Summary: Protecting and preserving park resources for future generations while at the same time meeting the needs of hundreds of millions of park visitors is a difficult task, one made even more difficult by tight budgets at the Park Service and other federal agencies. Managing the national park system under these conditions requires making choices among competing priorities. Within the Park Service, these choices are delegated to the individual park managers and typically involve trade-offs in funding resource management activities, visitor services, or park maintenance. Although the Park Service gives managers a great deal of decision-making authority, it lacks a system to hold them accountable for the consequences of their decisions. Under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), the Park Service has begun to establish goals for the park system. The next task will be for the Park Service to begin measuring the individual parks' progress in achieving these goals. Implementing GPRA can help Congress and the Park Service reach agreement on goals and expectations for the agency and can help hold the individual parks accountable for achieving their goals. The transition to results-oriented management in the Park Service will not be easy or quick, but GPRA has the potential to improve the agency's performance--a particularly vital goal given limited resources and high public expectations.
