Our Fading Federal Parks

America’s national parks are supposed to be forever. They are our inheritance and will be our legacy. We revere them as treasures, both natural and historical. They inspire poets and artists. They humble us and bring us inner peace. They are America the beautiful.

And we are loving them to death, Americans are told periodically in reports documenting the deterioration of the parks. We are at a declining point in the cycle now. “Parks in Peril,” proclaimed a recent newsmagazine cover. “On the Brink,” declared another.

In turn, Americans and the Congress cry shame. They vow to halt park decay, to restore National Park Service budgets, to protect resources and revive areas ravaged by time and human contact. But little has been done. Modest efforts pale in the face of continued erosion of park resources. Before long, new reports will document even further decline, to the point that the damage is irreversible.

More than loving the parks to death, we are neglecting them to death. We doom them by failing to exert the political will required to truly protect them. We assume the parks will be all right, that their federal custodians somehow will see to that.

Besides, the overwhelming majority of Americans who visit the parks come away with a pleasurable experience. The eye, dazzled by the natural splendor, misses the evidence of deterioration. From Yosemite Valley’s floor, the sky still is a radiant blue. Only from the heights can you see the smog. We must ask: How long can every camper have a campfire, every visitor his own car?

We are conflicted about our parks. The underlying premise of the Park Service charter is that the parks be preserved for future generations. At the same time, the charter provides that they be maintained for the enjoyment of the people. Today, we are enjoying some parks in numbers and in a manner that cannot be sustained.

Americans need to adopt a dramatic new park ethic. Restoration and preservation must get priority until the parks can be managed and appreciated in a way that does not contribute to further deterioration. Taxpayers and park users should tell Congress and the White House that they must provide the money needed to remedy the deterioration. This may mean permanent increases in park user fees such as those instituted on a temporary basis this year and returning to the parks a greater share of profits earned by concessionaires. Future generations will be grateful for the investment.

The parks restore our spirits. They renew us. Now we must restore and renew the parks. We must love the parks to new life.