Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, former Secretary of Interior under Donald Trump, announced yesterday that his office was calling for a federal investigation into the contract between Rec.gov and the National Park Service
The cat had to come out of the bag at some point. Despite the fact that the National Park Service and multibillion dollar defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton tried to shield their nefarious financial arrangement from the public eye, the information is now flowing. Much like those first drops of water long ago ran over soft sandstone where we today witness the great chasm of the Grand Canyon, these drops of information may lead to the rapid erosion of the national park reservation scheme.
Rec.gov in the News… Finally
Just last week, both National Geographic and the Wall Street Journal ran stories about the National Park Reservation system. The WSJ article took direct aim at Booz Allen, detailing the amount of money collected through their reservation portal, showing that their compensation has far outpaced their original reported estimates, despite the fact that the per-transaction amounts paid to Booz Allen were redacted in invoices obtained by the WSJ.
Although the revenue generated by the current arrangement may seem eye-popping to many public land users, it all seems to be the result of a savvy business model to Booz Allen president and chief executive Horacio Rozanski. “One thing I learned in B-school, for all that money, it’s a small number times a big number is a big number”, he revealed at a 2019 Citi Global Technology Conference.
These comments make clear that the corporation is intent on pursuing contracts that may only remit a small dollar amount per transaction, but which over time, result in a much more lucrative total. Rozanski went on to point to the “per-transaction” model, as a method by which the company maximizes profit, as compared to a “by-the-hour” payment model, describing the previous as “much more effective and productive”.
It seems that “effective” and “productive” can be measured by different means. Public land users who are getting juiced for tens of millions per year, while often not even landing their desired permit, hardly consider the system either “effective” or “productive”. In fact, it’s safe to estimate that many such users consider this “effective and productive” model to be nothing more than a “total scam”.
This seems to be the view of one outspoken critic of the Rec.gov system, and he appears to be ready to pounce on the opportunity to do something about it.
Enter Ryan Zinke
It is unknown when this issue first came to the attention of Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, who served as Trump’s first Secretary of Interior from March of 2017 through January of 2019, but according to his Twitter page, he sure doesn’t seem to like the arrangement, referring to it as a “total scam”.
While it is true that Booz Allen’s operation of Rec.gov kicked off during Zinke’s tenure as Interior Secretary, it may be unlikely that he had extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the contract, as it was awarded to Booz Allen in May of 2016, during the late stages of the Obama administration.
The initial implementation of Booz Allen’s Rec.gov was slow, and it only gained a full head of steam during the Covid years, as many public land agencies used the opportunity to move their park entrance systems to a platform that was in accordance with the “social distancing” norms of the pandemic.
While this may not completely vindicate Zinke, it does give him an ability to throw stones at the corporate takeover of public land access, and he is doing just that.
Zinke Seeks Federal Investigation into “Total Scam”
The aforementioned National Geographic article focused more on the difficulty of obtaining an entrance permit to national parks and public lands, and not once did the piece mention Booz Allen, or its management of the system. Most publications seem to avoid that seemingly uncomfortable, perhaps, sacred union.
Nevertheless, it did mention the ‘total scam” tweet by Zinke, and highlighted the Congressman’s failure to obtain the highly-sought-after reservation to his own state’s Glacier National Park. The article went on to report that permits to the Crown of the Continent’s North Fork area sold out within 10 minutes, while those for the Going to the Sun Road were gone within 30 minutes.
Twitter replies to Zinke’s Total Scam Tweet often chided the former Navy Seal, reminding him that he may have once had a say in how this system operates. How much this influenced his choice to move on the issue is unclear, but he seems poised to move.
On Wednesday, April 11th, Zinke’s office issued a press release which called on the National Park Service to open an investigation into their contract with Booz Allen. The Congressman requested a host of details regarding the process by which this contract was originally constructed, and further requested that Glacier National Park officials abandon the vehicle reservation system that is planned for the summer of 2023.
What Zinke Wants
Zinke wrote: “In light of the recent WSJ report, and the fact that the Glacier National Park reservation system is housed on recreation.gov, I am calling for a full investigation of both the Booz-Allen contract (dating back to the original contract and subsequent renewals), and the decision-making process to implement the Glacier Park reservation system… I am also calling on you to abandon the Glacier National Park reservation system until a full investigation has been completed and the findings reported to my office.”
Additionally, Congressman Zinke asked for a treasure trove of documents. Park Junkie predicts that if any of these are ever delivered, they will likely be fully redacted:
1 – All documents including emails, internal memos, statements of opposition from local entities and tribes, text messages, etc. related to the decision-making, analysis, implementation and expansion of the Glacier National Park vehicle reservation system dating back to 2019 (emails organized either by conversation or chronologically)
2 – Any documents related to the NPS relationship with Booz-Allen as it concerns recreation.gov and/or ticketing and reservations
3 – Documents relating to costs, invoices and payments made by NPS to Booz-Allen for the Recreation.gov contract
4 – Communications between NPS and Booz-Allen related to this contract
5 – Any emails, text messages and documents related to fulfilling this request
Wow… Just imagine if this sort of information ever did see the light of day. As I indicated above, if any of these documents ever are released to anyone, they’ll likely be fully redacted. Trade secrets, you’ll understand…
Nevertheless, it appears that the ball is rolling. What this means for the future of the reservation scam on public lands is currently unclear. It sure is getting interesting though, and Park Junkie is as excited as ever to see what the future holds, because it appears all of you folk in the gallery may be getting some real action soon.
Stay tuned, and I’ll see you on down the trail!
Cheers, Todd C
