Funding National Parks 1

Funding National Parks

Jonathan Bussey

SLS 3103-M50

28 June 2019
Funding National Parks 2

Funding National Parks

A topic that has been constantly debated for the last few years is the lack of funding for

the National Parks in America. These world-class public lands provide amazing economic

benefits to communities across the country, they also provide natural and historic value of the

iconic places they abide in. Many people visit these national parks every day, so should they be

the ones who are responsible for paying for the parks and the required services? There is also a

large amount of tourism from international visitors, should they be required to pay for them?

What about the large amount of people that do no utilize the national parks, should they still be

required to pay for something that they do not use? Should the government continue to solely be

responsible for the funding of these national treasures? In this paper, I will discuss why National

Park funding is a current issue and I will address how the lack of funding has been an issue in

recent years with statistics that reflect how different people are involved or affected by funding,

or lack thereof.

Lack of Funding for U.S. National Parks

National Park funding is a current issue, specifically in the United States, for a number of

reasons. First of all, most people see the benefit of funding National Parks, but the budget is

continuing to decline. According to the article, Support Increased National Funding, “polling

consistently has shown that Americans- Republicans, Democrats and Independents- want and

expect national parks to be adequately funded” (Support Increased National Park Funding). Even

though the majority of people want the parks to be properly funded, they still are insufficiently

funded, in fact, the budget has declined. The National Parks Conservation Agency, also known as

the NPCA, states that, “There has been more than a 7%, or $173 million-dollar reduction in the
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account to operate national parks and more than a 12%, or $364 million-dollar reduction in the

total budget for the National Park Service over the last five years in today’s dollars”

(Background: The Economics of National Parks). Not only is the budget for National Park

funding not increasing, but it seems to be drastically decreasing over time. Lack of funding

causes a series of problems: maintenance backlog, decrease in jobs, decrease in tourism, and

more. Another reason why National Park funding is a current issue is because of the upcoming

Presidential Election. The NPCA stated in an article, “The Trump Administration would have

seriously undercut these priceless national treasures in its in 2017 proposed budget by slashing

National Park Service funding by 13 percent - a move that did not pass congress, but if enacted,

would have represented the biggest cut to the agency’s budget since World War II” (Support

Increased National Park Funding). President Trump may be a good business man and a strong

leader in certain aspects, but what does it say to all of the park workers, park volunteers, daily

park attendees, and thousands of tourists, national and international, that visit the parks each

year? It seems to set the precedent that we do not care about these national treasures that provide

our nation with economic, historic and natural benefits. This could potentially become a topic up

for debate in the upcoming elections- which candidates are simply interested in maintaining the

current budget, which want to make advancements in order to increase the budget? Hopefully, no

candidates or parties would be interested in lowering the budget even more, especially

considering how National Parks are booming with visitors. The NPCA stated in an article, “Parks

have seen a 19 percent increase in visitation over the last five years, yet the park system has seen

an 11 percent reduction in staff during the same time period” (Support Increased National Park

Funding). Can you imagine the repercussions of an increase in Park Visitors, while funds

continually diminish? Another reason why National Park funding is a current issue is because of
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the recent government shutdown. Late in December of 2018 the Government shutdown, which

lasted through late January 2019. It was provoked by the Trump Administration and also caused

the national parks to go untended in certain areas. While there isn’t much information about the

most recent government shutdown, the NPCA gave statistics about the government shutdown in

October of 2013. It states, “the shutdown demonstrated the immense economic importance of

national parks, with a loss of nearly 10 million visitors, costing local communities and businesses

$414 million in visitor spending alone” (Background: The Economics of National Parks).

In Previous Years

All Americans are involved in funding National Parks. National Parks are funded by taxpayers.

According to the NPCA, “national parks cost us very little: the entire budget for the National

Park Service is a tiny 1/15th of one percent of the federal budget and the average American

Household pays as much for our national parks each year as it would cost to buy a cup of coffee”

(Background: The Economics of National Parks). Even though it currently costs individuals very

little, Americans have varying opinions on future funding for the parks. For example, the

Democratic Party Platform believes in “the conservation and collaborative stewardship of our

shared natural heritage…” (Party Platform, 2016). The democratic website says that,

Democrats will work to establish an American Parks Trust Fund to help expand

local, state, and national recreational opportunities, rehabilitate existing parks, and

enhance America’s great outdoors—from our forests and coasts to neighborhood parks—

so “America’s Best Idea” is held in trust for future generations, and all Americans can

access and enjoy natural spaces. Democrats are committed to doubling the size of the

outdoor economy, creating nearly hundreds of billions of dollars in new economic

activity and millions of new jobs. (Party Platform, 2016).

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The Democratic Party has a strong approach to conserving public lands and waters in hopes of

reflecting the diversity of our nation. In comparison, the Republican approach to national park

funding as a part of the platform is not as straightforward as the Democratic Party platform.

The federal government owns or controls over 640 million acres of land in the

United States, most of which is in the West. These are public lands, and the public should

have access to them for appropriate activities like hunting, fishing, and recreational

shooting. Federal ownership or management of land also places an economic burden on

counties and local communities in terms of lost revenue to pay for things such as schools,

police, and emergency services. It is absurd to think that all that acreage must remain

under the absentee ownership or management of official Washington. Congress shall

immediately pass universal legislation providing for a timely and orderly mechanism

requiring the federal government to convey certain federally controlled public lands to

states (Republican National Committee, 2016).

Basically, the Republican Party believes that the public should have access to appropriate

activities on public lands. It draws attention to the weight placed on the states and counties that

house the national parks. It sees national park funding as a burden, because it drains money that

would pay for other government facilities: i.e., schools, police and emergency services. Although

the Democrats and Republicans have differing platform policies on funding national parks, they

both agree that they need to pay for updates on the national parks. In July 2018, the New York

Times reported that “the top Republican and Democrat on the House Natural Resources

Committee on Wednesday celebrated a deal to pay for billions of dollars of repairs and

maintenance in national parks” and that “lawmakers of both parties, introduced legislation to pay

for repairs with money the government collects from the development of oil, natural gas, wind,
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and solar energy on public lands” (Siegel, 2018). The parks were having bridges falling apart,

streets full of potholes, and pipes constantly leaking. This was the final straw for both political

parties that made them realize how important it is to increase the funding for our national parks.

Another group of people who are often impacted by the lack of funding for national parks are the

park employees. The NPCA stated in an article, “due to years of congressional underfunding, the

National Park Service lacks the resources it needs to fully staff its parks and programs, address

more than $11 billion in repair needs, provide routine maintenance, and protect the country’s

world-class resources” (Position on Shutdown Impacts to National Parks). As mentioned

previously, the parks have seen a high number in visitation over the past few years, but also a

high reduction in staffing within the same time frame. This goes to show that the parks cannot

survive off the current budget, but the budget needs to be increased, in order to staff more

employees to accompany the large influx of visitors.

Resolution. Our national parks have been a major role in funding since they initially

began. After researching how national parks’ funding has been neglected, I believe that we

should budget more money from the taxpayers’ dollars to adequately fund the parks. This is the

only fair option that we could use without raising taxes or raising the prices to enter the parks.

Another option would be to charge people for the entrance to parks that were previously free for

public use. An example would be if Shelby Farms Park, in Memphis, decided to charge visitors

to enter the park. I believe as fellow Americans we cannot sit by any longer and be okay with our

parks not being funded adequately with staff, repairs, and day to day operations.
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References

Background: The Economics of National Parks. (n.d.). Retrieved June 20, 2019, from

https://www.npca.org/articles/832-background-the-economics-of-national-parks.

Party Platform. (2016). Retrieved June 26, 2019, from https://democrats.org/about/party-

platform/#climate-justice.

Republican National Committee. (2016). Retrieved June 26, 2019, from

https://www.gop.com/platform/americas-natural-resources/.

Siegel, J., & Walsh. (2018, July 25). Republicans, Democrats agree they 'can't wait any longer' to

fix crumbling national parks. Retrieved June 26, 2019, from

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/republicans-democrats-agree-they-

cant-wait-any-longer-to-fix-crumbling-national-parks.

Support Increased National Park Funding. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2019, from

https://www.npca.org/advocacy/21-support-increased-national-park-funding.