Healthier Ecosystems
National Parks: Restoring the Quality of Our Cultural, Natural,
and Historic Resources
The President is fulfilling his commitment to address
the maintenance backlog. The President’s FY 2005 budget
provides $1.1 billion in funds for maintenance of park facilities
and roads, a 37 percent increase over 2001 and nearly double the
amount from just seven years ago. This $77 million increase over
last year will bring the total investment in park facilities maintenance
during this Administration to $3.9 billion over four years and
will help fulfill the President’s funding commitment to
provide $4.9 billion over 5 years. President Bush’s FY2005
NPS operations budget has more funds per employee, per acre, and
per visitor than any time in the history of the National Park
Service. The FY 2005 NPS operations budget of $1.8 billion is
20 percent higher than when President Bush took office.
For the first time ever, the National Park Service (NPS) has an asset
management system in place to establish the actual conditions of NPS
facilities and objectively measure improvements in their condition. This new facility condition index will
help prevent the
type of backlog created in the 1990s.
Already, the President’s commitment is achieving tangible results.
From battlefields in Fredericksburg to campground restoration at the
Grand Canyon, the National Park Service (NPS) has begun to improve
the condition of hundreds of park assets. The National Park Service
has more than 4,000 improvement projects completed, planned, or underway
in the national parks in each of the 49 states with national parks.
Specific examples of completed work include $4.1 million being used
at Everglades National Park to repair the wastewater treatment system
and $2.1 million for Yellowstone National Park to upgrade a wastewater
treatment plant.
The
President’s FY 2005 budget includes a
$4.6 million increase ($77.6 million total) for National Park
Service’s Natural Resource Challenge, the ongoing effort
to measure the condition of natural resources in national parks.
The Natural Resource Challenge is a science-based initiative to
strengthen natural resource management throughout the National
Park System by protecting native species and habitats, improving
the health of natural resources within parks, eradicating invasive
species, and sharing information about natural resources with
the public.
more issues
Email This Page
