The National Park Service is celebrating its centennial this year, but as many have observed, the official Aug. 25 birthday was bittersweet.
The agency that manages more than 80 million acres of our nation’s most scenic, historic and culturally important landscapes deserved a birthday bash. Problem is, the agency could hardly afford it.
Strapped for funds and struggling to pay for adequate staff, the Park Service is facing a crushing amount of deferred maintenance, a total of just under $12 billion.
That our iconic and beloved national parks and monuments, the model for national park systems around the world, are having to cut access and services for lack of repairs is shameful because their popularity continues to grow.
The situation also constitutes a threat to local economies like ours. A 2011 study from Michigan State University reported that each dollar invested in the Park Service returned $4 in economic value to the public; that translated into more than $30 billion in 2011 alone. The study also noted that $13 billion of that total went directly into communities within 60 miles of a national park site.
Sixty miles from downtown Cortez includes Mesa Verde National Park, one of the original 12 World Heritage Sites named by UNESCO in 1978, Canyon of the Ancients and Hovenweep National Monuments, To say we have a vested interest in the health and future of the Park Service is an understatement.
Mesa Verde has proposed increased entrance fees for 2017. The much-needed money can be used for maintenance, construction and stabilization projects, especially important now that the popular and easily accessible Spruce Tree House complex is closed due to falling rock and stability concerns.
Park managers have scheduled a public meeting in Cortez at 6 p.m. on Sept. 13 at the First National Bank to discuss the fee hike, but in our view the increase is not only needed, but perhaps even overdue. Under the proposal, the summer-season entrance fee for one vehicle would rise from $15 to $20; an annual parks pass from $30 to $40. That is a bargain considering two tickets for a movie in town cost $20. And that pass to Mesa Verde will still be valid for a week, regardless of how many times you visit or the number of people in your car.
But focusing on funding problems alone is no way to celebrate a birthday. Mesa Verde is marking the occasion by waiving entrance fees through the weekend, providing one more reason why locals should head over for a visit. Birthdays are not the same without presents, of course. Anyone wishing to mark the occasion with a gift to Mesa Verde should contact the Mesa Verde Foundation (www.mesaverdefoundation.org), the primary philanthropic partner of the park most recently responsible for the design and construction of the stunning new Visitor and Research Center located near the park’s entrance.
There may not have been cake and candles to mark the day, but there is hope. Writing in High Country News, Paul Larmer remarked that this birthday “may not go down in history as the Park Service’s happiest ... but hopefully it will be the most memorable and transformative one. We can all raise a glass to that.”
We wholeheartedly agree. Cheers to another hundred years!