Park advocacy group urges Congress to avoid shutdown

The head of the nation’s leading park advocacy group is urging Congress to prevent a government shutdown that could cost millions in park revenue.

In a letter to members of the House and Senate on Wednesday, National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) President Clark Bunting said if a shutdown were to occur next month, more than 770,000 visitors would be turned away per day from the country’s parks, and more than $42 million could be lost daily in visitor spending.

“As you know, the 2013 government shutdown turned away almost eight million visitors, costing local communities nearly a half billion dollars in lost revenue,” Bunting said in his letter. “Today the shutdown would once again be a sad chapter in the struggle to adequately fund our nation’s needs, including America’s national parks.”

Bunting said the National Park Service already faces a maintenance backlog that has grown to $11.5 billion due to a significant decline in construction funding and insufficient investments in the transportation funding bill.

“Rather than threatening another damaging shutdown, Congress should be preparing for the influx of visitors expected during the national parks’ 2016 centennial year by pursuing a deal that can allow for needed restoration of funding for national parks,” he said.