Hatfield also found that the park was understaffed and thus made recommendations to correct that deficiency. He observed:
Of considerable concern was the hack of adequate staffing at the National Park. The entire episode might have been avoided had the park not been understaffed and a permanent employee with the specific responsibility been present rather than having water quality as an additional responsibility of an electrician or painter. The ultimate responsibility for this understaffing rests not with the National Park Service, but rather with the Office of Management and Budget and the Congress. The impact of the understaffing is that the professionalism and public responsibilities of the Park Service are being sacrificed. They are being sacrificed because the duties must be undertaken by seasonal or temporary personnel or be undertaken by permanent staff with other full time responsibilities, or not be undertaken at all.
At Crater Lake, for example, there are only 16 permanent employees out of the authorized level of 24. One of the absent staff is a plumber who would have had the full time responsibilities for checking the sewage and water systems and testing the water. Had Crater Lake been adequately staffed, this episode would not have occurred. . . .
Other recommendations by Hatfield related to oversight of concessionaire activities, the attitudes of the Youth Conservation Corps and the U.S. Public Health Service, and the relationships between the National Park Service and county, state, and national health service agencies. Because the park concessionaire stated “that he had a possessory interest in his facilities and required anyone who wished to inspect his facilities to obtain his permission,” Hatfield urged that concessions policy be examined “with a view towards increasing supervision and control of concession activities.” Since the Youth Conservation Corps delayed reporting that many of its personnel were sick (apparently YCC workers were the first to become ill but this was not reported for nearly two weeks) and the U.S. Public Health Service forestalled closure of the park for at least a week pending further studies, Hatfield recommended that in the future
the YCC and the Public Health Service be instructed that they are paid by the people to be servants of the people not for any self aggrandisement or to protect their collective public image.
In addition procedures should be established between the Park Service and the U.S. Public Health Service and appropriate state and county health departments to assure that those health agencies were alerted immediately to potential problems. [88]
During the mid-1970s the National Park Service began developing a “Statement for Management” for each unit of the National Park System. The statements, which were revised and updated periodically, were designed to provide an up-to-date inventory of the park’s condition and an analysis of its problems. The statements provided a format to park administrators for evaluating conditions and identifying major issues and information voids.
The first “Statement for Management” for Crater Lake National Park was approved by Pacific Northwest Regional Office Acting Director Edward J. Kurtz on November 8, 1977. The statement provided for hand use management zones within the park. Of the 160,290 acres in the park 159,890 were zoned as natural. Within the natural zone were three subzones: wilderness (122,400); outstanding natural feature, i.e., water surface of Crater Lake (11,500); and natural [including hand on which the road system was located] (25,990). The only area in the historic zone was an area of approximately one acre on which the Crater Lake Lodge was located. The lodge had been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places, thus entitling it to protection under Executive Order 11593 and the National Historic Preservation Act of 1964. Five areas in the park were zoned for development:
1. Rim Village on the south rim of the caldera;
2. Munson Valley, located approximately three miles south and 600 feet below the Rim Village area;
3. Mazama Campground near the junction of the south and west entrance roads near Annie Spring;
4. Lost Creek Campground which is located in the southeastern part of the park; and
5. The maintenance area storage yard, approximately five acres, at the south end of the panhandle.
The “Statement for Management” also listed the primary management objectives of the park. These objectives were listed under the following categories:
