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Traveler's View: Economic Engines Are Nice, But Let's Not Overlook The True Value Of National Parks

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On a day set aside to celebrate the Earth and the environmental movement, the Interior Department and National Park Service gave us dollars and cents.

No magnificent vistas, no trails that sooth our tensions and improve our health, no condors drifting on thermals above the Grand Canyon or wolves loping across the North American Serengheti that is the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, no families bonding on a summer vacation to Cape Cod National Seashore.

No doubt, calculating return on investment is key for some members of Congress. But perhaps if Interior and NPS focused more heavily on the intrinsic value of settings such as Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Shark Valley in Everglades National Park, the Mariposa Grove of Yosemite National Park, and the unique ecosystem -- above and below sea level -- at Channel Islands National Park, efforts to gain congressional support would be more successful with politicians who day-in and day-out are deluged with dollars and cents.

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Can you put a dollar on the wonders of Yellowstone National Park....

Maybe reminding Congress of the public efforts to save places such as Acadia, Great Smoky Mountains, the Statue of Liberty and, more recently, Tule Springs National Monument, for the unique landscapes, human histories, and biological wonders they contain would catch the politicians off-guard, make them pause for just a moment or two, and think a little bit harder about the true value of the National Park System and why it rightly deserves more than 1/13th of 1 percent of the $3.5 trillion federal budget.

Does the Defense Department, in support of the industrial military complex, boast of being an economic engine with hopes that Congress will boost its appropriation? Does the National Institutes of Health annually break out its economic impact when defending its budget request, or does it point to medical advances it makes possible through its research?

Amid the ever-growing human footprint of this country, the wonders and touchstones that are protected within our National Park System and which other countries mirror in their own park systems become more and more valuable. They are, as the National Park Organic Act of 1916 rightly defined, "pleasuring grounds."

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...on the incredible wildlife found in Katmai National Park and elsewhere in the park system....

But, more so, they are landscapes harboring potential medical wonders, filters for our air and water, refuges for flora and fauna, and in no small measure a chronicle of American history as preserved at places such as Faneuil Hall at Boston National Historical Park, Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Gettsyburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park in California, and Honouliuli National Monument in Hawaii.

Shouldn't these places, stories, and wonders be the story line in promoting the National Park Service and its impact on the country when touting the National Park System to Congress?

Let the surrounding gateway towns, state tourism boards, and state congressional delegations glow about the economic opportunities these parks, monuments, battlefields, historic sites, seashores, lakeshores, and national recreation areas kindle. In the end, they likely would have more sway with Congress than agency heads and political appointees lobbying for an administration that, depending on the Congress, more than half might oppose.

By reducing the park system to dollars and cents, does Congress find it easier to focus on the bottom, dollars-and-cents, line when it comes to budgeting, and whittle down the Park Service funding request instead of adding to it?

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...or the educational opportunities within the parks?/Photos: Kurt Repanshek, Rebecca Latson, and NPS

Would the politicians be so quick to ignore the national parks if they truly appreciated how microbes found in a Yellowstone National Park hot spring led to the polymerase chain reaction that helps find cures to diseases and solve criminal cases?

Would they find a billion or so extra dollars for the Park Service if they spent time in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park with researchers identifying the incredible biodiversity that lurks in the park's woods, streams, meadows and caves?

If they were reminded of the litany of infrastructure woes across the park system that pose threats to public health as well as to these incredible places, would they take a stand on behalf of the parks?

Instead of having each of the 407 units of the National Park System generate press releases touting their site's local economic impact, why not 407 press releases touting the wonders of the system?

Make the sites relevant to Congress, and all generations. Tell them of the wonderment that can be found in the park system and why it should be treasured, not reduced to dollars and cents.

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Comments

Thank you, Kurt.


Well said.  The "economic engine" argument is a total sham.  Those properties that truly contain  "the unique landscapes, human histories, and biological wonders" are worth preserving for their own sakes and for the sake of current and future human generations to enjoy. 


That article is absolutely excellent!

Thank you, Kurt.  It's just about the best piece I've ever seen here in Traveler.


Many thanks, Kurt, well-said and overdue!  It's encouraging to me that more people are questioning this 'economic engine' propaganda and it's no doubt inflated numbers.  I suppose this is the sort of 'vision' one should expect from the former CEO of the "Official Outdoor Retailer"  of the NPS centennial:

 

http://www.rei.com/about-rei/newsroom/2015/rei-announces-historic-partne...


Tahoma,

The NPS used the economic engine ruse long before Jewell came on board.


Dittos Kurt, i think you hit the nail on the head.


Singing Amen at the top of my lungs. 


Thank you Kurt for this most outstanding article.  I'm so glad to see unanimous agreement as well among those who routinely disagree amongst each other in submitted commentary.


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