Annual List Identifies 10 Most Endangered U.S. Parks

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, January 14, 2004 (ENS) - The National Parks Conservation Association today released its annual report of the nation's 10 most endangered national parks, a list that includes four new additions and six parks that are still suffering by persistent problems. The organization says these parks are endangered by air pollution, inadequate funding and flawed federal policies enacted by the Bush administration.

The holdovers on the sixth annual list include some of the nation's most famous national parks - Yellowstone, Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains and the Everglades - as well as Joshua Tree National Park and the Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas.

The new additions to the list include Alaska's Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Arizona's Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Florida's Biscayne National Park and a Park Service program designed to preserve and research sites and artifacts associated with the Underground Railroad.

"Four years ago, Candidate Bush promised to 'restore and renew' our national parks," said NPCA President Thomas Kiernan. "It is time for Congress and the administration to follow through on that pledge."

Yellowstone National Park kept its spot on the annual list of the nation's 10 most endangered parks. (Photo courtesy NPCA)

Funding remains a primary concern for the future of the national parks, NPCA says, on average U.S. national parks are operating with only two thirds of the needed funding.

NPCA says the Park Service needs $600 million more annually to adequately manage the national park system and contends Bush has failed to fulfill a promise to fully fund the system's $4.9 billion maintenance backlog.

The Bush administration has spent an estimated $370 million in new money on the maintenance backlog and in the last three years the total Park Service budget has increased on average by one percent. Critics note the agency's budget was increasing at an annual rate of nine percent at the end of the 1990s.

"Our national heritage deserves attention as much as the space program," Kiernan said.

In addition, NPCA says the parks are threatened by the administration's revisions to federal clean air laws, its move to outsource some of the Park Service's duties, as well as by regulations that could lead to new road building in national parks.

Yellowstone is on the top 10 endangered list, NPCA says, because the nation's oldest national park is threatened by pressure to continue snowmobile use, inadequate funding for daily operations, and a flawed policy that allows the park's bison to be killed by federal and state officials when the animals wander off parklands in search of food.

The organization kept Everglades National Park on the list because it believes the $30 billion federal state restoration plan fails to emphasize ecological recovery. The Everglades is also suffering from insufficient funding and inadequate boundaries, NPCA says.

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

Senator John Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat who is a contender for his party's Presidential nomination, said, “This study shows that the Bush administration is literally blowing more smoke into our Smoky Mountains."

Shenandoah National Park also suffers from air pollution worse than many urban areas, NPCA says, and is further endangered by insufficient funding and invasive species.

The organization kept Joshua Tree National Park on the list because development along the borders of the park threatens to fragment critical wildlife corridors, degrade already poor air quality, and deplete critical aquifers.

The combination of increased efforts to drill for oil and gas, sale of private lands and potential harm from dam proposals is endangering the Big Thicket National Preserve, according to the conservation group.

The NPCA says the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program deserves to be on the list because it is underfunded and so is losing the opportunity and ability to create a comprehensive collection of sites, stories, and artifacts about an important chapter in American history, when enslaved Africans fled North for their freedom.

The organization added Biscayne to the list because of threats to important fish and coral populations and development of sensitive coastline considered key to the restoration of the estuary.

Glacier National Park was removed from the NPCA's endangered parks list. (Photo courtesy NPCA)

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve is suffering from off-road vehicle use and administration policies that could allow more than 1,700 miles of proposed roads through the park.

The nonprofit conservation group, which has some 300,000 members and was established in 1919, urges the Bush administration to fully fund the national parks, strengthen clean air protections and eliminate the loophole allowing new road claims.

"Directly addressing park threats is a vital strategy in protecting our national parks," said Kiernan. "Implementing that strategy, along with others, is the reason four parks that were in grave danger in 2003 have been removed from this year's list."

The four taken off the list were Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve, Georgia's Ocmulgee National Monument, Montana's Glacier National Park, and Virgin Islands National Parks.