NATIONAL PARKS: Former Interior secretary warns against creating any more parks
Emily Yehle, E&E reporter
Published: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
When it comes to national parks, former Interior Secretary Gale Norton agrees with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.): Less is more, at least in the short term.
In a brief interview yesterday, Norton said she hadn't read Coburn's recent missive on the National Park Service's $11.5 billion maintenance backlog, in which he argued that Congress should place a moratorium on new national parks until the agency can take care of the 401 parks it already manages (Greenwire, Oct. 29). But she echoed Coburn's assertion that creating more parks has made less money available to preserve the country's "true gems."
"Definitely, we should think carefully before establishing any new parks," Norton said in an interview after a forum on energy hosted by the Conservation Leadership Council. "We've had a proliferation of parks without considering long-term funding, and that is a very important part of the overall budget solution."
Norton's comments contrast with those of current Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who announced last week that the Obama administration will unilaterally protect the nation's treasured lands if Congress fails to act (E&ENews PM, Oct. 31).
That doesn't necessarily mean protection under the National Park Service. Other agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management, also are entrusted with conserving nationally important land.
Norton, who served as Interior secretary under President George W. Bush, said the "full spectrum" of public lands should be considered in any discussion on how to solve the Park Service's budget shortfall while ensuring land is preserved.
For example, some lands might do better under BLM, which spends less per acre of conserved land, she said.
"People today want to see active recreation. They like the mountain bikes. They like ATVs. They want to bring their dogs along. They want to travel off into areas that are not as populated," Norton said. "Those are all available on BLM lands and not in national parks."
As the maintenance backlog at NPS grows -- and budgets shrink -- Congress will be under pressure to find a solution. NPS Director Jon Jarvis has said that his agency would need $700 million annually just to keep the maintenance backlog from growing. In 2012, Congress gave $444 million for maintenance.
Lawmakers have been unable to come to an agreement on how to address the problem. Republicans say the money used to acquire more land should shift to maintenance; Democrats say that is shortsighted and point out that increasing the size of a park doesn't necessarily mean more upkeep. Some designations merely add land adjacent to parks, conserving a larger swath of landscape without adding cost.
