Working Assets
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UPDATE: Congress has seen to it that national parks nationwide will benefit from more than $900 million in the final economic recovery bill. This important reinvestment in the crumbling infrastructure of our national parks will create jobs in rural and urban communities nationwide, and help to restore our heritage for our children and grandchildren.
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Help can't come soon enough for America's long-neglected and chronically under-funded national parks, which now suffer from a $750-million annual funding shortfall,* and a backlog of maintenance and preservation projects of approximately $9 billion. Better yet, the parks are ready for it! Our report, Working Assets, cites more than $2.5 billion worth of ready-to-go projects in national parks nationwide, from fixing roads in Acadia, Glacier, and Death Valley National Parks, to fixing sewer systems at Ohio's Cuyahoga Valley National Park and restoring historic buildings at Valley Forge National Historical Park.
Americans love our national parks, and this kind of investment in them as part of an economic recovery package will have outsized benefits. A recent study commissioned by the National Parks Conservation Association found that every federal dollar invested in national parks generates at least $4 in economic value to the public.
* This figure is from December 2008, when the report was published. The annual shortfall as of January 2010 is $580-million.
