Yellowstone Suffers in Budget Squeeze : National Parks: A ranger shortage means unattended entry gates--and uncollected admission fees. Potholes and crumbling shoulders have turned roads into obstacle courses--and good luck finding a nature guide.

Visitors to Yellowstone are streaming through unattended gates without paying the $10 admission fee. Potholes and crumbling shoulders have turned roads into obstacle courses.

And good luck finding one of the nature guides who used to wander the park.

The country’s oldest national park is rejuvenating itself after the devastating fires of 1988, but it is having a harder time coping with budget woes.

A record 3.1 million people visited Yellowstone last year, and even more are expected this year. But the park’s budget remains virtually unchanged at $17.8 million, despite rising costs for things like utilities.

Instead of the 136 rangers hired for four-month stints during the busy season five years ago, the park could afford only 70 seasonal rangers for 2 1/2-month stints this year.

Park officials estimate they’re losing $1 million in uncollected admission fees a year because there aren’t enough rangers.

“We probably collect maybe half of what we should if we had the gates staffed all the time,” lamented Yellowstone spokeswoman Marsha Karle. “That bothers people. They look around for someone to pay the $10 to.”

Brochures warn of the poor road conditions, and signs urge caution because of the potholes and orange-flagged crumbling shoulders.

“They need to be repaired, that’s clear,” Marsha Betley of Madison, Wis., said recently after pulling off the pockmarked road to look at Undine Falls.

Recent roadwork has improved the Grand Loop that circles Yellowstone’s interior. But park officials say hundreds of millions of dollars still needs to be spent on roadwork.

Yellowstone is seeking $20.1 million for next year, a 13% increase over this year.

“As you can guess, it’s frustrating to us to see this happening,” Karle said. “It’s really unfortunate to not get support.”

The shortage of rangers causes other problems. Back-country campers and boaters can wait half a day or longer for a permit. And with not enough rangers to direct traffic, roads become clogged when motorists slow down to gawk at bison and elk.

The money woes are not shared by TW Recreational Services Inc., Yellowstone’s chief concessionaire. With a record number of visitors every year since the 1988 forest fires, the company’s revenues have been strong.

Under its contract with the government, TW reinvests 22% of its gross receipts in park structures.

A few years ago it completed a multimillion-dollar restoration of the historic Lake Hotel. It spent more than $3 million last winter to renovate the east wing of Old Faithful Inn. And this fall it plans to renovate the west wing.