Not Just a Walk in the Park for Bush

President Bush reveled in the stark, early morning beauty of the Santa Monica Mountains on Friday, as he promised a “proactive” agenda to maintain America’s national parks.

During a visit to the National Recreation Area near Thousand Oaks, Bush also participated briefly in a trail-restoration project, working up a sweat that was still visible as he stepped up to the podium moments later to address about 100 park employees and volunteers.

In his remarks, the president reiterated his commitment to maintaining the country’s 80 million acres of national parks, calling them “the crown jewel of America’s recreational system.”

But neither Bush’s word nor deed diminished the skepticism with which conservationists regard his environmental record.

Critics of his environmental policies said Friday he has reneged on a promise to adequately fund the thousands of pressing maintenance projects at national parks.

They charged that Bush’s focus Friday on park maintenance was emblematic of his inattention to the many other urgent issues at America’s national parks, such as air and noise pollution.

Bush’s visit to the Santa Monica Mountains, the nation’s largest urban national park area, was part of a two-week blitz designed to highlight his environmental credentials as he gears up for his reelection bid.

Earlier this week in Arizona, the president promoted his “Healthy Forest” initiative to reduce the risk of wildfires. Next week, he is scheduled to travel to Oregon and Washington state on a similar quest for support among environmentalists, who form a key voting bloc.

In most of his recent travels around the country, Bush also has been taking time out to attend fund-raisers for his reelection, part of a drive to amass $170 million or more for use in the primary campaign, even though he faces no challengers for the Republican nomination.

On Friday, Bush arrived at the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by helicopter about 8 a.m., his 15th visit to a national park area as president, according to Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who accompanied the president.

Bush took a brisk walking tour and received a briefing on the projects underway at the recreation area. Then he rolled up his sleeves and participated in a trail restoration project, shoveling dirt with gusto, as news photographers snapped away and television cameras rolled.

“This is an unstaged walk in the park,” Bush laughingly called out to reporters.

In his remarks to park employees and volunteers, Bush agreed with critics that more funds need to be spent on park maintenance. He noted that he has committed $5 billion over the next five years toward that goal and said that 900 maintenance projects that already have been completed are “a good start.”

Bush said he was determined to improve the national parks in a more systematic manner, characterizing past approaches as “catch-as-catch-can, without a national strategy.”

“We have an obligation to leave this park a better place than when we found it,” he said. “We’re going to be proactive in doing what’s right on behalf of the American people.”

Among those who took Bush to task Friday on national park issues were 120 former park service career employees, including four former directors. In an open letter to the president, they said they were “growing increasingly concerned” that he was “not living up to” his promises or to “the ideals described in the mission of the National Park Service.”

“While publicizing glossy reports to convince the public that your administration cares about this country’s national treasures, you are strangling the very core of park stewardship, sidestepping the important issues that are facing the parks and ignoring the operational budgets of the parks,” the former employees said in the letter.

Separately, the National Parks Conservation Assn., a nonpartisan organization that has served as a watchdog of the national parks since 1919, said Bush’s funding figures for maintenance were misleading because they include existing funding that is used every year for park maintenance and new construction projects ... and is not just new money allocated to fund projects that are backlogged.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), in whose district the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area lies, dismissed the criticism directed at Bush by environmentalists.

Even if the president were to embrace their agenda wholesale, Gallegly said, “they’d still find something wrong with his left toe, or something.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, a Democrat, whom the White House also invited to the event, said he was glad that Bush visited the mountains, but added that Bush needed to do more than make speeches and participate in photo opportunities.

“You’ve got to invest more in the national parks,” Yaroslavsky said. Referring to Bush’s Texas ranch, Yaroslavsky added: “This isn’t some 1,600-acre ranch that somebody lives on. This is the people’s ranch.”

After the park visit, Bush flew back to Orange County for a lunchtime, $2,000-a-plate fund-raiser to close out his two-day stay in the area.

Bush then returned to Texas, where he is in the middle of his annual, monthlong working vacation, using as his base his 1,600-acre Prairie Chapel ranch near Crawford.

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Times staff writer Julie Cart contributed to this report.