Every visitor to the Waco Mammoth Site hears tragic tales of prehistoric times concerning mighty mammoths caught in floods or mudslides near the Bosque. Some tell of older mammoths in one event seeking to lift a baby mammoth to safety with their tusks, even as catastrophe consumed them.

But there’s a greater truth we can glean from the Waco Mammoth Site. The remains of the extinct Columbian mammoths are an indication of that species’ ultimate inability to adapt to sharply changing times. Is there, we wonder, a lesson we can gain from those brittle remains as we consider our nation’s self-destructive ways and our stubborn refusal to reinvent ourselves?

We think so, particularly in light of the National Park Service’s written testimony this week questioning efforts to dub the Waco Mammoth Site a bona fide national monument. The park service is certainly justified in posing such questions, given that lawmakers propose to reinvent the model for national monuments in an era of federal deficits and national debt.

Because of drastic cuts needed in federal expenditures, U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, R-Bryan, and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, conservatives both, propose to make the Waco Mammoth Site a national monument except that, unlike present federal monuments, this one would be maintained by the city of Waco, local taxpayers and donors.

Yet because the legislation stipulates the Waco Mammoth Site cannot be federally funded, national park officials demurred, suggesting that, due to the bill’s language, their using even the phone in the administration of making this site a national monument could technically jeopardize the project.

Result: stalemate.

We lament this turn of events, especially as we know the park service believes in the value of this site, just as we believe in the National Park Service. We would implore it, however, to acknowledge this grim period of austerity. We ask that park officials be open to new solutions to offer Americans unique parks and monuments like the Waco Mammoth Site — and that they work both meaningfully and sincerely with Flores, Cornyn and city of Waco officials to clear up any confusion in the bill.

Federal officials surely have every incentive to seek new models for operating national sites, even while demanding that park standards be met. The National Park Service has a $10.8 billion maintenance backlog for existing sites with more than 2,800 structures reportedly in poor shape. In this tough fiscal climate, park officials should be particularly motivated to explore any notion that expands offerings, yet doesn’t authorize additional federal funding burdens.

If times were better, revenue more plentiful, business flourishing and citizens more confident, we might say differently. But these are hard times that demand new ways of doing things. We ask that national park officials recognize our ability, willingness and enthusiasm to adapt to these times — something that the mighty Columbian mammoths of times long past sadly proved incapable of doing.