He said the "maintenance backlog" identified by the NCPA comes mostly from a park plan for future maintenance projects. "We identified them to have place holders in future budgets, but they are not urgent now," he said.

Dinosaur Monument

• Budget with project funding: $441,000 decrease

The national monument's base budget was cut by $9,000. When year-to-year project money was counted, the cut was greater: $441,000.

Superintendent Chas Cartwright said the only major cut was reducing its Quarry Visitors Center by an hour a day, closing at 6 p.m. instead of 7. He said that did away with the need to have two shifts there and cut the need for an additional seasonal staffer.

Interior Department data said the number of seasonal staffers at the park dropped from 44 to 40 this year, and permanent staff dropped from 39 to 36.

Cartwright said no visitor services were added or expanded this year, but project money in recent years allowed work on issues from improved wildlife monitoring to eradicating more invasive plant species.

The Park Service is also working on long-term plans to address deterioration of the 40-year-old Quarry Visitors Center, which Cartwright said "essentially began trying to fall apart the day it was completed."

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, is pushing legislation to authorize construction of a new curatorial center in Vernal — where dinosaur bones now stored at the crowded Quarry building would be stored and studied. Interior has said it hopes to seek actual funding for that in fiscal 2007. Cartwright said his park is also studying options of how to renovate or replace the Quarry building.