Natural-Born Photo Ops

President Bush is hugging nature in the Western states this week, showing concern for the health of the nation’s public lands. Today he is scheduled to carry his message to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, visiting a plant restoration area, working on a trail and speaking to park employees. Beware the photo op.

Bush has focused on fixing up national parks after years of neglect. An Interior Department official claimed the administration had increased the parks’ maintenance budget by 132%, to $2.9 billion for the years 2002-04, but a deputy chief of the National Park Service told a Senate hearing that only a small fraction of that was new money.

Consider the 19th century lighthouse at Point Reyes National Seashore north of San Francisco. As The Times’ Julie Cart reported this month, the National Park Service has identified restoration of the historic structure as evidence of the president’s determination to fix up the parks. But Point Reyes rangers were surprised at that, reporting in an internal memo that the “restoration” accomplished nothing more than “coat[ing] the lighthouse with paint.” The light doesn’t work. The lens housing is shored up by chunks of cedar. And as Cart reported, the rickety iron structure may be in danger of blowing over in a high wind.

In Yosemite National Park, the Park Service is spending $12.5 million to restore the worn 56-acre approach to the base of Yosemite Falls. But in this time of starvation of the parks the federal government is putting up only $1.5 million. The rest is being raised by the private, nonprofit Yosemite Fund.

And the administration continues to insult the Park Service professional staff by trying to privatize thousands of jobs, including those of scientists and other experts. The House of Representatives, generally a strong supporter of Bush’s environmental policies, has seen some of the folly in this, voting 362 to 57 in July to keep the jobs of 100 archeologists within the Park Service.

Bush is correct that the national parks’ infrastructure needs immediate attention. Time will tell whether he carries through on his promise. However, his real test comes in whether he protects the natural resource itself from oil, gas and mining companies, excessive auto (or snowmobile) traffic, water pollution and erosion. On those issues, the administration has little to brag about.

Bush’s Western trip comes in the same week as his nomination of Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. He is to succeed Christie Whitman, whose moderate views were often at odds with the White House’s.

Leavitt’s balance and flexibility on tough pollution control issues are praised as his strengths. Unfortunately, the only way to “balance” tough federal environmental rules developed over the last 30 years is to weaken them. The incoming EPA chief faces an unenviable task and may soon learn that it’s impossible to disguise paint as structural repair.