Bills Address Nat'l. Parks' Maintenance, Including $127 Million in Oregon
Eric Tegethoff, Producer
Monday, June 24, 2019
PORTLAND, Ore. – Efforts continue in Congress to address the big maintenance backlog in the country's national parks.
Deferred maintenance in the parks totals nearly $12 billion, including more than $127 million in Oregon.
Separate bills in the House and Senate would begin to cover the backlog with revenue from energy development on public lands.
Sue Densmore, executive director of Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau, says the national monument has some funding, but still requires about $18 million, especially on its trails.
She says if Oregon Caves doesn’t get support, it will have to close trails and would have had to close the historic chateau without current funding.
"And that's the most important thing – the public owns the parks,” she states. “It's their opportunity to come there. We hope that they would always want to come there. But we also have to make sure on the other side that they're safe and accessible to everyone who would like to visit."
In 2018, 1.3 million park visitors spent $94 million in communities surrounding National Park Service lands in Oregon.
Densmore says the caves help support the regional economy in southern Oregon, which is largely rural. Nationwide, 318 million people visited national parks and spent $20 billion in local economies last year.
Phil Francis chairs The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, which is made up of current and former Park Service employees and volunteers.
He says Congress needs to address the maintenance backlog and also ensure operational funds to parks so that they never are in this position again.
Francis says the parks are a special part of America, and he has fond memories of visiting Crater Lake when he was 18.
"I'll never forget being on a bus with a bunch of my classmates and seeing two feet of snow on the ground in July in Oregon at Crater Lake,” he recalls. “Yet there were tons of people. And I'm sure one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen is looking down at the lake itself."
Densmore says Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve has such a big impact on folks that they come back decades later and still remember the name of their tour guides when they first visited.
"We say that it's a visit they remember for a lifetime,” she states. “Now we have many people that are coming who maybe their grandparents brought them. Maybe they came in the station wagon and brought a picnic. And for some reason they never forget the opportunity to come there."
Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
get more stories like this via email
United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…
Social Issues
The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …
Environment
Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …
Environment
April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …
Health and Wellness
The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …
Environment
Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …