Kerry Promises Funding Boost for National Parks

GRAND CANYON, Arizona, August 10, 2004 (ENS) - The national parks are suffering as a result of neglect and broken promises by the Bush administration, Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry said Monday.

During a campaign stop at the Grand Canyon, Kerry renewed his pledge to boost funding for the national park system $600 million over five years and linked protection of the parks with economic stability for nearby communities.

"Protecting our parks is not just about doing what is right to preserve these national treasures," Kerry said. "It is also about protecting our economy, our quality of life and strengthening communities across the country. They are all connected."

Some 266 million people visited national parks in 2003, according to the National Park Service, and spent an estimated $10 billion during their visits.

The Kerry campaign says tourism around the national parks generated $4.5 billion in wages, salaries, and benefits and supported 267,000 jobs.

The Grand Canyon of the Colorado River (Photo courtesy Park Service)

Kerry pledged to pay for the $600 million increase by collecting royalties from companies who extract valuable minerals from public lands.

The mining industry, thanks to the 1872 Mining Law, currently does not pay any royalties on the approximately $1 billion in minerals it extracts each year from public lands.

Kerry said President George W. Bush has not met his pledge to take care of the park system's $5 billion maintenance backlog and has wasted money on misguided efforts such as studies on privatizing some National Park Service jobs.

The Democratic presidential nominee said he would end such studies and would tighten clean air and water regulations in order to protect the natural ecosystems of the parks.

More than four million people visited the Grand Canyon last year. (Photo courtesy )

The Bush campaign said the President inherited a park system in disarray and has shown a strong commitment to the national parks in difficult economic times.

"President Bush has provided record funding levels for America's national parks," said Bush-Cheney campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt, who characterized Kerry's comments as "misleading attacks."

A report issued last month by the National Park Service showed that the current park service operations budget of $1.8 billion is an historic high and is 20 percent higher than when Bush took office in 2001.

The report highlights the Bush administration's creation of a database to track and prioritize the maintenance needs of the parks and the $2.9 billion it has spent on maintenance projects.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton, on several occasions in recent months, has said "the budget has more funds per employee, per acre, and per visitor than at any time in the history of the National Park Service."

President George W. Bush pitched in with some trail maintenance last year, but questions remain about his parks policy. (Photo by Paul Morse courtesy The White House)

According to the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees, in the past three years total employment in the park service has dropped, the number of visitors has declined and the acreage of the park system has remained static.

The coalition agrees the current appropriation from Congress is the largest in the park service's history, but says more than 85 percent of the parks started out this year with a smaller base operating budgets than in the last year.

And the Bush administration has siphoned off operating funds for other purposes, the coalition says. During the Bush tenure, more than $170 million in Park Service operating funds have been diverted to pay for damage from Hurricane Isabel, homeland security and Congressionally mandated pay increases.

In addition, park advocates challenge the administration's pledge that it has spent some $2.9 billion on the maintenance backlog. The National Parks Conservation Association says only $662 million of that figure has been new money.

Few doubt that the National Park Service has a huge task. It manages 388 parks, 26,000 historic structures and buildings, 8,500 monuments, 12,000 miles of trail, 5,500 miles of paved road and 6,000 miles of unpaved roads.

The agency has been historically underfunded. When adjusted for inflation the Park Service's operating budget has dropped some 20 percent in the past 25 years.

During this time the park system has increased by more than 50 units and annual visitors have increased some 60 million.

Supporters of Kerry's plan note much of it will depend on Congressional approval, and if the $600 million over five years is approved, it will only begin to make a dent in what many park advocates believe is necessary to fully restore and preserve the national park system.

The operating budget for the parks faces an annual shortfall of $600 million in addition to the maintenance backlog, conservationists maintain.