The Park Service estimates it would cost $12 billion to merely keep up with maintenance on its 18,000 miles of trails, plus roads, bridges, campgrounds, and other facilities.
Advertisement
Thankfully, today we are celebrating the centennial of the signing of the Organic Act in 1916 that created National Park Service (NPS), the agency that has so ably served as steward of America’s most treasured landscapes, seascapes, historical sites, and other special places.
Upon the NPS’s insignia is the image of a bison, which is altogether fitting. We can all find ways to enjoy these benefits of natural and cultural resource conservation and outdoor recreation, knowing that for the next 100 years, and beyond, the National Park Service will protect and nourish the parks for generations of Americans to come. The first park to be recognized in Texas by the NPS was Big Bend National Park in 1944.
The National Park Service has also helped each of Vermont’s 14 counties, thanks to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a program I have fought hard to fund annually. Park biologists work to maintain the ecological health of a multitude of habitats within the parks, and that includes conserving many endangered species. Our parks are part of the heritage of every American. Photo credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS.
For example, through the work of the NPS in Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California, the critically endangered island fox has almost recovered thanks to a program of captive breeding and threat mitigation. A century later, more than 100 nations now have subsequently established approximately 1,200 national parks or equivalent preserves, following in the United States’ footsteps. When writing NPS’s charter, its drafters noted, with great foresight, that “the economic value of the parks is only recently coming to be realized” and that the “growing appreciation of the national assets found in National Parks is evidenced by the vast increase of visitors”.
Just like with the rest of the nation, extremely sensitive natural areas in the park system have suffered through climate change, which has produced wildfires, floods, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels.
Recent wildfires threatened Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming while summer floods at Zion National Park in Utah caused officials to limit access to popular hiking trails. Photo credit: Chip Weiskotten/WCS.
Advertisement
Members of the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy in Kansas visited Ralph on Eye On Northeast Kansas Wednesday to talk about the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
