Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 26, 1995                   TAG: 9503270081
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOFT MOUNTAIN                                 LENGTH: Medium

PARK DAMAGE `JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE'

He walked around an outdoor amphitheater atop Loft Mountain and recalled how spectators have been appalled instead of awed by what they had seen.

Campers were watching a slide show last summer at the amphitheater when the giant, black silhouette of a rat creeping about in the worn-out projection booth appeared on the screen.

``They weren't very happy,'' Rives said as he examined the peeling gray paint and the leaky roof of the filthy hut that houses the projector.

The Shenandoah, for decades the proud showcase of Virginia's natural beauty, was cited by congressional investigators as an example of how America's national parks are declining at an alarming rate for lack of money for maintenance.

A General Accounting Office report outlined at a congressional hearing this month said the Park Service faces a backlog of $4 billion in repairs and refurbishments with no indication that Congress will provide such money.

``I wasn't sure I should be doing this,'' Rives said of taking a reporter on a behind-the-scenes tour. ``But it doesn't seem to affect visitation when we talk about the widespread problems here. [Visitors] just keep coming, and things here just keep getting worse.''

Many of the nearly 2 million people who travel to the park 65 miles southwest of Washington cruise the Skyline Drive, a winding ribbon of blacktop along the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Others camp or hike along the Shenandoah's 500 miles of forest trails.

None of them see the park's waste-water treatment plant hidden behind a locked gate. Rain and melting snow leaking into the plant for more than a year have begun to rot its inside walls and support beams. Plastic bags have been taped over file cabinets to protect their contents from water.

Park Superintendent Bill Wade said about 40 seasonal employees will be hired at Shenandoah this summer compared with nearly 100 a few years ago. This year's camping season will be shortened, and one campground will be closed. Interpretive programs such as guided walks and nature shows are being cut back.

``I'm getting calls ringing off the hook from people wanting to camp,'' Rives said.

Air pollution at Shenandoah is among the worst of the 48 national parks. Smog from factories and coal-burning plants has cut visibility from the mountaintops in half. On clear days 40 years ago, park visitors could make out the tip of the Washington monument. Now, that's barely possible just 30 miles outside Washington.

Gypsy moths are defoliating and killing oak trees weakened by the air pollution. Beetles are killing pine trees. And an aphid called the wooly adelgid is sucking the life out of the hemlocks. When the season changes, drivers will see huge patches of brown on the normally green hillsides.

Maintenance crews are unable to keep up with the job of cutting down the thousands of dead trees and limbs beside the Skyline Drive and the hiking trails. Next month, the park will begin warning campers not to pitch tents beneath dead trees. A camper who was paralyzed after a dead tree fell on her three years ago has a lawsuit pending against the government.

Park employees also face hazards - in the trailers where they live.

Last summer, park interpreter John Waterman was showering in his trailer when the bathtub plunged through the rotting floor. He clutched a towel rack to keep from falling. On a section of wood in the kitchen, there are 40 notches designating the number of mice he killed in the trailer that summer.

``They have contests to see how many mice they can trap in the trailers,'' Rives said.

The park got the used trailers in 1970 with the understanding that they were to be there for only three years, until permanent lodges or offices replaced them. Twenty-five years later, their roofs leak and the plumbing and wiring are rickety, but the trailers are still there.

``We've spent $20,000 a year in the park's operating budget, plus rental income, trying to hold these things together,'' Rives said. ``We're just pouring money down the drain.''