In 1916, Woodrow Wilson created the National Park Service to oversee the care of parks like Sequoia, Yellowstone and Yosemite, which were still in their infancy. The mission: “To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and … leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
Nearly 100 years later, the grandeur of 388 national parks still reflects the very best of this nation, but too many of our parks are in a declining state of health and in desperate need of attention.
Budget shortfalls over the years have left us with dilapidated historic buildings in Gettysburg and Valley Forge, road repairs in Rocky Mountain and Glacier, cutbacks in public education programs at Acadia and Indiana Dunes, and poaching of plants and animals in Shenandoah and Joshua Tree. According to a new report by the National Parks Conservation Association, insufficient funding is a great threat to the health of the national parks today; the parks’ crippling operating shortfall exceeds $600 million annually.
But we have an opportunity to change that. In a country sharply divided along political lines, the national parks are one issue with bipartisan appeal. Save America’s Treasures – the only major bricks-and-mortar preservation program in the nation today – has used federal funding provided by the previous and current administrations to leverage donations from state and local governments, corporations, individuals and foundations to complete restoration projects in every state, thousands of communities, and many national parks, including Ellis Island; the Adams House in Quincy, Mass.; Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta; and Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado. If this $30 million program is not fully funded, our American legacy will be at risk.
Fortunately, President Bush and members of Congress recognize the value of the parks and the place they hold in the public’s heart. Last year, legislators increased national park budgets about 5 percent across the board, a welcome investment that should alleviate the hemorrhaging of staff and programs this summer. But it is not nearly enough to enable the Park Service to restore deteriorating structures, repair trails, conduct science and research, and hire enough rangers and interpreters.
Of course, park management is already doing its best to address these ills with the limited resources at hand by charging modest visitor fees and reinvesting those funds into programs; creating innovative partnerships (including one with the National Trust for Historic Preservation to restore the McGraw Ranch in Rocky Mountain National Park as a research center); employing high-tech systems to prevent poaching along the Blue Ridge Parkway; and inviting researchers to assess biodiversity in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Make no mistake: This is a 21st century operation, but it’s hampered by a mid-20th century budget.
To augment annual appropriations and programs such as Save America’s Treasures, a bipartisan group of members of Congress – Colorado’s Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar among them – have introduced groundbreaking legislation to restore the grandeur of our National Park System in time for its 100th anniversary. The National Park Centennial Act would give Americans the opportunity to simply check a box on their federal income tax returns and contribute a small portion of their refunds to preserve a treasured American institution. When paired with general Treasury funds, this voluntary donation would address the enormous backlog of maintenance projects and cultural and natural preservation needs facing national parks today.
American leaders of the last century like Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were wise enough to recognize the value of our nation’s history and landscape, and we are heir to their legacies. We owe it to future generations to ensure that awe-inspiring settings, archaeological wonders and battlefield parks are protected and can continue to teach and inspire us.
Richard Moe is president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Thomas Kiernan is president of the National Parks Conservation Association.
