The all-guns-no-butter Trump budget makes serious cuts to both the EPA and the Interior Department, and while it may seem on the surface that the National Parks skate free of the fiscal blitzkrieg, things aren’t as relatively rosy as they may appear.
The budget blueprint proposes a 12% cut to Interior and a 31% cut to EPA. While the Interior proposal includes an increase in funding for park maintenance, it cuts Interior construction programs. It also includes deep cuts to land acquisition and historic preservation programs that are essential to national parks.
The parks will be fine … so long as fine means they can’t protect any historic structures or artifacts, or acquire any land, or improve the quality of water in the park. And that last part includes some big gotchas …
Elimination of funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, an important federal funding source that has provided $300 million annually for communities and park restoration projects in the region …
Elimination of the Chesapeake Bay Program. With more than 50 national parks in the watershed …
Elimination of the South Florida geographic program, which helps ensure clean water flows through Everglades National Park and Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge ...
So, basically, any national park that doesn’t need land, or water, and with no old buildings or historic sites … will still be facing a $12 billion backlog of work that needs to be done.
