What We Need to Do to Preserve America's National Parks. I have five copies of that report with me for the subcommittee and I ask that this report be included in the record. Park managers from the Intermountain Region attending the National Trust Glacier Park Symposium readily identified insufficient funds which results in a lack of preventative and cyclical maintenance programs as their number one challenge. However, the key strategy suggested was the development of external partnerships with groups and individuals who have the expertise and resources to help address the problem. These problems can be addressed.
Solutions do exist.
Frankly, in Congress, in the Administration, and at the Department of the Interior, a negative, pessimistic, and minimalist attitude dominates the discussion about the financial needs of the National Park System much of the time. We should keep that maximum in mind as we work together to address the needs of our National Parks. The American people will support a systematic plan, implemented over the next decade, to stop decline and deterioration and eliminate the accrued backlog of needs in the National Parks. They desire to pass our National Parks on to the next generation in better condition. Indeed they recognize this as a patriotic duty.