Editorial: Parks will need boost in funding

Monday, Aug. 30, 1999 | 9:12 a.m.

When many Americans visit national parks they probably have no idea how much privately owned land resides within a park's borders. Inside the 84 million acres of the national park system, about 7 million acres are privately held. This worries the National Park Trust, a nonprofit conservation group, which last week warned that development, bulldozing and clear-cutting of the privately owned land could imperil the environmentally sensitive lands in federal parks.

The National Park Service does receive funding from Congress to purchase lands from private owners, but it is nowhere near enough to do the job. For instance, the National Park Trust noted that in 1998 just $23 million was allocated for acquiring private lands bounded by national parks -- about one-tenth of what the National Park Service had requested. The National Park Trust identified 110,000 acres of private property in and near parks that is at the greatest risk of being sold or developed commercially. The estimated value of those 110,000 acres is $70 million. And as the National Park Trust correctly reasons, these lands will only escalate in value, making it more difficult to purchase them in the future.

National parks are becoming increasingly popular as Americans seek a respite from the cities and suburbia. Allowing out-of-control development of these areas near the parks would seem to be at cross purposes with an increasing desire by visitors seeking solitude. Another plus to this program is that it is voluntary. No one is being forced to sell his property, it simply is another avenue for the National Park Service to acquire land for the benefit of all Americans.

Unfortunately this Republican-led Congress has shown little sympathy regarding environmental issues. It is hoped that on this nonpartisan issue, however, Republicans will acknowledge the necessity for the National Park Service's land acquisition program, providing enough funding to allow the purchase of private property to preserve our national forests for future generations.