WASHINGTON, April 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Instead of reaping high wages at a Hewlett-Packard internship, 25-year-old MBA student Ann Dubinsky spent her summer helping Bryce Canyon National Park assess its financial needs.

Other students, such as University of Texas graduate student Fred Richardson, passed up lucrative summer jobs to explore battlefields strewn with kudzu, cracks in Mt. Rushmore's famous faces, and other realities at cash-strapped national parks.

Their work might just save the parks, according to Phil Voorhees, NPCA Director of National Programs and Business Plan Initiative Manager.

President Bush recently submitted a $4.9 billion national park budget to Congress. The need for such immediate and immense funding has been proved by Dubinsky, Richardson, and more than 20 other students who participated in an innovative business partnership between the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and the National Park Service (NPS) that equips park managers with the tools they need to justify much-needed funding.

In just three years, the program -- manned by graduate students on summer break -- has analyzed 27 national parks, developing comprehensive business plans for park planning.

As visitation has increased, park budgets have failed to keep pace, causing visible stress on park resources-shortfalls in excess of several hundred million dollars per year. To further complicate the problem, the National Park Service (NPS) has a complex budget system, making it difficult for park managers to articulate specific needs.

Chronic funding shortfalls are the root of many park problems. For example, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument, considered the immigrant gateway to America, is unable to support visitor interpretation programs that adequately tell the story of immigration to the park's 25,000 daily visitors.

Similarly, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, under authority of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, allows hunting, trapping, and fishing. Although it is home to 55 mammal species and 22 fish species, only one-caribou-has been inventoried. Lack of funds make the park incapable of managing its most central resources-the wildlife within.

"It is our goal to see the National Park System fully funded," said Voorhees. "But, we aren't going to be able to secure the future of the parks until we can readily explain what happens to current funding, what needs fixing, and how much it will cost. The Business Plan Initiative (BPI) achieves that goal."

BPI hires graduate students to analyze national park units across the country and to clarify individual park budget and staff needs. Hailing from some of the nation's leading business, public policy, and natural resource graduate programs-including Columbia, Harvard, Duke, Dartmouth, and Yale-BPI student consultants team up with participating park managers for 10 weeks during summer, working hands-on with NPS staff to develop business plans, historical funding analyses, and comprehensive financial strategy statements.

"We are proud of the findings of this business plan," said summer-2000 participant Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island National Monument superintendent Diane Dayson. "The business plan will be used in the short term to present a clear picture of the park, as a prospectus, (and) as an internal management tool, applying the BPI methodology on a regular basis to assess operational standards, staffing needs, and investment priorities."