The Bush administration boasts that it is spending record amounts on national parks, but congressional researchers said Wednesday that park operational budgets still are falling behind inflation — and are forcing cuts in services and personnel.

That is similar to findings by a Deseret Morning News investigation in 2004. The newspaper found then that three of every four parks had its budget cut from the previous year. But overall spending nationally was still up slightly, mostly to help protect from terrorism some "national icon" parks — such as the Statue of Liberty and Independence Hall.

Still, amid such cuts to most individual parks, then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton repeatedly and technically accurately said during the 2004 presidential election year, "We have more money today per acre, per employee and per visitor in the National Park System than at any time in the history of the parks."

The U.S. General Accountability Office, a research arm of Congress, said Wednesday that despite continuing administration claims of record funding for parks, its "allocation for daily operations declined slightly" between 2001 and 2005 when adjusted for inflation.

It added, "Allocations to 212 of the (Park Service's) 380 units fell in inflation-adjusted terms by an average of about 2 percent annually, while the other 168 remained level or increased."

That may be hitting some of the most heavily visited parks the hardest.

"About 74 percent of the 83 most highly visited park units — (with) over 1 million recreation visits (each) per year — showed an average annual decline in inflation-adjusted terms in daily operations" for those five years, the GAO report said.

The GAO visited 12 of those most-visited parks — including Bryce Canyon and Zion in Utah — to look in detail at the effects of not keeping up with inflation.

"Managers at all 12 reported their allocations were not sufficient to address increases in operating costs, such as salary and benefit increases and rising utility costs," the GAO said.

It said that often led to "reducing services in areas such as education, visitor and resource protection, and maintenance activities," plus more reliance on volunteers.

For example, it said that at Bryce Canyon such problems led to reduced backcountry patrols. "While park officials are aware of poaching in the park, they told us they do not have the capability to prevent or investigate this illegal activity," the GAO said.

And as an example of cuts at Zion, the GAO said it reduced cleaning at a heavily used restroom from twice to once a day. "After reducing the cleaning frequency, they received several complaints about the condition of the facilities," the GAO said.

Besides operational money, parks also receive varying amounts each year for construction and other projects — and additional money from visitor fees for projects.

The GAO proposed that the Park Service use some of the visitor fee money to pay the salary of employees who oversee projects funded by such money. That is allowed by law, but the Park Service has banned that practice — and pays such employees through operations budgets.

The GAO noted that about 80 percent of all operational budgets go toward personnel costs, so using some project money for that could help relieve pressure and prevent service cuts.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com