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Regrettably, little process has been made toward meeting the funding and staffing needs of the national parks. The small operating increases provided by Congress and the administration have been diverted in recent years to cover homeland security expenses and other unfunded mandates. As a result, most individual parks operate with fewer resources each year—a critical issue when attempting to reduce the backlog over the long term. Parks are forced to defer maintenance projects, increasing the cost of repairs and the size the backlog.
In a farewell address to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition in June 2001, former Yellowstone National Park superintendent Michael Finley said, “Lack of sufficient funding will continue to be the greatest long-term threat to the protection of Yellowstone’s natural and cultural treasures…In my 32-year career with the National Park Service, I never had sufficient funding to properly undertake my responsibilities. I always ran parks with a budget appropriate to a run-down Volkswagen. What we really wanted was a budget appropriate to a midsize Chevy.”
Understandably, economic realities and pressing national security issues have made it more difficult to address National Park Service funding, yet some in the administration continue to claim to be on track to provide $4.9 billion toward the backlog. The Park Service’s July 2003 report, Partnering and Managing for Excellence, stated that the administration’s commitment “was achieving tangible results. Since FY 2002, nearly $2.9 billion has been provided to address the $4.9 billion backlog.” But the math is misleading. The actual amount of new money invested by the administration in the backlog over the past four years is closer to $662 million.
Park visitors provided revenue through the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program that the administration misleadingly counts as funding it has allocated toward the maintenance backlog. The administration also assumes that all of the funding for maintenance and construction is allocated solely toward the list of backlog projects and is not diverted to pay for emergency repairs or other needs identified as urgent priorities by Park Service managers, as often happens when operational needs far outstrip available resources.
| Deferred Maintenance Backlog Funding |
| FY 2001 enacted: |
$814,568,000 |
(base level) |
| FY 2002 enacted: |
$873,896,000 |
+59,328,000 above FY01 |
| FY 2003 enacted: |
$899,412,000 |
+84,844,000 above FY01 |
| FY 2004 enacted: |
$1,035,092,000 |
+220,524,000 above FY01 |
| FY 2005 request: |
$1,112,206,000 |
+297,638,000 above FY01 |
| TOTAL (cumulative): |
+$662,334,000 above FY01 |
NPCA’s analysis of the Park Service’s backlog justification shows that during the last four years of the Clinton administration (FY98 – FY01), funding for the programs that address the backlog of park maintenance projects (facility maintenance, construction, park roads, and the recreational fee demonstration program) increased, on average, 12.8 percent annually. Funding for the backlog under the current administration (FY02 – FY05 request) has increased, on average, only 7.4 percent annually for the same programs.
In order to keep the parks from falling any farther behind, the administration and Congress must allocate an additional $600 million in new funds toward park operations and provide a significant investment toward reducing the backlog.
The administration’s fiscal year 2005 budget request includes small operating increases for 74 of 387 parks, but does not allocate nearly enough funds to fulfill the president’s pledge to eliminate the backlog or make up any significant portion of the parks’ annual operating shortfall.
The administration’s fiscal year 2005 budget includes:
- Construction and Major Maintenance: $329.9 million for major maintenance and construction projects in the parks, the same as fiscal year 2004 enacted levels.
Among the projects that the administration proposes funding in fiscal year 2005 are the historic bathhouses at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, which need intensive restoration work; a new museum to preserve and interpret American Indian culture at Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska; restoration of the Ebenezer Baptist Church at the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site in Georgia; and elimination and rehabilitation of off-road vehicle trails at Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida.
Unfortunately, limited funding is available within the construction and major maintenance budget for park managers to administer such projects, so time spent by park staff overseeing restoration or construction affects the individual park’s already-stretched operating budget.
- Facility Maintenance: An increase of $23 million for facility maintenance. This money addresses needs such as roof repair at park visitor centers and helps to slow the growth of the maintenance backlog.
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