Hey gang, I'm around, just busy with wildlife work.
In regards to Pinnacles becoming a park: officially as a federal employee I'm not supposed to have a position on the issue one way or another, especially since nothing is set in stone at this point.
Unofficially as a public citizen and a climber, I think it is likely that Pinnacles will shift from a national monument to a national park, possibly by the end of the year. The legislation has stalled a bit in the Senate after passing through the House, but it sounds like this is due to other political maneuverings / deals and not the legislation itself, so the legislation will quite likely pass before the end of the year.
In terms of regulations and such, there is no inherent difference between National Parks and National Monuments; they both manage federal land in the same way. National Parks are created by an act of Congress, versus National Monuments which are created by an executive order from the President. For Pinnacles, there shouldn't be any resulting permitting or regulation changes if it is made into a National Park.
That said, most folks I work with aren't thrilled about the NP idea for Pinnacles. It will likely mean more visitors without an increase in resources / budget here to deal with the increased visitor presence and impacts (in other words, the resources will likely get more hammered). However, park staff don't really have any say in what Congress decides to do with the legislation, so we'll have to wait and see.
On the national level (and unrelated to the Pinnacles legislation), there will likely be new guidance on park wilderness in the near future, and what is allowed within the designated wilderness at Pinnacles (which comprises most of the park property), but again, staff and management actually working at Pinnacles aren't the folks making those decisions, so we'll have to wait and see what comes out of that process as well.
