AUGUSTA, Maine – National parks in Maine and other states would get some much needed upkeep under a new bill in Congress.

The National Park Restoration Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, would help address the national parks maintenance backlog of more than $11 billion, through money raised from energy production on federal lands.

It's an important issue for Mainers like state Sen. Brian Langley, R-Ellsworth, who owns the Union River Lobster Pot near Acadia National Park. Langley says besides their natural and historical significance, national parks fuel local economies.

"Having Acadia National Park in Maine is akin to putting the milk in the back of the store,” he says. “People come all the way through Maine to get to Acadia National Park, and they stop along the way and buy gas and eat, and stay overnight. And so for many, many of us, it's an important part of our summer business."

It's estimated that in 2016, visitors spent more than $275 million in the gateway communities to Maine's four national parks, generating over 4,500 jobs. But in 2017, the maintenance backlog in the Maine parks topped $60 million.

Marcia Argust, project director with The Pew Charitable Trusts' "Restore America's Parks" program, says with this legislation, Congress now has a number of bipartisan initiatives that would provide funds to fix national parks. She believes it demonstrates that Congress and the Trump administration are listening to the public.

"They understand that parks preserve our history, and they understand that parks are important for the economics of local communities,” says Argust. “So, I think the outpouring of support from these voices is being heard."

The National Park Restoration Act would create a fund for high-priority deferred maintenance needs, using half of onshore and offshore revenue from energy production on federal lands not already allocated to other uses.

Langley is convinced it's a smart move.

"That is such a fair trade, that those companies and people that are looking to extract oil, that those fees and such be turned back into preserving and up keeping and maintaining these pristine parts of our country."

A 2017 report commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts found that more than 110,000 jobs could be created or supported by addressing the maintenance backlog.


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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Conservation groups, tribes and community organizers are praising President Joe Biden's decision Thursday to expand two national monuments in California.

Together, the monuments will gain about 120,000 acres. The Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument is 90 minutes northwest of Sacramento and the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument lies just east of Los Angeles.

Brenda Gallegos, public lands manager for the nonprofit Hispanic Access Foundation, said millions of urban families live close to the San Gabriel Mountains.

"A lot of our Latino communities don't have access to nature, prominently, like 67% of Latino communities don't have access to green spaces or blue spaces," Gallegos pointed out. "Having these expansions designated today brings us closer to closing that nature gap."

The president used his powers under the Antiquities Act to expand the monuments in order to increase public access and protect the watershed and wildlife habitat. The move also makes progress toward Biden's goal of protecting 30% of the country's public lands by 2030.

Gallegos said Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in Lake County will include an area previously known as Walker Ridge, now renamed Moluk Loyuk, which means Condor Ridge in the Patwin tribal language.

"This is important because it establishes a co-stewardship with federally recognized tribes and will return the indigenous names of these lands to them," Gallegos explained. "This continues to build that great relationship with tribes."

Land managers will now create a new management plan for the area, which could include new campsites, hiking and mountain biking trails, and even off-highway vehicle-designated routes.

The Bureau of Land Management recently released its final Public Lands Rule, which is set to put conservation on equal footing with other multiple uses taking place on public lands.

The state of Utah has come out in opposition, pointing to the impact it could have on the almost 23 million acres of BLM land in Utah.

Redge Johnson, director of the Utah Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, said the state supports conservation efforts but called the rule a "solution looking for a problem."

"What we have already put into conservation designations and then what you have for the acts that promote the conservation of the lands, why do you need to level that playing field?" Johnson questioned. "The playing field has more than leveled over the past 40, 50 years with the passage of all these acts."

Johnson contended Utah's lands and wildlife will suffer as a result of the rule and added it'll make mining critical metals used for batteries even more difficult. He and others, like Gov. Spencer Cox, called on the BLM to immediately withdraw the rule and work with stakeholders on more practical solutions.

Conservationists see the rule as a big win for restoring and sustaining public lands for future generations.

Johnson described Utah's public lands a "fire dependent ecosystem," adding fuel loads have accumulated drastically due to over a century's worth of fire suppression. He argued the rule will make executing and continuing vegetation management projects more difficult, including reducing the threats posed by fuel loads.

"One of the biggest contributors we have to carbon dioxide right now are wildfires, at least in the West," Johnson asserted. "Transportation, all the others, yes absolutely. But wildfires are a huge contributing factor to that. One of the best things we could do is reduce the fuel loads on some of these areas to reduce the fire risk and this rule puts that at risk."

The rule also creates the frameworks for "restoration and mitigation leases," which will allow groups to restore public lands or to offset the effects of a particular use. Johnson argued the leases will leave too many loopholes but the BLM said they will not "disturb existing authorizations."


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Conservation groups are rejoicing over the decision Friday by the Biden administration to reject a proposed mining road in Alaska.

The 211-mile Ambler Road would have sliced through the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, severing the migration route for a Western Arctic Caribou herd.

Alex Johnson, interior Alaska director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said it was important for the feds to take a stand in Alaska so mining interests do not start eyeing other national parks.

"This is a very expensive, destructive and just highly speculative project that does not in any way support our clean energy goals as a country," Johnson contended. "And ultimately would permanently threaten the health and well-being of local communities and the tribes."

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski slammed the decision, warning it could limit jobs and tax revenues for Alaska by preventing exploration for minerals she said are important to national security, like copper, cobalt, gallium and germanium.

Jayme Dittmar, a photographer and filmmaker from Fairbanks, said the road would have been very disruptive to the 66 Native American villages along the proposed route.

"That'd be 168 trucks passing through close vicinity to the villages," Dittmar pointed out. "There would be hundreds of bridges built. It would dismantle a subsistence livelihood that's been in place for thousands and thousands of years."

The road was seen as a negative for tourism to the Brooks Range area. According to the Alaska Travel Industry Association, Californians make up 9% of visitors to Alaska.