As the US falls apart, Rotting Cabins, Closed Trails, 11 billion backlog of maintenance work

[RKP5637]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/29/national-parks-repair-backlog-grand-canyon-zion?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=262182&subid=12122475&CMP=GT_US_collection

Meanwhile advocates have raised concerns that the Department of Interior, which oversees many federal lands, is staffed with lobbyists for the energy industry. Even absent such issues, climate change, privatization and energy extraction risk changing the face of the country’s public spaces forever.

The National Park Service is the protector of some of America’s greatest environmental and cultural treasures. Yet a huge funding shortfall means that the strain of America’s passion for its parks is showing. Trails are crumbling and buildings are rotting. In all there is an $11bn backlog of maintenance work that repair crews have been unable to perform, a number that has mostly increased every year in the past decade.

“Americans should be deeply concerned,” said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). The National Park Service, he argued, is hamstrung by a lack of resources and is in “triage mode”.

National parks are just one part of an unparalleled system, managed by the government and held in trust for the public, and spanning over 600m acres of forests, deserts, tundra and glacier-covered peaks, as well as historical sites such as the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. They are integral to American life: an ancestral home for Native Americans; a retreat for vacationers, sportspeople and hunters; a source of grazing; and an economic engine. Yet their future is uncertain.

[handmade34]

1. Americans should be deeply concerned

I am more than concerned... I am livid

[RKP5637]

2. As the destruction of America continues and the Trump regime stands smacking their lips at the

sidelines waiting to privatize as much as they can, big money development and kickbacks.

[Ohiogal]

3. Yet

the Orange Regime sets a priority on giving millionaires and billionaires huge tax breaks and building a stupid wall.

TR must be spinning in his grave.

[mountain grammy]

4. $11 billion.

about 1.8% of the military budget

about 3% of the 10 year aid package to Israel.

Just not worth saving, I guess. We don't have the money

[RKP5637]

6. Absolutely pathetic, isn't it! n/t

[infullview]

5. We could make all our national parks great again

for less than half of what bone head is asking to build his wall.

[Shemp Howard]

7. Bring back the CCC.

Of course bringing back the CCC would take money. And Trump would never bring back a program started by FDR. But I can dream, anyway.

[RKP5637]

8. Yep, there are solutions, but they will be ignored. n/t