While there have been support organizations that have funded or actually improved public facilities (parks, campgrounds, memorials etc.) Thenlast 50 years have certainly changed the dynamics. From my first paid experiences in public recreation in 1969 throughout my career that ended in 2009, I experienced “doing more with less”, having to set up and recruit volunteer organizations, being politically influenced in decisions from moneyed organizations, and flat out attempted to succeed when given impossible tasks. And not physically impossible but biologically unsound, unsafe for citizens and workers, and on and on.
A good camp host in a reasonable situation such as having to call the right emergency service, law enforcement, give directions to local attractions, host an informational coffee on a Saturday morning, or answer questions on the park or campground are worth their
weight in firewood.
But to expect toilet cleaning, mowing, tree trimming, road work,
painting buildings etc is just another way to cut budgets and watch the resource degrade. With over three decades of watching the shift happen, I will be most happy to hear different opinions on the camp host conundrum but I won’t be changing my opinion, volunteering or approving the trolling of public sites in my home state of Iowa.
Especially while the governor throws park rangers out of their houses and sits on a 1.9 BILLION DOLLAR, state surplus. Shameless.
Iowa Dave