The nation’s largest state parks system has a backlog of $1.3 billion in maintenance costs.

All of  California’s 278 state parks are a tangle of troubles.

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Visitors to California State Parks have already  dealt with abbreviated schedules and services. Now decay and neglect in the parks endanger the environment, artifacts – and even public health.

Much of the park decay exists because maintenance has been largely ignored for more than a decade amid slim and slimmer state budgets. Buildings and infrastructure, subject to constant exposure and heavy use, just get worse until they fail.

As a result, the backlog has more than doubled since 2001, when it was estimated at $600 million.

The operating budget for state parks from state funding and user fees – which pays for day-to-day maintenance, law enforcement and administration – stands at about $330 million this fiscal year. In 2001, it was $314 million. Adjusted for inflation, however, that reflects a 15 percent drop.

Has the recesion lead to locking up our State Parks?

Padlocking the Gates to the Great Outdoors

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

In these hard economic times, when much of the country could use a walk in the woods or a night in the mountains or a wade in the river or a picnic by the lake, states across the country seem to be creating obstacles to the great outdoors.

Seeking to streamline their budgets, states have made their parks easy targets. Campgrounds are closing, fees are increasing, employees have been laid off.

In Colorado, some parks are down to one lone ranger. In Massachusetts, a few swimming ponds are closed for lack of lifeguards. Washington has started asking motorists to donate to state parks when they register their cars; Michigan will do so this fall.

Georgia is considering corporate sponsorships for its parks. In Idaho, a motorcycle group offered to mow the grass at a state park on the Snake River where it holds an annual reunion.

Some see a silver lining with the rising volunteerism and the public outcry that have helped keep parks open in many states. Others wonder what will come by next Memorial Day.

“Right now,” said Virginia Painter, a spokeswoman for Washington State Parks, which has seen revenue from the new vehicle registration donations fail to meet projections, “we’re hanging on.”

Glacier National Park

Known to Native Americans as the “Shining Mountains” and the “Backbone of the World”, Glacier National Park preserves more than a million acres of forests, alpine meadows, lakes, rugged peaks and glacial-carved valleys in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Its diverse habitats are home to over 70 species of mammals including the grizzly bear, wolverine, gray wolf and lynx. Over 260 species of birds visit or reside in the park, including such varied species as harlequin ducks, dippers and golden eagles. The landscape is a hiker’s paradise that is traversed by more than 750 miles of maintained trails. Glacier Park’s varied climate influences and its location at the headwaters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Hudson Bay drainages have given rise to an incredible variety of plants and animals.

The park is named for its prominent glacier-carved terrain and remnant glaciers descended from the ice ages of 10,000 years past. Bedrock and deposited materials exposed by receding glaciers tell a story of ancient seas, geologic faults and uplifting, and the appearance of giant slabs of the earth’s ancient crust overlaying younger strata. The result of these combined forces is some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet.

In 1932 Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park, across the border in Canada, were designated Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. This designation celebrates the longstanding peace and friendship between the two nations. Both parks have since been designated International Biosphere Reserves and together were recognized in 1995 as a World Heritage Site. Clearly this resource is deserving of world-class recognition.

For complete information visit the Glacier National Park website

America’s Best Idea

Writer and historian Wallace Stegner called national parks “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American,  absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”   For nearly 100 years, this best idea has been nurtured by the National Park Service. Over time, the number of  national parks has increased and our mission has become more complex as the range of services we offer has grown  beyond parks to meet the needs of thousands of towns and cities across the country. Filmmaker – and Honorary  National Park Ranger – Ken Burns tells the story of the national parks and the people who helped create them in his  new PBS film The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.

For complete information on this please visit the America’s Best Idea website