This year the National Park Service is
celebrating its 100-year anniversary. But as the agency enters its
second century, our national parks are in trouble. A recent study
conducted by the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) noted
that the Park Service has a deferred maintenance backlog of nearly $12
billion — an amount five times that of its last budget from Congress.
The symptoms of this backlog are evident
throughout our national parks. Nearly half the roadways in national
parks are rated in "fair" or "poor" condition. Dozens of bridges are
considered "structurally deficient." And 6,700 miles — more than
one-third of all trails in the entire park system — are in "poor" or
"seriously deficient" condition. Not only does this jeopardize the
safety and quality of visitors' experiences, but it threatens the very
resources the National Park Service was created to protect.
However, all is not gloom and doom in our
public parks. PERC's latest report showed that state parks are providing
the high-quality recreational opportunities that visitors seek, and
doing so responsibly. Most people don't realize that Western state parks
receive nearly twice as many visitors as national parks in the West.
Take Utah's state parks. These parks are
incredibly popular, receiving more than 200 visitors per acre in 2013 —
more than any other Western state and 47 times as many visits per acre
as national parks in the West. Utah's parks are better managed as well.
In 2013, visitor fees covered 66 percent of Utah state parks'
expenditures, while national park visitor fees accounted for just 10
percent of the National Park Service's management costs.
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