Administration’s Record on Management of Parks

The letter to The Times (May 31) from William P. Horn, assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks in the Interior Department, continues his efforts to mislead the public about his record of managing the National Parks, to wit:

--Horn’s reorganization of the National Park Service sought to place a career professional from the Fish and Wildlife Service over policy formulation in the Park Service. However, the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service differs markedly from the mission of the National Park Service and policy is at the very foundation of that difference. To underscore the seriousness of disagreement with Horn’s reorganization of policy formulation in the Park Service, the Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations chaired by Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) proposed language in an appropriations bill to deny money for Horn’s salary if he did not put policy back immediately under the director of the National Park Service.

This is strong evidence that more than Park Service personnel are concerned with how Horn reorganizes the agency administering the nation’s National Parks!

--As if the above weren’t enough, add to that: The person proposed for the position to oversee policy in the National Park Service was an individual Assistant Secretary Horn was seeking to remove from a top administrative post in the Fish and Wildlife Service.

--The facts are that Horn did change a performance rating given to me by National Park Service Director William Penn Mott. He proposed giving me a less satisfactory rating as evidenced by his letter to Mott of Oct. 10, 1986. While he changed the rating to a satisfactory level on Dec. 17 it was still lower than the rating given by Mott. Horn would give me no reasons for his initial rating until he was forced to by Sen. Byrd and Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.) in their respective Senate and House appropriations hearings on the National Park Service budget for fiscal year 1988. In Chairman Yates’ hearing Horn admitted he did not have all the information when he made his ratings.

I find that making such serious allegations on a person’s performance rating with incomplete information to be inexcusable action by a public official.

--If the handling of the aircraft overflights at Grand Canyon National Park by this Administration is evidence of their outstanding record then, indeed, the American public is being shortchanged by Horn. In spite of the public’s concern about this issue all Horn wanted to do in a letter to the Federal Aviation Agency in January of this year was to propose another two-year study but in the meantime allow airplanes to fly anywhere in the Grand Canyon except the inner gorge!

Horn’s letter to you in response to The Times article of April 21 clearly shows the arrogant and insensitive position that is taken by this Administration toward protecting the resources of this country’s National Parks.

HOWARD H. CHAPMAN

San Rafael

Chapman has retired as the regional director of the Pacific Northwest region of the National Park Service.