There are many infrastructure needs in the National Park System/NPS file

President Biden's highly ambitious, and expensive, infrastructure proposal carries great possibilities for the worn and weary National Park System, though whether any will be realized is far from a sure thing. Indeed, with a keenly divided and divisive Congress it's not even a given that the $2 trillion proposal will gain acceptance, and most certainly not in its current form. Also unknown is how, or even if, the package would directly help the parks.

Indirectly, the package could help improve the air quality over national parks and possibly reduce climate-change impacts to the parks and their natural resources by addressing needs beyond park borders.

According to an Interior Department release, the package calls for investing $16 billion "to put hundreds of thousands to work in union jobs plugging oil and gas wells and restoring and reclaiming abandoned coal, hardrock, and uranium mines. In addition to creating good jobs in hard-hit communities, this investment will reduce the methane and brine that leaks from these wells, just as we invest in reducing leaks from other sources like aging pipes and distribution systems."

"Fulfilling the President’s commitment to addressing the nation’s climate crisis," the release continued, "the plan also calls for establishing a Civilian Climate Corps, a $10 billion effort to put a new generation of Americans to work conserving and restoring public lands and waters, increasing reforestation, increasing carbon sequestration in the agricultural sector, protecting biodiversity, improving access to recreation, and addressing the changing climate."

Though specific details are few, and the existence of the Great American Outdoors Act that is funneling $1.3 billion a year into the park system to address the maintenance backlog might convince Congress that the parks don't need more funding through the infrastructure package, Biden's initiative is drawing praise from park advocates.

“Climate change, the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and racial disparities are all having a major impact on our country. Our national parks and public lands are also overwhelmed by these same threats," said Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association. "But these challenges also present opportunities to mark a new era for our public lands and communities. With the innovative and bold solutions President Biden laid out, we can tackle these challenges and make our national parks, and their air, water, and wildlife stronger and better than ever before."

Pierno said it was imperative that any infrastructure plan adopted by Congress "goes beyond simply rebuilding existing park roads and bridges." Instead, she said last week after Biden unveiled his plan, there needs to be "a new focus on resilient infrastructure that can withstand intensifying climate change impacts. We must prioritize protecting wildlife and their habitats and reach for bold goals like moving our country towards a decarbonized future. And above all, we must put local communities at the forefront in restoring our national parks and public lands."

But the plan also is being panned by Republicans in Congress.

“Democrats are offering to hamstring the economy with higher energy bills and higher taxes for families in Wyoming and across the country," said Sen. John Barasso, a Wyoming Republican who is the ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "Republicans want to protect our energy dominance, and let hardworking Americans keep the money they earned. President Biden should change course and look to our bipartisan highway bill from the last Congress if he is really interested in improving our infrastructure.”

Across the hall, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Bruce Westermen, R-Arkansas, who is the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, also dismissed the proposal.

"In President Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure package, only $115 billion goes to traditional public works projects such as roads, highways, and bridges. The rest is earmarked for progressive priorities such as:

➡ $620 billion for green energy subsidies and union payouts
➡ $174 billion for electric vehicles
➡ $400 billion to expand Medicaid and subsidize home healthcare workers income
➡ $100 billion for renewable energy job training

"This feels like a bad April Fool’s joke," he said.

Park advocates likely will argue, if they get the chance, that the park system surely deserves some trickle-down from any infrastructure package passed by Congress despite the aid arriving from the GAOA. Though $1.3 billion a year helps attack the maintenance backlog that could be somewhere around $12-$13 billion (the Interior Department under President Trump stopped issuing releases regarding the growing price tag), it alone won't get the job done.

In February 2020 the Park Service released a list of "mega projects" that carried a combined cost of $1.2 billion. They ranged from $25 million to pay for the Toklat River Bridge & Causeway Replacement at Denali National Park and Preserve to $187 million for Blue Ridge Parkway Road and Bridge Reconstruction in Virginia and North Carolina (later this month a stretch of the parkway will be closed so work can begin on rehabilitation of the Roanoke River Bridge).

Billions of more dollars are needed throughout the park system to address maintenance at visitor centers, park housing, campgrounds, wastewater treatment facilities, boat docks, trails, parking lots, foot bridges and more.

"Currently, the National Park Service has a more than $13 billion backlog in infrastructure repair needs, including restoration of historic buildings, maintenance of campgrounds and trails, and rehabilitation of visitor access roads, among others. The Great American Outdoors Act that was passed last August provides $6.5 billion to those priority deferred maintenance needs during the next five years," said Tom St. Hilaire, the senior officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts' National Parks Campaign. "Funding for those projects have been approved and already are seeing progress on the ground. When details of the administration’s infrastructure package are revealed, it will be imperative that we find among the proposal funding to complement dollars spent on projects connected to the GAO Act, so that we can fully take care of those priority projects.

"In addition, since the GAO Act provides more funding on non-transportation needs than transportation projects, the administration’s proposal will need to address the multi-billion-dollar backlog for maintaining and updating the NPS’ transportation network, which includes more than 12,500 miles of roads, 1,700 road bridges, and 70 road tunnels, among other assets," he added in an email. "We also encourage NPS to develop accountability standards for implementation work done under the auspices of the administration’s infrastructure package, to regularly monitor progress and spending, and to develop benchmarks for success, just as we would like them to do for the GAO Act. The agency has a responsibility to be transparent in how it is tackling the deferred maintenance backlog."

Last week Interior announced disbursement of $1.6 billion for projects across the public lands system, including the park system. Three million dollars is going to complete restoration of the outside of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., $3.4 million is being spent at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio to demolish 39 dilapidated structures and restore the lands to natural conditions, $18.6 million is going to Fort Vancouver National Historic Site in Washington state to restore "(H)istoric Main Parade Ground Barracks Building, Parking Areas, and Pathways for Visitor and Tenant Use," and nearly $16 million is being spent at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming to "eliminate ongoing and worsening leaks and water infiltration of the roof for the Park Headquarters Complex, including Teton Interagency Dispatch Center."

More park funding projects can be found here.

At the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, Phil Francis was optimistic an infrastructure package adopted by Congress would have some benefit for the parks.

"Since the NPS manages a huge amount of infrastructure, there are opportunities to make investments, and since we have science personnel and lots of interest in addressing climate change in terms of infrastructure improvements, research and public education, there are even more areas where funds could be useful," said Francis in an email.

Back at NPCA, Pierno said the president's package would greatly benefit the economy as well as address much-need infrastructure work.

"By addressing these infrastructure needs and supporting clean energy at national parks across the country, the administration and Congress will not only help protect our parks for future generations but also generate tens of thousands of infrastructure-related jobs, bringing much-needed relief to local communities suffering through hard times," she said.

“President Biden has pledged to build our communities and public lands back better than ever. This is a difficult task, but we all must rise to this challenge if we want to protect our national parks for our children and grandchildren to experience. We will hold the President and Congress to this promise and work alongside everyone to set a new course for a better, stronger and more inclusive National Park System,” Pierno said.