Statecraft

Expert on Department of Interior Reorganization: 'It Could Be Very Expensive'

The US Department of the Interior has unveiled its plans to shift the department’s offices throughout the country into 12 unified regions. Radio Sputnik discussed the plan to overhaul the Department of the Interior with Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.

Sputnik: What’s your take on the plans of the Department of the Interior to reorganize? How will this affect you or your cause, the protection of America’s national parks in particular?

Phil Francis: The plan has some lofty goals. They’re to to make our organizations more efficient, more effective; they’re going to be located in places where the American public has more access to our officials, and by managing parks on an ecosystem basis, they would be more effective. We haven’t seen the details of the plan; the only thing we’ve been able to see is a one-page [document], it’s a link on the Internet which shows how the regions will be drawn.