The National Park Service (NPS)

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America's national parks are often called, "America's best idea", says Linda J. Bilmes and John Loomis from " Americans think national parks are worth US $92 billion, but we don’t fund them accordingly." The National Park Service (NPS) has been around for about 101 years. The NPS protects from Yellowstone to Ellis Island (Bilmes and Loomis). The 412 places it protects tell a story.
Many people treasure the scenery and want America's historic battlefields, wildlife habitats and seahorses to be protected. Bilmes and Loomis conducted a study on NPS. They looked to develop the first comprehensive assessment of what the parks are worth to the public. For new funding approaches Bilmes and Loomis needed to establish a baseline for the true economic …show more content…
The programs teach kids about nature, developing teacher curriculum materials and interpreting historical events (Bilmes and Loomis). The NPS devotes a huge amount of time and resources to educational efforts like the "Every Kid in A Park" initiative.
This organization aimed to bring every fourth grader in the United States to a national park. The NPS is also trying to reflect the diversity of our population and experiences of groups such as African­Americans, Latinos and Latinas, and women.
The government thinks that basic maintenance is more important than the efforts the NPS is trying to make. Teaching young people about historical sites and conservation is very important to NPS officials because it makes sure that the next generation is on the right track. NPS gets its funding from visitor fees and an annual congressional appropriation, which totals to about $3 billion yearly. This is not enough to maintain and invest in an asset value at over $90 billion. Congress has cut funding for NPS by 15 percent over the past 15 years (Bilmes and …show more content…
this includes things like bridges, trails and utilities, along with preventing forest fires and other important things. The NPS has been hurt by cuts to the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, which provides money to purchase private properties. To thrive, the system needs a new funding model. The study shows that Americans benefit from just knowing that our national parks are protected for current and future generations (Bilmes and Loomis).
National parks are very important to our nation and to most of the public. The Antiquities Act, a 100­ year­old law, was used to put millions of acres of land and water under strict federal control. In 1906 Teddy Roosevelt used the act to protect a rock in Wyoming called Devils Tower. Roosevelt declared 18 national monuments, which must contain objects of "historical or scientific" interests. Since then presidents from both parties have declared 157 national monuments, according to Katy Steinmetz's article "A Monumental Fight"
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