National Park Centennial Initiative
America's national parks need your help. Our national parks are suffering from a chronic operating shortfall estimated to be about $750 million annually. This funding shortfall jeopardizes the Park Service's ability to meet the needs of visitors and protect natural and cultural treasures, and hinders its ability to address threats such as invasive species, wildlife habitat fragmentation from encroaching development, poor air quality, and global warming. The shortfall also exacerbates the backlog of maintenance needs in the parks—a list now estimated by the Congressional Research Service to be between $4.5 and $9.7 billion in total cost.
National Park Centennial Initiative
At NPCA's urging, the Bush Administration acknowledged the funding shortfall and proposed a new National Park Centennial Initiative to begin addressing the problem in preparation for the Park Service's 100th birthday in 2016. In addition to calling for increased annual appropriations for national parks, the Centennial Initiative proposes a new, ten-year partnership program to carry out special projects to benefit parks, called the National Park Centennial Challenge.
Annual appropriationsThe President's fiscal year 2008 budget requested a nearly $200 million increase for park operations, an amount NPCA supported and worked for in Congress. After a long and contentious standoff between Congress and the Administration over budget issues, national park operations received an increase of $122 million. Although this is less than NPCA had hoped for, it is still one of the largest increases in National Park Service operations and will enable the Park Service to begin to address some of the agency's serious operating needs.
For Fiscal Year 2009, NPCA is seeking an overall increase of $250 million above FY 2008 levels. The Administration's fiscal year 2009 budget request for national parks is $2.4 billion—an increase of only $14 million over the parks' fiscal year 2008 budget. It does include an increase of $161 million for park operations. This is $100 million over fixed costs for the second year in a row, which needs to continue to be built on every year through the centennial in 2016.
This amount includes:
- $172 million for construction. This is $46 million less than Congress provided in fiscal year 2008.
- $20.8 million to enable the Park Service to acquire lands within park boundaries. This is half the Land and Water Conservation Fund money that Congress appropriated in fiscal year 2008.
Centennial Challenge
In addition to requesting more money for park operations, the Centennial Initiative proposed legislation to create a new program to leverage additional philanthropic contributions to the National Park System. Funds made available under this program would be used to carry out specially selected, innovative Centennial projects and programs to enhance the park system beyond what is possible with regularly appropriated federal funds.
The legislative process to authorize the full, ten-year Centennial Challenge program is moving forward. The NPCA led Centennial Coalition has developed consensus legislation that has been shared with the relevant Committees and interested offices. Members of the Coalition represent a diversity of perspectives including the outdoor industry, user groups, park friends groups, cooperating associations, and others. House staff continue to work on perfecting their bill, incorporating our input.
A new bill, reflecting our coalition's efforts, was introduced in the Senate in April. Please contact your Representative and Senators and ask them to make passage of Centennial Challenge legislation a priority this year. If you would like to learn more about projects that the National Park Service has certified as eligible to receive matching funds go to www.nps.gov/2016.
Nationwide Survey Demonstrates Strong Support for our National Parks
In a survey of likely voters conducted for NPCA in February by Hart & Associates and John McLaughlin more than four in five voters believed that it is important for the federal government to protect and support our national parks and historic places.
We invite you to have a look at the questions and results of this survey, which was intended to gauge the importance of national parks to voters during this presidential campaign year. The results demonstrate that national parks are a key positioning issue for candidates; they help to define a candidate’s character in a positive way, reflecting a forward-looking agenda that embraces what is best about America.
Read the Results (PDF) > >
Polling Reveals Why Republican Politicians Champion National Parks Issues -- read a memo from pollster John McLaughlin (PDF) >>
Polling Reveals Why Democratic Politicians Champion National Parks Issues -- read a memo from pollster Hart & Associates (PDF) >>
