Administration actions that damage parks include changes to the Clean Air Act that will allow outdated smokestack industries to continue operating without modern pollution controls, regulations that could lead to new road-building in national parks, and failure to follow up adequately on campaign promises for better park funding.

"An increasing number of the Administration's actions are directly harming our national parks," Tipton said. "For an Administration that pledged to 'restore and renew' the parks, this is particularly distressing. The American people need actions that demonstrate the pledge was more than just campaign spin."

Parks on this year's list, in alphabetical order with their biggest threats, are:

• Big Thicket National Preserve (Texas): Sale of private lands could fragment and destroy wildlife habitat by promoting haphazard development along park borders; dam proposals could alter much of the preserve's unique wildlife habitat;


• Denali National Park and Preserve (Alaska): Proposals to open pristine wilderness to motorized access such as snowmobiles will harm the park; a new governor and a pro-development congressional delegation may approve a damaging and unnecessary new route into the park;


• Everglades National Park (Florida): Lack of Park Service input into management plans, inadequate restoration plans, and ensuring sufficient funding for restoration stand out among significant concerns;


• Glacier National Park (Montana): Insufficient funding cripples park protection; development jeopardizes park resources; global warming threatens park glaciers;
  
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina/Tennessee): Pollution from coal-fired power plants threatens the health of park visitors, plants, and wildlife and diminishes scenic views; Administration rollback of clean-air protections compounds threats;


• Joshua Tree National Park (California): A new city may sprout on a strip of private land between the park and a nearby nature preserve, fracturing critical wildlife corridors, degrading already poor air quality, and straining dwindling aquifers;


• Ocmulgee National Monument (Georgia): One of the largest archeological collections in the National Park System is decaying as a result of insufficient funding; a proposed highway could cut off park lands and destroy biological and cultural resources;


• Shenandoah National Park (Virginia): Pollution endangers plants, animals, and scenic vistas; non-native invasive plants and insects damage native vegetation;
  
• Virgin Islands National Park (U.S. Virgin Islands): Insufficient funding jeopardizes fragile coral reefs and declining fish populations; a proposed luxury resort could destroy critical wildlife habitat and cause pollution; and


• Yellowstone National Park (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming): Snowmobile use threatens the health and experience of visitors and staff, diminishes air quality, and jeopardizes wildlife; inadequate funding impairs resource-management and visitor services; park bison are harassed by snowmobiles and killed by Montana officials when wandering off park lands in search of food.