. The interpretive staff position was converted at this time to Chief of Interpretation. This change followed the trend in the Park Service during this period away from the old-style rangers, who performed a wide variety of tasks, to specialists trained for more particular duties. Continuing this trend, LARO reorganized the Ranger Division in 1990 to form a separate Division of Interpretation. The park hired its first Interpreter for the South District in 1991. LARO also worked to create a new Resources Management Division during this time. It began with a Natural Resources Specialist trainee in 1990 who, two years later, became the Resources Management Specialist in charge of both natural and cultural resources. LARO hired the first Archeologist in 1993 and the following year moved all into the new Division of Resources Management. [33]

During the mid-1990s, efforts to cut the size of the federal bureaucracy led to a major reorganization of the National Park Service. The former Regions were consolidated into larger Field Areas that, in turn, were broken into "Clusters" where management was directed by committee. LARO became part of the Columbia Cascades Cluster, with the System Support Office in Seattle. It, in turn, was part of the Pacific West Field Area, with headquarters in San Francisco. Several LARO employees began serving on the advisory committee. A result of this reorganization and downsizing was that individual parks took over a number of functions that the regional offices had done in the past. One of these with critical implications for LARO was the transfer of responsibility for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act to the park Superintendent. [34]

Concurrent with this overall reorganization of the Park Service, LARO underwent a major park reorganization in 1994. Early that summer, a scaled-down Operations Evaluation emphasized the areas of Administration, Concessions, and Interpretation. The Park Service was particularly concerned with the traditional park organization that they believed encouraged thought and actions along division lines. To counter this, the evaluators recommended increased emphasis on teamwork to break down divisions and improve communications. They suggested reassigning some duties to free administrative staff from various clerical functions. In addition, they recommended combining similar functions into one position, along with adding "interest and complexity" to support positions within the districts. In the area of concessions, the evaluators stressed the need for a new GMP to help the park assess the rapid growth and ensure that any development plans were well conceived. Finally, the team praised the "impressive changes" made in the interpretive program but emphasized the lack of understanding among park staff over the role of interpretation in a recreational park. They recommended development of a five-year Interpretive Plan. The evaluators ranked LARO's management of facilities and grounds as "outstanding." [35]

The results of the Operations Evaluation led to a considerable reorganization within the Division of Administration. LARO consolidated the administrative workload, assigning these tasks to the lowest possible level within the organization. It also placed all administrative positions within the park into the Division of Administration, redescribing and upgrading many of these jobs. The end result was a Chief of Administration who supervised a team of specialists and support staff at Headquarters and two Administrative Technicians in each district. With the retirement of the Assistant Superintendent in 1995, this position was discontinued and replaced with a Civil Engineer assigned to the Maintenance Division. In addition, LARO upgraded four Subdistrict Rangers, two District Rangers, and the Chief Ranger to fully implement the Ranger Careers initiative. The park also reorganized its original three districts (Kettle Falls, Fort Spokane, and Coulee Dam) into two, with the North District office at Kettle Falls and the South District office at Fort Spokane. [36]

Diversity in the Workforce

With LARO adjacent to two Indian reservations, the Park Service was aware early on of the good potential for diverse workforce. Seasonal labor positions initially offered the best opportunity for employment with the agency. Don Everts, long-time LARO employee, remembered many tribal members who worked with maintenance crews throughout the park, with many concentrating on the lakewide debris cleanup. He also recalled Superintendent Wayne Howe saying that he would not look for minorities outside the region when he had two reservations with available labor next door. Indeed, Howe hired two Indians for permanent staff positions by 1972, using the provision for Excepted Appointments as suggested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). [37]

LARO began keeping count of women and minorities in its workforce at least by the late 1970s. For instance, in 1978 LARO hired thirty-two seasonals in Maintenance, including six American Indians (two women and four men). Another Indian man and an Asian woman worked as seasonal rangers that year. In addition, the park was making a special effort to do business with minority-owned firms. To increase employment of tribal members, LARO began making personal contacts with the CCT, the STI, and the American Indian Community Center in Spokane at least by 1979. These contacts expanded in 1983 to include the Yakima Tribal Employment Office. Although the seasonal labor force included both women and minorities, all nine vacancies for permanent positions in 1981 were filled with non-minority men. [38]

During the mid-1980s, the Park Service once again looked into ways to use Excepted Service Appointing Authority to provide Indian preference at LARO. Because this could be used only for jobs related to providing service to Indians, LARO calculated that it could justify using the authority to hire three seasonal employees. By 1992, however, the Office of the Solicitor restricted this authority to the BIA. The Park Service encouraged its units to convert any Indians hired under Excepted Service to career service if the individual had worked three continuous years and had a satisfactory record of work. LARO hired a seasonal interpreter from the CCT in FY1993, sharing the cost equally through the Job Training and Placement Act. The success of this appointment encouraged the park to pursue a similar agreement the following year with the STI. In 1995, Superintendent Tays tried to fill the vacant Chief of Interpretation position with a highly qualified woman who was a CCT tribal member; he was disappointed, but not surprised, when she accepted a much better offer from the private sector. Late in 1997, LARO developed additional strategies to increase the diversity of its seasonal workforce, based on a full range of demographic variables. The park planned to use the Veteran's Readjustment Appointment Authority and Contiguous Area Appointment Authority to supplement established Park Service hiring practices. In June 2000, LARO hired Frank Andrews as the Team Leader for Planning and Resource Management. Andrews, a Colville tribal member, had worked for the BIA as an environmental protection specialist in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. He became the first local tribal member to hold a management level position at LARO. [39]

VIPs, SCA, and YCC

The National Park Service uses several programs to provide supplemental labor at park units nationwide. One of the most popular is the Volunteers in Parks (VIP), established in 1970. Although the intent of the program was to augment the services normally provided, VIPs frequently perform ordinary Park Service duties, especially in interpretation. Such volunteers help the agency deal with inadequate budgets and staffing. LARO had a VIP program at least by 1972, when volunteers led campfire programs and helped run the information desk. The program has grown over the years, benefiting the park in many ways. During 1981, volunteers worked nearly 1,400 hours for a total park expenditure of not quite $700, or less than fifty cents per hour, "a genuine deal for us and a good experience for the volunteer." [40] By 1982, VIPs worked as campground hosts in addition to interpretation. The park estimated that the twenty-nine volunteers in 1985 donated nearly $35,000 worth of labor. [41]

The Student Conservation Program (later Student Conservation Association, or SCA) was established in 1957 to help supplement staff in National Park units and other federal lands. With just a couple of pilot projects initially, the program expanded to fourteen parks by 1969. LARO had a student volunteer by 1990 who worked in the interpretation program at Fort Spokane. In subsequent years, SCA volunteers have worked also in resource management. [42]

The SCA served as a model for the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC), a program for teenagers. LARO hosted its first YCC camp in 1977 and the program, while small, has continued every year since. That first year, ten enrollees and three supervisors rebuilt the Lava Bluff Trail, built and cleared fire trails, repaired fencing, worked on timber stand improvement, and helped control noxious weeds. The group also constructed a short-lived, tent-frame YCC camp at Coulee Dam. The program expanded to twenty-four enrollees the following year and was complemented with a non-resident Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC), with ten workers. Over the years, YCC and YACC crews have worked on a wide variety of maintenance projects that the regular park workforce would have been unable to complete. Project costs were split evenly between regional energy accounts and LARO. As Park Service funding dwindled during the 1980s, LARO dropped the YACC program in FY1982 and cut back on the YCC in 1985, dropping to between seven and ten enrollees per year. The park added a Native Youth Corps, sponsored by the STI, for 1994; the eight participants worked with the YCC group, concentrating on maintenance projects in the Fort Spokane District. [43]