Theodore Roosevelt warned in 1907 that future generations “will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted.”
Among the many tragic consequences of wasteful federal spending is that it starves work that the federal government ought to do and that it has proven it can do very well — including the work of preserving and maintaining the most remarkable system of national parks in the world.
We need to cut the deficit, pay down the national debt, and lower taxes. To do any of them we have to stop wasting federal money on things the government shouldn’t do and those it does badly. The National Park Service isn’t one of them.
“The national parks,” Wallace Stegner wrote, “are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best.”
Americans love their national parks. In a 2024 Pew Research Center poll assessing public perception of federal agencies, the National Park Service came out on top. Seventy-six percent of Americans reported having a favorable view of the park service. Only seven percent regarded the park service unfavorably.
Party affiliation, in this case, is immaterial. Republicans and Democrats think the National Park Service is swell in equal proportion.
And why shouldn’t they? Set aside the obvious — that the park service is the steward of astonishing natural wonders and great historic places. It’s also one of the best investments the United States ever made.
The National Park Service operates on an annual budget of around $3.5 billion, but generates $40 billion in economic activity. Much of that money is generated in places where national parks are the main attraction. The taxes collected on this income more than offset the budget. Our parks offer a tremendous return on investment.
DOGE has gone after park service employees, but shouldn’t. The park service employs around 20,000 people, many of them seasonal workers. Considering the size of the system — 433 units spread over 85 million acres — the park service is a model of efficiency.
Those 20,000 employees serve over 300 million visitors each year. Never did so many benefit from the work of so few for such a tiny share of the federal budget.
The National Park Service has not been immune to pernicious silliness. The Obama and Biden administrations mandated discriminatory race-focused hiring practices under the guise of “diversity and inclusion.” The Biden administration made “Advancing Racial Justice and Equity” the first priority in its most recent National Park Service budget proposal, though little money was diverted to this purpose.
Both administrations sought public applause for adding new parks but didn’t secure adequate funding to develop, staff, or maintain them. They also allowed the maintenance backlog to grow.
These mistakes are easy to correct. Indiscriminate firing of park service employees is not the way to do it. The National Park Service has lost about 10% of its staff in recent weeks. We cannot care for our national parks without people to manage and carry out the work.
We should emerge from the essential work of ending wasteful spending with the opportunity to focus a leaner budget on work our federal government needs to carry out and that Americans want it to carry out — including caring for our national parks more effectively than in the past.
You know who ought to understand this opportunity better than most Americans?
Donald Trump.
He donated his salary for the first three months of his presidency to preservation projects at Antietam National Battlefield. The president’s gift of $78,333 prompted others to give. The $263,545 raised was spent to restore a farmstead on the battlefield and to rebuild nearly a mile of decaying rail fences along the Hagerstown Pike, scene of some of the most intense fighting of the Civil War.
Private philanthropy cannot address the work of caring for our parks on a large scale. In 2020 President Trump signed the Great America Outdoors Act to provide permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $9.5 billion over five years to address the maintenance backlog at our national parks.
The act had broad bipartisan support in Congress. Subsequent disagreements about the management of the fund notwithstanding, the act was among the most important conservation achievements of the last generation.
We now have an opportunity to redirect federal expenditures to work that truly benefits the American people — including the work of the federal agency Americans admire more than any other. Future generations will admire us for doing it.
Jack Warren is an authority on the history of American politics and public life and editor of The American Crisis, an online journal of history and commentary (www.americanideal.org). His newest book is, "Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution." Read Jack Warren's Reports — More Here.
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