Agency Scrambles to Assess Damage : Interior Dept. Budget Knife Cuts Wide, Deep

From fewer rangers at Grand Canyon National Park to a smaller home near Palm Springs for the endangered Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, the budget knife of the new federal deficit-slashing law will spare no park, fish hatchery or wildlife refuge operated by the Interior Department.

Like most other federal agencies, the department must cope with a 4.3% cut in all of its programs as of March 1. Despite Budget Director James C. Miller III’s claim that the government can absorb such cuts with a minimum of disruption, Interior Department officials say that the reductions--$202 million from their 1986 budget of $4.7 billion--will mean trimmed services and reduced payments to the states and counties.

Deeper Cuts Seen

Beyond this year’s cuts, harried Interior officials are looking ahead to far deeper cuts--as great as 30%--as President Reagan seeks to head off another round of across-the-board spending cuts next October.

“We’re sailing into total chaos here,” said a staff member of the House Interior Committee, which oversees the department’s budget. “These are totally uncharted waters.”

The Interior Department, as administrator of the national parks, landlord of 342 million acres in the West and manager of the nation’s wildlife, employs 72,000 workers in more than 1,000 offices across the country.

Creating Havoc

The Gramm-Rudman law, which triggers across-the-board spending cuts if deficits remain higher than a series of descending targets, is creating the same havoc throughout the government that it is creating at the Interior Department.

The act exempts some programs--notably Social Security and various welfare programs--from the across-the-board cuts. But everywhere else in the bureaucracy, budget cutters are scrambling to determine how to apportion the new austerity.

At the Interior Department as elsewhere in the federal establishment, officials admit to considerable uncertainty and confusion about the full impact of the law, named for its principal sponsors, Sens. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.). But department budget officials here and in the field painted this picture of what may be in store:

--Hours at parks, recreation centers and wildlife refuges may be shortened this year and regular public services, like visitors’ centers and nature tours, may be trimmed.

--Parks may close off areas to the public because of fewer rangers and maintenance workers, and campgrounds may be closed.

--Payments to counties from the Bureau of Land Management will be reduced this year. The bureau now doles out about $107 million to counties denied tax revenue on federal land within their borders. California is one of the largest recipients in the program, pocketing $10 million last year.

Alan Levitt, an Interior Department spokesman, said the main problem with this year’s cuts is not their size but the requirement that every program be trimmed by the same percentage, regardless of department priorities.

He said the department hopes to have a better picture of the impact when field offices, such as parks and wildlife refuges, report to Washington within the next few weeks about their plans for absorbing the cuts.

“We’ll have to see if there are any real horror stories at all,” he said. While he foresees no “major problems” for 1986, he said, “1987 will be a different story.”

Cutback in Services

The National Park Service this year will cut $26.8 million from its $624-million budget. At Yosemite National Park, this probably will translate into fewer rangers, shorter hours at park facilities and fewer education programs by rangers, said Lisa Dapprich, a park spokesman.

No layoffs are expected this year, although fewer seasonal workers will be hired, she said.

“Where maybe up in the high country we had five ranger-led programs, we’ll have to scale that down to two,” Dapprich said. “We’re not going to close off areas of the park but we might close facilities such as campgrounds because of shortage of staff.”

At Grand Canyon National Park, Butch Farabee, management assistant to the superintendent and a 20-year employee of the National Park Service, predicted “significant cuts” this year.

Seasonal Hiring Limits

“Whenever and wherever we can, positions are going unfilled,” he said. “Seasonal hiring for maintenance and protection is going to be limited. It’s just a trimming away of as much of the meat as you can. We’re beyond trimming the fat away. We’re closer to the skeleton now.”

“I would suggest that response time for certain types of emergencies will be slowed up because the people won’t be there,” Farabee warned.

Levitt, however, said that public safety will not be jeopardized.

At the Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs the department’s wildlife refuges and protects the nation’s endangered species, the projections are equally as pessimistic. This year, the $299.7-million budget will be trimmed by $12.9 million.

“Every project that we’re working on, whether it be related to the black-footed ferret, grizzly bears, whooping cranes or California condors, every species will have to take a reduction of some kind,” said James Leupold, a budget official within the service.

Cut’s Effect Unknown

Gary Kramer, refuge manager at the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge in the Imperial Valley said he has not yet identified the casualties of his 4.3% budget cut. “It could be anything from vehicles I had intended to purchase to public-use kinds of things, like new brochures or new bird lists,” he said.

And the Fish and Wildlife Service says that the impending 1986 cuts look tame compared to the reductions that Reagan will propose to Congress in February as part of his 1987 budget. To meet the Gramm-Rudman act’s requirement that the 1987 deficit not exceed $144 billion, Reagan’s budget will include $54 billion in domestic spending cuts.

Fish and Wildlife officials said that the 1987 budget probably will bring substantial cutbacks in construction and land acquisition programs. Among the potential victims is the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard, an endangered reptile whose refuge was to be expanded from 1,300 acres to 2,000. Because of the Gramm-Rudman act, it may have to live in smaller quarters for awhile.

Park Fee Increases

Also for 1987, the Interior Department will propose postponing construction of such projects as waste water treatment facilities. Congress will be asked to raise park entrance fees substantially and to increase or institute other charges in parks and national wildlife refuges.

The department may try to force the states to pick up administrative costs in 1987 for federal programs that provide them revenues. For example, the cost of administering the nation’s onshore and offshore federal oil- and gas-leasing program may be deducted from the royalties states receive under the program.

The Interior Department has proposed similar measures in past years, only to meet unsurmountable opposition in Congress. But for 1987, department officials expect the Gramm-Rudman act to make Congress more receptive to higher entrance fees and deep program cuts.

Likelihood of Layoffs

Layoffs probably will be necessary throughout the department to achieve the budget reductions to be proposed for 1987. At the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, Kramer said, there is a “great likelihood” of layoffs if cuts range in the 20% level or beyond.

But as at other field stations around the country, Kramer’s immediate problem is dealing with the uncertainty that the Gramm-Rudman act has imposed on his budget.

“My secretary just said she had heard about the cuts on the radio,” he said. “I just have to tell employees that at this point, we don’t know.”