With the Obama administration mum on details of how agencies will respond if across-the-board budget cuts scheduled for Jan. 2 are required, a group of retired National Park Service employees painted a picture this morning of what sequestration would mean for parkland.

The Office of Management and Budget has already said NPS would take a nearly $190 million hit if the sequestration cuts included in the Budget Control Act that came out of last year's debt ceiling deal are enacted. That reduction would likely mean the elimination of thousands of seasonal park ranger jobs and the shutdown of some parks, the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees said in a release today.

NPS's fiscal 2013 budget includes $150 million for seasonal salaries for about 9,000 seasonal park rangers. That funding represents the only "wiggle room" available in the agency's budget, coalition board member Joan Anzelmo said this morning.

An NPS spokesman declined to comment on that assessment and referred questions about sequestration to OMB. An OMB representative did not respond by press time.

Last night Peggy O'Dell, who serves as deputy director of NPS, said she couldn't talk about potential cuts during a brief interview while she was at the Capitol for a women's history forum.

"We certainly have had many discussions," O'Dell said.

But Anzelmo said the impacts would be devastating from large parks like Yellowstone, which employs about 250 seasonal workers, to the smallest parks, which rely on those seasonal workers to keep facilities running and serve the public.

She also pointed out that to make up the other $40 million to reach the nearly $190 million sequester total, some parks would have to either drastically reduce their services or completely close.

"What we hear casually from colleagues who work in the various parks is they are extremely worried," Anzelmo said. "They don't know how they will be able to keep certain parks open."

The coalition notes in its release that shuttering parks to help meet budget shortfalls would deprive the federal government of the revenues that parks provide and the economic spending associated with parks.

A report issued earlier this year by NPS showed that the park system contributed more than $31 billion to local economies and supported 258,000 jobs in 2010. NPS figures showed that about half the spending and jobs figures are related to lodging, food and beverage service, followed by other retail, entertainment, gas, and local transportation and groceries.

"Our national parks and other public lands continue to be economic engines that produce and support jobs in communities across America," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said when the report was released in February.

Last week, OMB asked federal agencies to provide more details about the cuts they'd make to reach sequestration requirements if they became necessary (E&ENews PM, Dec. 5).

But White House spokesman Jay Carney said Dec. 5 that the "request for additional information" that OMB sent to agencies should not be read as a change in the Obama administration's view that sequestration cuts included in the Budget Control Act that came out of last year's debt ceiling deal are the wrong way to cut the federal budget.

Rather, with less than a month to go before those cuts kick in, Carney said the administration is simply ensuring that agencies are prepared in case the sequester order becomes necessary.

The White House "remains focused on reaching agreement" with Congress to avoid the sequester, Carney said.

Reporter Phil Taylor contributed.