Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a periodic series about regional issues that were examined in the 2005 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card.
Our national parks – the crown jewels of the nation’s natural and cultural endowment – score highly with the public as places of solace, inspiration and recreation. Indeed, our love for them, as shown by the 277 million visitors in 2004, is outstripping our ability to maintain their physical infrastructure, and we have yet to inventory maintenance needs.
Beyond their value to the citizens of the nation, national parks are also vital to the regions where they are located. Colorado’s newest national park is the Great Sand Dunes in the San Luis Valley. Its elevation in status from national monument to national park involved a 290 percent increase in acreage and a reshaping of the park’s boundaries along ecosystem lines. The newly acquired park status may add 25,000 annual visitors to current yearly visits of some 230,000. The San Luis Valley’s regional economy will certainly benefit as new visitors spend an estimated $1.7 million in the region each year, resulting in a net economic impact of $2.4 million annually. This is an economic boost to a region where in some counties 23 percent of the population is below the poverty line.
But despite their value as national assets and economic stimuli, we continue to neglect our national parks. At the Great Sand Dunes alone, there are more than $4 million worth of maintenance needs, according to the State of the Rockies Project calculations. Some 42 percent of these maintenance problems will likely remain unmet even after five years of currently planned repair and rehabilitation projects. Other Colorado national park units face similar challenges as visits increase and facilities require additional repairs.
Fortunately, concern over the growing backlog of maintenance needs at our national parks has more recently prompted greater attention and increased visibility. In the halls of Congress, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar and Congressman Mark Udall have played important roles in introducing the bipartisan National Park Centennial Act, aimed at making our national parks fiscally sound by the Park Service’s 100th birthday in 2016. The bill, if passed, would allow citizens to devote a portion of their federal income tax refunds to a temporary park service Centennial Fund.
For Colorado parks, the possibility of new funding could not come at a better time. The 2005 Colorado College State of the Rockies Report Card grades each park unit in the Rocky Mountains on its current level of deferred maintenance and the government’s five-year plan to work down these maintenance needs. Grades for major parks in Colorado include: Great Sand Dunes National Park: C; Rocky Mountain National Park: C-; Colorado National Monument: D+; Dinosaur National Monument: D; and Mesa Verde National Park: F.
If we can overcome the current backlog problems, it is still possible for our parks to become fiscally sound. New software has enabled the park service to systematically inventory physical facility assets and apply industry standards for preventive maintenance, cyclical maintenance, replacement and prioritization of improvements. Cost-effective decisions that use an asset priority index are in place at every park unit, enabling planners to efficiently address current and future maintenance needs. More than 60 percent of the potential Centennial Fund would be allocated towards maintenance needs detected and prioritized by this new system.
Cultural resources for the first time stand to gain significant funding as well. The other 40 percent of funds allocated under the new bill would be earmarked for natural and cultural resource needs at the parks, everything from curtailing invasive species to maintaining archeological sites. However, while plans to alleviate problems with physical facilities have made significant headway, cultural resources are still waiting in the wings. Consider that:
In fiscal year 2004 the Park Service’s cultural resources cyclical maintenance program was eliminated and joined with the facilities cyclical program, leaving cultural resource preservation largely in the hands of facilities personnel rather than trained preservationists. This allows the $10.4 million earmarked nationally for cultural resource cyclical maintenance to be diverted to other maintenance needs.
The goal to increase the number of archaeological sites inventoried by 22 percent since fiscal year 1999 was not met nationally, largely because sites had been destroyed during that time period.
Tradeoffs in meeting the new demands of preventing a terrorist attack at the nation’s iconic parks may be leaving natural resource management needs behind. Budget increases for environmental monitoring, restoration and preservation have dropped from about 33 percent of all additional funds during the Clinton administration to roughly 4 percent now, while counter-terrorism spending topped out at 44 percent of all increases during fiscal year 2003.
Canyonlands National Park in Utah, a favorite springtime destination of Colorado residents, provides a prime example of the inadequacies of our current funding for parks. Renowned for its unique archaeological resources, the park has never conducted a full inventory to identify them. Three out of every five historic structures are said to be failing, and the park’s maintenance backlog is estimated at more than $1.5 million. The park service has proposed a $61,500 project for fiscal year 2006 under the heading of “Repair Headquarters Security/Gate System – Anti-Terrorism.”
As the National Park Service prepares for another 100 years of administering our cherished cultural and natural resources, we ought to embrace the proposed voluntary measures in the Centennial National Park Act that will generate much-needed private investments in our national heritage.
Go to www.coloradocollege.edu/stateoftherockies for more information.
Patrick Holmes is program coordinator for the 2005 Colorado College State of the Rockies Project. Christie Renner is a student researcher.
