National Parks Traveler: “America The Beautiful Act Has Good Intentions, But...”
RFF Senior Fellow Margaret Walls discusses some of the issues plaguing national parks.
“’I think the money that was already allocated has had some impact, where projects have been completed. But it’s a drop in the bucket,’ said [Margaret] Walls. ‘Annual appropriations for the National Park Service (~$3 billion) are woefully inadequate and that’s why we have a deferred maintenance problem in the first place. We need a serious discussion about how we fund our national parks to come up with a better long-run solution. And what the system should look like, how we add new units, etc., should be part of that discussion.’
Walls also offered that ‘people might also be increasingly skeptical of the deferred management number and where it comes from, how it’s calculated, and so forth. Of course it’s risen, if for no other reason than inflation alone (and construction sector supply chain and workforce challenges which also contribute), but I think people feel it is more art than science.’”
