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The towering giant sequoias at Yosemite聽National聽Park聽would go unprotected from visitors who might trample their shallow roots. At Cape Cod聽National聽Seashore, large sections of the Great Beach would close to keep eggs from being destroyed if natural resource managers are cut.

Gettysburg would decrease by one-fifth the numbers of school children who learn about the historic Pennsylvania battle that was a turning point in the Civil War.

As America's financial clock ticks toward forced spending cuts to countless government agencies, The Associated Press has obtained a聽National聽Park聽Service聽memo that compiles a list of potential effects at the聽nation's聽most beautiful and historic places just as spring vacation season begins.

"We're planning for this to happen and hoping that it doesn't," said聽Park聽Service聽spokesman Jeffrey Olson, who confirmed that the list is authentic and represents cuts the department is considering.

Park聽Service聽Director Jon Jarvis last month asked superintendents to show by Feb. 11 how they would absorb the 5 percent funding cuts. The memo includes some of those decisions.

While not all 398聽parks聽had submitted plans by the time the memo was written, a pattern of deep slashes that could harm resources and provide fewer protections for visitors has emerged.

In Yosemite聽National聽Park聽in California, for example,聽park聽administrators fear that less frequent trash pickup would potentially attract bears into campgrounds.

The cuts will be challenging considering they would be implemented over the next seven months 鈥� peak season for聽national聽parks. That's especially true in Yellowstone, where the summertime crush of millions of visitors in cars and RVs dwarfs those who venture into the聽park聽on snowmobiles during the winter.

More than 3 million people typically visit Yellowstone between May and September, 10 times as many as the聽park聽gets the rest of the year.

"This is a big, complex聽park, and we provide a lot of聽services聽that people don't realize," Yellowstone spokesman Al Nash said. "They don't realize we're also the water and wastewater treatment operators and that it's our job to patch potholes, for heaven's sake."

The memo says that in anticipation of the cuts, a hiring freeze is in place and the furloughing of permanent staff is on the table.

"Clear patterns are starting to emerge," the memo said. "In general,聽parks聽have very limited financial flexibility to respond to a 5 percent cut in operations."

Most of the聽Park聽Service's聽$2.9 billion budget is for permanent spending such as staff salaries, fuel, utilities and rent payments. Superintendents can use about 10 percent of their budgets on discretionary spending for things ranging from interpretive programs to historic-artifact maintenance to trail repair, and they would lose half of that to the 5 percent cuts.

"There's no fat left to trim in the聽Park聽Service聽budget," said John Garder of the nonprofit聽parks聽advocacy group the聽National聽Park聽Conservation Association. "In the scope of a year of federal spending, these cuts would be permanently damaging and save 15 minutes of spending."

For years Congress has been cutting funding to the聽National聽Park聽Service, and in today's dollars it is 15 percent less than a decade ago, said Garder, who is the nonprofit's budget and appropriations legislative representative in Washington, D.C.聽Park聽spending amounts to one-fourteenth of 1 percent of the federal budget, he said.

One in five international tourists visits one of America's 398聽national聽parks, research shows, and the聽parks聽are one-third of the top 25 domestic travel destinations. If the cuts go though, the memo shows聽national聽parks聽will notice fewer聽services, shorter hours and the placing of some sensitive areas completely off-limits to visitors when there are too few staff members to protect resources.

The聽Park聽Service聽also writes that communities around聽parks聽that depend on tourism to fill their hotels and restaurants would suffer.

Cape Cod聽National聽Seashore would close the Province Land Visitor Center, shutting out 260,000 people from May through October. Without monitors to watch over nesting birds, large sections of the Great Beach would close to keep eggs from being trampled.

The Great Smoky Mountains聽National聽Park聽will close five campgrounds and picnic areas, affecting 54,000 visitors.

The more than 300,000 visitors who use Grand Teton's Jenny Lake Visitor Center in Wyoming would be sent to other areas of the聽park. The聽park's聽nonprofit association would lose a quarter million dollars in sales.

In Yosemite聽National聽Park, maintenance reductions mean the 9,000-foot-high Tioga Pass, the聽park's聽only entrance from the east, would open later in the year because there would be no gas for snow plows or staff to operate them. The town of Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra depends on Yosemite traffic to fill its hotels and restaurants.

Even programs important to the long-term environmental health of spectacular places are in jeopardy. In Yosemite, an ongoing project to remove invasive plants from the entire 761,000 acres would be cut. The end of guided ranger programs in the sequoia grove would leave 35,000 visitors unsupervised among the sensitive giants. And 3,500 volunteers who provide 40,000 hours on resource management duties would be eliminated for lack of anyone to run the program.

骋濒补肠颈别谤听狈补迟颈辞苍补濒听笔补谤办听颈苍 Montana would delay the opening of the only road providing access to the entire聽park. When the Going-to-the-Sun Road has closed previously, it meant $1 million daily in lost revenue, the memo said.

Even Declaration House in Pennsylvania, the place where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, wouldn't be spared. Nor would comfort stations on the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi.

"We remain hopeful that Congress is able to avoid these cuts," said Olson, the聽national聽parks聽spokesman.

Associated Press writer Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyo., contributed to this report.