According to public polls the most popular aspect of the entire U.S.
Government are the National Parks in the Department of the Interior - so a stong case
can be made that all activities that contribute to the National Parks do
indeed represent the "government" to the people.

If the logic about "bureaucrats" and outsourcing were extended then why does
the government have curators at the nation's musuems? Or why does the
government have educators and interpretive personel at the nation's parks and musuems?
Could not these position be equally outsourced to "save money"?

There is such a thing as the inherent value of having functions performed
within an organization by employees. Such values include having employees being
more focussed on mission, developing skill sets more in tune with the
organizations goals and objectives, and having a corporate memory or history or
tradtion.

I would argue that this is especally true of park service archaeologists who
manange the cultural resources of the National Parks in the USA.  Very little
of archaeology is about "digging". Much of it concerns above ground surveys,
historical research, and analysis and evaluation of prior excavations and
artifacts. Contract archaeology (CRM firms) are very good at digging - often too
good. Because they are geared to get in and very quickly excavate and document
sites that are threatened by development. Since they are contractors they a
driven by speed and efficiency in excavation, low wages to workers, and speed in
generating reports - this is where all of their financial incentives lie. This
is good when a site is threatened by a highway or a golf course or anything
else. It would is not necessarily a good thing when one is managing cultural
resources that are in the nation's trust.

Given the policies and statements of the Bush administration I would suspect
that perhaps more is invovled here than just "bean counting". Cultural
resources are equally questioned along with environmental issues whenever any
proposals to development on federally held lands are put forth. The National Parks
have been among the most protected properties in this regard until recently.
There are initiatives underway to allow exploratory drilling for gas and oil in
several National Parks and there are probably more in the works. I would
postulate that perhaps by gutting the park service's cultural resource managers and
turning over their functions to outside contractors that a big layer of
internal review in granting permits and exemptions for land use would be permanently
set aside.  Some American think that this would be just dandy and many are
adamantly opposed to such development efforts in the National Parks and
Monuments.

I am just guessing here but it makes more sense to me in explaining this push
by the administration to eliminate the Park Service archaeology division than
simple "bureaucracy" and "cost-savings".

Cheers!
Dave

David Harvey
Artifacts
2930 South Birch Street
Denver, CO  80222
303-300-5257
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