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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Bills Address Nat'l. Parks' Maintenance, Including $127 Million in Oregon

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Monday, June 24, 2019   

PORTLAND, Ore. – Efforts continue in Congress to address the big maintenance backlog in the country's national parks.

Deferred maintenance in the parks totals nearly $12 billion, including more than $127 million in Oregon.

Separate bills in the House and Senate would begin to cover the backlog with revenue from energy development on public lands.

Sue Densmore, executive director of Friends of the Oregon Caves and Chateau, says the national monument has some funding, but still requires about $18 million, especially on its trails.

She says if Oregon Caves doesn’t get support, it will have to close trails and would have had to close the historic chateau without current funding.

"And that's the most important thing – the public owns the parks,” she states. “It's their opportunity to come there. We hope that they would always want to come there. But we also have to make sure on the other side that they're safe and accessible to everyone who would like to visit."

In 2018, 1.3 million park visitors spent $94 million in communities surrounding National Park Service lands in Oregon.

Densmore says the caves help support the regional economy in southern Oregon, which is largely rural. Nationwide, 318 million people visited national parks and spent $20 billion in local economies last year.

Phil Francis chairs The Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, which is made up of current and former Park Service employees and volunteers.

He says Congress needs to address the maintenance backlog and also ensure operational funds to parks so that they never are in this position again.

Francis says the parks are a special part of America, and he has fond memories of visiting Crater Lake when he was 18.

"I'll never forget being on a bus with a bunch of my classmates and seeing two feet of snow on the ground in July in Oregon at Crater Lake,” he recalls. “Yet there were tons of people. And I'm sure one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen is looking down at the lake itself."

Densmore says Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve has such a big impact on folks that they come back decades later and still remember the name of their tour guides when they first visited.

"We say that it's a visit they remember for a lifetime,” she states. “Now we have many people that are coming who maybe their grandparents brought them. Maybe they came in the station wagon and brought a picnic. And for some reason they never forget the opportunity to come there."


Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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