[Y] Yellowstone, Yosemite and other National Parks

Dear Friends,

It is a gorgeous day here in Minnesota.  The sky is a perfect blue with just a few puffy clouds, the temperature is in the mid-70s and the humidity is low.  I walked around one of the beautiful lakes in Minneapolis this morning, and it was perfect.  It does not get much better than a gorgeous day walking around a beautiful lake in the middle of a city.  So I have been thinking about how wonderful it is to have public parks and what a great community asset they are.  I wanted to see how we are doing today to protect and preserve our wonderful parks.  After a short search, my sunny outlook on life turned to gloomy despair.

An article by Tom Kiernan from February 2010 at the Huffington Post (here) contains several interesting and/or disturbing facts.

• In 2009 almost 300 million people visited our National Parks up about 5% from the year before.
• At the time of the article, the National Park Service faced a $580 million operating shortfall and a $9 billion deferred maintenance backlog.
• While the National Park Service budget is only one tenth of one percent of the federal budget it produces $13.3 billion in private sector economic activity and 267,000 private sector jobs.

In 2008, candidate Obama responded to a question from the National Parks Conservation Association (here) as follows:

I am committed to addressing the funding shortfall that the National Parks Service has experienced, and ensuring that by 2016, the National Parks Service centennial, the national park system has the resources it needs to meet its unmet maintenance and operational needs.

Nevertheless according to a National Parks Conservation Association press release (here), President Obama 2011 budget proposal  included cuts to the Park Service.

The President’s 2011 budget request for the National Park Service is approximately $2.7 billion—a decrease of $21.6 million over the current fiscal year 2010 budget. Within the total budget, nearly $100 million in park programs are reduced or eliminated—including Save America’s Treasures and Preserve America grants—and parks are left without funding to pay for cost of living adjustments for staff.  The operations budget proposal does not come close to meeting the $100 million request by the National Park Second Century Commission, and is insufficient to maintain current park operations and visitor services. The budget also includes a $44 million decrease for construction and maintenance needs. Budget reductions mean that the proposed $35 million increase for park operations fails to fund basic Park Service needs.

According to the National Priorities Project (here) the budget deal in April 2011 cut the National Park Service budget by 4.7%.  What will happen in the current atmosphere of slashing government spending created by the Republicans and adopted by President Obama is not yet known, but it will not be good for our parks, the economy or our country.

A very rough calculation demonstrates that spending on our National Parks not only preserves and protects an incredible community asset, it has a very stimulative impact on our economy.  I understand that I am using numbers from different years but that does not change the analysis.  With a budget of less than $2.7 billion, the spending of that money by the National Park Service creates $13.3 billion in private sector economic activity. That means that for every $1 the Park Service spends, $5 of private economic activity is created.  That is a great stimulus program.

Spending money on our parks is good for the economy, good for future generations and good for our souls.  It is a perfect deal.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal