Legislation moving through the U.S. Senate would chip away at an estimated $12 billion in infrastructure needs within the National Park Service, which maintains more than 400 sites across the country.
Among the 850 organizations calling on Congress to pass the Great American Outdoors Act is the Pew Charitable Trusts. WAMC’s Jim Levulis spoke with Marcia Argust, who directs Pew’s efforts to restore America’s parks.
Argust: The park system is over 100-years-old. So it has been struggling with deteriorating facilities for decades now. We're talking about dilapidated historic buildings and Ranger housing, eroding trails and crumbling roads, and what you think of as traditional infrastructure like aging water and sewage systems, outdated campgrounds. So these have been long standing issues. You add to that, you know, visitors in the hundreds of millions that come to park sites each year, and inconsistent funding. And there is a backlog that the Park Service has been dealing with, and it's about $12 billion right now. So I don't think the pandemic has changed that. I think people because of the pandemic feel a connection to the outdoors, and to nature. That's undeniable right now. So they definitely are thinking about the values of our parks and public lands like, you know, perhaps they haven't in a while.
Levulis: And we last spoke in June 2019 about efforts in Congress to fund repairs at national parks. At the time, there were two pieces of legislation if I recall correctly, the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act and the Restore Our Parks Act that would have addressed some of those needs. Now there is also the Great American outdoors Act. Can you break down what these measures would do and the prospects of any of them passing?
Argust: The Great American Outdoors Act, which was legislation introduced in March of this year, combines several pieces of legislation that has been around for several Congresses before. Those pieces of legislation would invest up to $6.6 billion to restore our national parks and public lands, and they also would provide access to places for hunting and fishing, and also provide funds to build things like playgrounds and soccer fields across communities throughout the nation. That piece of legislation, the Great American Outdoors Act is moving its way to the Senate this week.
Levulis: And President Trump has said he will sign the Great American Outdoors Act. So does this represent the closest the nation has been to improving its national park systems in a while?
Argust: If this bill is enacted into law, it will be the most significant legislation to an impact of parks and public lands in over 50 years. And it will make a huge impact on jobs as well. It will be creating new jobs.
Levulis: And with everything the nation is facing right now: the coronavirus pandemic and its effects along with a renewed focus on racial injustice, why should the federal government act to fix our national parks right now?
Argust: Now more than ever is the time to pass a bill like this. I think our nation needs to see Congress passing a proactive piece of legislation that will create jobs. And it will also offer the Park Service the resources to preserve historic sites that will help the nation remember the highs and lows of our history and our history that is ever evolving.
Levulis: And has your research or any other research played out if repairs are not done? So this year, in the next, say handful of years, what the impacts of that will be on the national park system.
Argust: You know, it's difficult to quantify but what we do know is that if you don't invest dollars early on, that repairs become more expensive. It's like taking care of your car. If you don't change the oil regularly, and that's a pretty inexpensive thing to do, then you're going to have to replace the engine eventually. So take care of the resources now keep costs low. The other benefit of investing and enacting in this legislation is it parks our economic engines. Park tourism brings in $20 billion in direct spend into towns and cities around parks that generates almost 330,000 jobs each year. And that's just part of the total recreation economy. If you take into account hiking, boating manufactures, camping equipment, Hunting and fishing outfitters. The recreation economy contributes $778 billion in national economic output each year and generates 5.2 million American jobs. So this legislation is going to keep that economy strong. And that's so important right now.
