Pick One

Investments in national parks bring stability to local communities and their tourism economies, provide jobs, and ensure the best possible visitor experience. Unfortunately, years of underfunding has forced park managers to care for parks on shoestring budgets, often forcing them to make difficult choices between providing visitor services or repairing worn out facilities.

Coming into office the year after the national parks 2016 centennial, the Trump administration had the opportunity to leverage support for parks into much needed funding increases. Instead, the administration proposed the largest cut in national park funding in over 70 years. A government-wide hiring freeze also left the Park Service with needed positions unfilled, even if there was funding available to hire those positions.

In response to inadequate budget proposals, Congress should:

• Reject the administration’s funding proposal and fund the Park Service so rangers can get back to work protecting wildlife, maintaining our trails, guiding us through amazing landscapes and teaching us about our history.
• Support legislation with a dedicated funding source to address the Park Service’s repair backlog.

In April 2017, President Trump directed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to review dozens of national monuments created by his predecessors under the Antiquities Act.

For more than a century, the Antiquities Act of 1906 has been an invaluable tool for protecting our shared heritage as a nation. From the Statute of Liberty to the Grand Canyon, the Act has helped preserve places of natural, historic and cultural significance.

The review of national monuments was a direct attack on our national parks and the value they bring to the lives of all Americans. The protection of our lands and history should not be on the chopping block.

In response to administration efforts to dismantle national monuments, Congress should:

• Reject legislation that reduces protections for any national monument or undermines the power of the Antiquities Act.
• Support public engagement in any review process for national monuments.
• Continue to use their legislative power to create new sites that expand the stories told and lands protected in the National Park System.

National parks are part of larger ecosystems and landscapes that include other public and private land. Park landscapes are becoming industrialized with oil and gas exploration which can fragment wildlife habitats, harm air and water quality, and greatly degrade the visitor experience.

The Trump administration’s focus on oil and gas development is having direct impacts on national parks. Delays and attempted rewrites of rules on fracking, methane and well controls are undermining regulations designed to protect public lands, communities and human health.

And the administration has recommended opening up all our coasts, home to 68 national parks, to offshore drilling while simultaneously delaying rules designed to prevent disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

In response to irresponsible energy development proposals, Congress should:

• Oppose legislation prioritizing oil and gas development over conservation and public lands.
• Oppose legislation which “streamlines” oil and gas permitting or hands over federal land oil and gas regulation authority to states.
• Reject the administration’s “energy dominance” agenda at the expense of public lands conservation, public health, and clean air and water.

From grizzly bears to desert tortoise to the Presidio manzanita, national parks provide habitat for 600 species of threatened and endangered plants and animals. For many visitors, seeing wildlife is one of the chief reasons they spend time in national parks. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is the most important tool to ensure species vital to the parks are protected for the long term.

And yet despite the importance of these species to national parks and surrounding ecosystems, the Trump administration has taken steps to undermine the protections provided by the ESA. The administration has also delisted iconic species like the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear without adequate plans to ensure a healthy population moving forward.

In June 2017, the Fish and Wildlife Service decided to delist the grizzly bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, removing ESA protections despite inadequate plans to ensure a healthy population moving forward. And the same could happen with the grizzly population in and around Glacier National Park.

Also concerning is the administration’s recently released plan to change how the ESA is implemented includes decreasing protections for threatened species and removing guidance prohibiting the use of economics in the listing process. These changes have the potential to harm the long-term protection of species currently listed as well as species that may need listing in the future.

In response to efforts to undermine the ESA, Congress should:

• Submit formal comments opposing the administration’s proposed changes to ESA regulations.
• Oppose any legislation or bill amendments that would cut out public input, diminish the use of best available science, limit judicial review or otherwise undermine the integrity of the listing process.
• Oppose any legislation that lists or delists a specific species, bypassing the public input-based listing process.

National park waterways are in jeopardy from encroaching development, pollution, demands for use and climate change. While not all of these threats are inside park boundaries, the health of America’s national parks is directly linked to the health of the waters that surround and flow through them.

Despite the continued threats park waters face, the Trump Administration has been systematically rolling back rules designed to protect them. An Executive Order called for a revision of the “Waters of the U.S.” rule, originally intended to provide a consistent definition for bodies of water in the U.S. and their level of protections, which would impact the protection of national parks across the country.

Individual parks are also being impacted by administration decisions. At Mojave National Preserve, decisions by the Department of the Interior are moving a groundwater mining proposal closer to reality. If the project, led by Cadiz, Inc., moves forward, it will disrupt the fragile ecosystem by pumping the scarce water supply out of the desert.

In response to attacks on park water quality and quantity, Congress should:

• Oppose any legislative attempts to repeal the ‘Waters of the U.S.’ rule or other measures designed to protect water quantity and quality.
• Support legislation that increases the protections for national park and surrounding landscape waterways.
• Submit formal comments on impending rule changes put forward by the Administration.