Sponsored Post – from the National Parks Conservation Association
This editorial was written by Alex Gulsby, a NPCA Young Leader.
The Texas Young Leaders Council and the Texas Teen Council were formed to support NPCA’s national Find Your Voice centennial campaign: to educate, engage and empower the next generation of park advocates. Serving alongside NPCA partners and staff, the youth councils learn valuable life skills they can carry forward in their personal, educational and professional development.
Every New Year’s Eve, my boyfriend and I make the eight-hour, stiff-backed drive across Texas to Big Bend National Park. I always dread the drive, the traffic, and the road, but to us, there is no better solace than that found in the desert. Big Bend is where we go to reset ourselves, to toast the Chisos and to reflect on all the craziness a year of memories can make. Now that another New Year’s Eve has passed, like many of my fellow millennials, I’m scared.
I’m scared not only for Big Bend but for all of our national parks because our National Park Service is drowning. It’s drowning in a maintenance backlog mounting over $12 billion, money that our Park Service doesn’t have. Of that $12 billion, Big Bend faces $91 million in needed restoration.
From our campsite in Boquillas Canyon, I couldn’t imagine putting a dollar sign on a peace like this. Unfortunately, our Congress has. Only 1/14th of 1 percent of our entire federal budget goes towards our National Park Service. In addition, the Park Service gets just 60 cents for every dollar it needs to keep this backlog from growing.
I’ve been shocked to learn the scope of suffering Big Bend faces. Like so many other parks, our facilities are deteriorating. Campgrounds, visitor centers, staff housing, roads, and plumbing are old to say the least. Not only that, within the park is preserved thousands of years of both human and natural history that must be protected. On a daily basis, our Park Service fights noise, air and water pollution, visitor overcrowding, invasive species, vandalism, traffic problems, and the ravages of time. The story is similar across the nation. Our parks can’t afford to fix the big problems that are growing in expense every day.
But we can fix this. Enthusiasm and public support for parks isn’t going anywhere, nor are their benefits for local economies. In 2015 alone, nation-wide park visitation produced $32 billion for the U.S. economy. In Big Bend National Park, the tourism to the area supports over 500 Texas jobs and this number is growing. Likewise, park visitation is at record-breaking levels. Nearly 308 million people visited our parks last year alone. This isn’t a political issue. This is something we all can appreciate and that we all care about.
The deeper I’ve dug into these issues, the more I fear for my generation and the generations after me. I fear that my children and grandchildren won’t be able to experience the things that shaped me into the person I am today. Our national parks, in more ways than one, have taught me about the world – the past and the now. But we are the ones creating the future. Congress must provide the proper funding to our National Park Service to relieve this backlog. We must save these sacred places of solace, learning, experience, and recreation. It is our legacy. This is our home.
