Yellowstone, Yosemite and other National Parks

Dear Friends,

As a follow up to my post yesterday about the similarity between the policies of President Obama and President George W. Bush, it seems that funding for National Parks can be added to the list.  Here are the first three paragraphs of an article entitled "Obama's Promise and America's National Parks: A Source of Green Jobs and Growth" by Tom Kiernan at the Huffington Post (here): 

In 2008, President Obama made a campaign promise to restore our national parks: "I am committed to addressing the funding shortfall that the National Park Service has experienced."
He made this statement with good reason -- every federal dollar invested in national parks generates at least four dollars economic value to the public. With nearly 300 million visitors last year, Americans are finding our national parks fulfill their need for low-cost and affordable recreation. Visitation at our national parks across the country is up 5 percent since the recession hit. In a time of economic hardships, national parks are an investment in local economies and another source of green jobs. 


Despite these facts, and despite President Obama's 2008 campaign pledge, this Administration's current budget does not address the funding shortfall national parks are facing. Due to years of inadequate funding, national parks such as the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone face a $580 million operating shortfall and have accumulated a $9 billion backlog of deferred maintenance work. Over the last three years, the government began to restore the operations budget, recognizing the need for a multi-year commitment to improve the experiences of visitors, to grow local economies across the country, and to protect our national heritage.

The article goes on to explain what a terrific economic engine the National Parks are.  While the National Parks budget is less than one tenth of one percent but supports $13.3 billion in private sector economic activity and 262,000 private sector jobs.

Unfortunately for our National Parks and all the people that use them and all the people that would benefit from spending on our National Parks and our children and grandchildren, the Obama Administration is following the lead to the Bush Administration and underfunding the National Parks.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal