Here’s to the next century of America’s parks

One hundred years ago, Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act, creating the National Park Service. Built upon the ideals of John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt, and Stephen Mather, America’s national parks are an exemplar of stewardship and conservation. And today, our National Park Service celebrates its centennial. As we commemorate the immense legacy of our parks, there is much work to be done to protect and preserve America’s natural wonders and the American spirit for future generations.

The National Park Service oversees 84 million acres of land across 50 states, the District of Columbia, and several territories. The agency manages 413 units, including 59 national parks and hundreds of other natural landscapes including national monuments, national preserves, and historic sites.

Never before have the parks seen so many visitors. In 2015, 307 million people were able to experience America’s national parks — 34 million more visitors than a decade ago.

These visitors represent a significant economic contribution to the national economy and support local economies, businesses, and communities. Last year, national park visitors spent more than $17 billion within local gateway communities around our national parks, which generated $32 billion in economic output, supported 295,300 jobs, and added $18.4 billion to the economy. In fact, this spending is only a fraction of the $646 billion that Americans spend on outdoor recreation annually.

Large numbers of visitors have also strained our parks, and unfortunately, funding for our national parks has not kept up with record visitation. As of this year, the cost of deferred maintenance, such as repairing roads and preserving historic buildings, has reached almost $12 billion. But we know that investing in our parks helps local economies. Every public dollar invested in the National Park Service returns $10.

Beyond investing in infrastructure, the Park Service needs funding to plan for climate change to ensure our parks’ survival into the next century. The future of the most successful conservation program in American history, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, is also uncertain because of opposition from a handful of members of Congress.

Despite strong public support for our national parks, the Park Service’s century-long legacy of conservation is under threat. Political pressure to privatize and develop our public lands for drilling and exploitation, as well as movements to turn public land over to state control, could prevent another hundred years of stewardship. Thankfully, preserving public lands has a long history of bipartisanship. Congress, under both both parties, has passed more than one thousand bills preserving our cultural and natural heritage. It was a Republican, President Richard Nixon, who signed one of our nation’s most significant pieces of conservation legislation: the Wilderness Act of 1964. But given the current hyperpartisan dysfunction in Congress, it is unlikely that any new parks will be added to the National Park System in the near future.

Over the last eight years, President Obama has added to the legacy of our parks by creating or expanding 25 national monuments using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Wednesday, on the eve of the National Park Service centennial, the president designated the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in northern Maine. While attempts to create national monuments have faced strong opposition, many of our most iconic national parks, such as Grand Canyon, Bryce, Acadia, and Olympic, were first created as national monuments. As this administration winds to a close, there are still many areas in need of permanent protection. Proposed monuments include Gold Butte in Nevada, Bears Ears in Utah, and Greater Grand Canyon in Arizona.

Our national parks belong to all of us, and highlight the awe-inspiring places that define the American landscape. As we celebrate 100 years of unparalleled conservation and stewardship, it’s time to get to work to ensure that the National Park Service has a bright future.