Boston, Mass. – At a town hearing tonight, the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) offered a short list of five ways the country could fix Boston National Historic Park, Acadia National Park, and all of the national parks before the National Park System centennial. The event, hosted by the National Park Service, is one in a series of listening sessions nationwide over the next few weeks.
“To be successful, the National Park Centennial Initiative must fully address the challenges now facing our national parks,” said NPCA Northeast Regional Director Alexander Brash. “The Administration must consider ambitious, necessary, system-wide priority projects and programs to ensure the preservation and restoration of these American treasures.”
Tonight, NPCA encouraged the Administration to support the revitalization and reinvestment in urban national parks such as Boston Harbor Islands, Gateway National Recreation Area in New York City, and Golden Gate in San Francisco. The parks group also requested funding and support for more Park Rangers, and the acquisition of in-holdings from willing sellers in and around Cape Cod, Acadia, and Minuteman National Historical Park.
“In-holdings often result in loss of habitat and wildlife corridors, invasive species, and poor land management on adjacent lands that undermines the successful protection of our national parks,” said Brash. “Taking care of our national parks should be a national priority.”
NPCA raised concerns that America’s national parks face many challenges, including an annual operating shortfall in excess of $800 million and a multi-million backlog of maintenance and preservation needs. The organization has identified five ways to fix the national parks before the National Park System centennial in 2016, and is encouraging citizens to petition Congress to make national parks a national priority at www.npca.org/nationalpriority.
The National Park Service is hosting listening sessions through the end of March in several cities nationwide to offer citizens the opportunity to provide feedback on how America’s national parks should be preserved in time for their centennial in 2016—less than 10 years away. These listening sessions are part of the presidential mandate to inform the Administration’s new National Park Centennial Initiative, launched in February with a significant funding increase for park operating needs. People that cannot attend the listening sessions are encouraged to offer comments at http://www.nps.gov/2016.
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