Two former secretaries of Interior blasted the Bush administration Tuesday for a "radical ideology" that will ultimately privatize public lands and resources by selling them to the highest bidder.

Bruce Babbitt, who served under President Clinton and Stewart Udall, who served in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, sounded alarms at the Bush administration's plan to outsource National Park and Forest Service jobs to private for-profit companies during a teleconference with reporters.

"They're going to dismantle the National Park Service as we know it," said Babbitt, who served as the governor of Arizona before his years heading the Interior.

Udall said that for the first time in a century, Washington has an administration that is emphatically "anti-conservation" and has done nothing positive for the environment.

The Babbitt and Udall teleconference follows last Thursday's Senate hearing about outsourcing before the National Parks Subcommittee where Park Service Director Fran Mainella testified the plan has been widely misunderstood.

Originally tasked with studying 1,708 NPS jobs for outsourcing by the end of fiscal year 2003, Mainella said that figure has been cut in half by the Office of Management and Budget, which gave the Park Service credit for 859 jobs already privatized.

The week before, the House of Representatives blocked funding for further outsourcing until Congress can determine the costs and implications to national parks. In response, Babbitt said, White House officials issued a veto threat if funds weren't restored for outsourcing.

Babbitt and Udall both acknowledged that there is a proper and appropriate role for private enterprise to handle certain jobs within the federal government. Road construction, lodging and food services within the National Park Service are already performed by private contractors, Babbitt said.

Babbitt drew the line at news the Bush administration is targeting the scientific, professional core of the National Park Service for outsourcing.

"Now they want to outsource archeology," he said, referring a NPS year-end deadline to decide whether to keep intact two archeological centers that provide the care and protection of natural heritage sites in 122 national parks in 22 states - including Yellowstone National Park.

Babbitt warned that private contractors for archeological services could well be less interested in the resource and more interested in profits, to the detriment of the nation's archeological treasures.

Babbitt and Udall praised the men and women of the Park Service, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management for their selfless dedication, stewardship and esprit de corps. Both said that under the Bush administration, morale at those agencies "is at an all-time low."

Udall, who said Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was "my hero," said the Bush administration's assault on the professionalism of federal workers was "not just an assault on civil service, but on the stewardship envisioned by Roosevelt" and Gifford Pinchot, the founder of the national forest system.

Babbitt said the drive to outsource federal jobs was part of a radical agenda that ultimately aims to sell public lands and resources "to the highest bidder."

This total privatization of public land is an idea advocated by Terry Anderson, executive director of the Political Economy Research Center in Bozeman, Mont.

Anderson believes in giving each American a deed to a proportionate share of the 600 million acres of land now managed by the federal government over the next 20 to 40 years. Share holders could homestead, sell, trade or donate shares as they see fit, Anderson has said.

Privatization, of public jobs or lands, flies in the face of a long-standing consensus which states that public lands are in the public interest and are best protected by public servants, Babbitt said.

U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., however, feels it is important the government keeps its options open as to how it can keep the cost of running the Park Service down.

"We all know that the Park Service faces many challenges while making America'92s treasures available for millions of visitors each year," said Thomas, chairman of the Parks Subcommittee of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

"Limited funds are available for maintenance, security, safety, and a variety of other activities. It'92s important we allow the administration the opportunity to evaluate government functions, and how best to use its funds," he said.

ON THE INTERNET: Testimony about competitive sourcing of jobs in the National Park Service can be found at http://energy.senate.gov/hearings/hearings.cfm/