Today marks the hundredth birthday of our National Park Service (NPS). As many have said, National Parks were- and continue to be- one of our country’s best ideas (if not the best). The idea has been copied worldwide. But rather than revel in our own great idea, perhaps now is as good a time as any to look at the state of our NPS- the people that maintain and run all of the national parks- from actual National Parks like Pinnacles National Park to National Monuments like Stonewall National Monument. You see, the National Parks themselves have been around since 1872, when Yellowstone was established. Today only marks the birthday of the service that was created to maintain the parks.

The crux of the issue is that the men and women who keep the parks running need more money. A whole lot of it. There’s a 12 billion dollar maintenance backlog at the park. The annual budget is 3.1 billion. Salaries are low, as is morale.

You might think 12 billion in repairs is ridiculous. The park should be “wild” and “natural,” no? Some are. There are parks that are only accessible by sea plane or boat- like Isle Royale National Park in Michigan or the Gates of the Arctic National Park. But the NPS covers much more than this. All the National Monuments, the National Historic Trails, the National Scenic Trails, the National Historic Landmarks, the National Heritage Areas, the National Forests- all these parks (and many more) are managed by the NPS. Parks managed by the NPS get in excess of 300 million visitors a year. That’s a whole lot of wear and tear that needs to be mitigated. Perhaps some of the places should be less advertised and more restricted, but did you know that the White House is managed by the NPS? And it has a $13 million backlog in overdue maintenance. Certainly, you don’t think that our White House needs to be kept “natural” or “wild.” The elevators alone at Carlsbad Cavern National Park need $44 million to be permanently fixed. The parks are so short on cash that they’re turning to corporate sponsorship; Anheuser-Bush is sponsoring the National Park Service for $2.5million, whatever that means. Now we’re .02% of the way there.

Yet how far that $2.5 million will go is ever decreasing. President Obama has substantially increased the number of parks. Stonewall is now a National Monument, Pinnacles National Monument became Pinnacles National Park, and just this month, Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument came into existence. With more land comes more responsibility.

The best gift we can get the NPS for its 100th birthday is more money. A close second would be a new name; perhaps if people knew the breadth of the NPS’ mission, they’d be more willing to give the NPS more money.