Letter: Make funding program for national parks permanent

Published 1:30 am Sunday, November 6, 2016

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Visitors to Washington’s national parks cherish them as places of recreation and respite. It’s time to not only celebrate our national parks, but also ensure they last another 100 years.

Unfortunately, our parks face a range of challenges, including inadequate funding. With Washington’s national parks accounting for $510 million of the Park Service’s $12 billion repair backlog, parks require additional annual investments by Congress, as well as creative solutions to help pay for repairs and support visitor experiences.

One of those solutions is the Centennial Challenge, which allows for private-public partnerships to fund park projects. In 2015, the Park Service and the Washington’s National Park Fund combined their investments as part of the Centennial Challenge to repair the Sahale Arm Trail in North Cascades National Park, one example of many successes but obviously not enough to fill all voids.

There is a proposed bill in Congress to make the Centennial Challenge program permanent. Sen. Maria Cantwell has been a park champion, so we hope she works to pass the National Park Service Centennial Act in the very near future, and helps find a solution to directly address the $12 billion repair backlog.

Rob Smith, Northwest Regional Director

National Parks Conservation Association

Seattle