PD Editorial: Safeguarding national parks for another 100 years

Are we loving our parks to death?

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, in a speech this week marking the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, said climate change and armed extremists aren’t the only threats to America’s public lands. With little money available for upgrades or even routine maintenance, she warned, national parks and heritage sites are falling into disrepair.

“Our national parks are being visited in record numbers - 307 million visitors last year alone, and this year is going to be higher,” Jewell told an audience at the National Geographic Society in Washington. “But our maintenance backlog, nearing $12 billion, is also at record levels. And budget crunches have left our national parks and public lands understaffed and struggling to keep up with day-to-day operations.”

Sound familiar?

California’s cash-strapped state parks are deteriorating, and so are city and county parks. People love parks, but most parks don’t pay for themselves. And when budgets get squeezed and elected officials must choose, parks often get little more than lip service while finite dollars are earmarked for law enforcement, education and safety net programs.

That’s defensible, but it also explains shabby conditions in public parks.

From Acadia National Park in Maine to Point Reyes National Seashore, the 400-plus sites of the national park system showcase nature’s majesty and offer opportunities for outdoor recreation and lessons in American history. Often overlooked is the contribution to nearby communities.

Citing a soon-to-be released report, Jewell said national parks generated $32 billion in economic activity last year. “They did that on a budget of about $3 billion,” she said, “meaning that for every dollar invested in the national parks, taxpayers saw a 10-to-1 return on investment.”

Jewell also announced a broader study that will calculate the economic impact of outdoor recreation. “Industry estimates show that consumer spending for outdoor recreation is almost equal to pharmaceuticals, motorcycles and their parts combined,” she said. “And yet the federal government has never fully recognized or quantified these benefits.”

Congress should allocate more for parks and public lands. So should the state and local governments. But it’s unlikely that it will be enough to meet the growing need to repair infrastructure and improve visitor experiences, so park systems also need private partners and, yes, financial support from their patrons.

Jewell identified another concern: park visitors tend to be baby boomers - or older.

“We haven’t found a way to connect with the young people of today, who are more diverse, more tech savvy and more disconnected from nature than ever before,” she said, further noting that “kids today, 6 to 18, spend 56 hours a week in front of a screen and, on average, only 30 minutes a week in an unstructured outside play.”

Everyone is invited to visit national parks for free through Sunday as part of the centennial celebration. There are a dozen Park Service sites near Santa Rosa, including Muir Woods and the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park.

Take a look and see what Jewell aptly described as “the most valuable assets that we collectively own.” Then ask yourself what can be done to support and protect the parks for another 100 years.