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It has been said that our national parks are “America’s best idea.” As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, we should reflect on these words and recognize that our national parks need our help.
As record-breaking crowds are visiting parks, the service is facing a serious challenge: a $12 billion backlog of infrastructure repairs.
Projects range from unmaintained trails to crumbling roads to visitor centers built more than 50 years ago in desperate need of updating. Some would cost just a few thousand dollars to fix, while others could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Some things can be replaced, while others, such as historical buildings, cannot. All jeopardize not only the future of these treasured pieces of America’s heritage but also the local economies of cities such as San Antonio.
In Texas, national parks are not just important pieces of our heritage, they’re also major economic engines. According to the National Park Service, in 2015 visitors to Texas parks spent an estimated $262.5 million in local gateway regions, supporting more than 4,000 jobs and adding roughly $372.6 million in economic output to the Texas economy.
But these contributions to Texas’ local economies are dependent on continued visitation to our national parks.
Take San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. In 2015, more than 1 million people visited the park, infusing money into San Antonio’s tourism industry. But the park, named a World Heritage Site in 2015, has $7.2 million in needed repairs that the National Park Service cannot afford to make. Rangers and other park staff do the best they can, but if left unaddressed, these issues could negatively impact visitor experience and ultimately mean fewer visitors to the park. As long as the backlog continues, the future of businesses and gateway communities that depend on national parks remains threatened.
For Visit San Antonio, the primary tourism and hospitality arm of the city — and for my Council District 3 — this is a particularly vital discussion. The World Heritage Site designation will be a notable catalyst for San Antonio tourism in coming years, especially with international visitors. According to studies, those guests, expected to arrive from Mexico, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Asia, among so many other places, will stay longer and spend more than other visitors.
While numbers are still being compiled in this early stage of the World Heritage designation, anecdotal evidence indicates increased visits to the mission sites from around the world. The Visit San Antonio website has shown increased traffic from the countries projected to provide visitors whose primary interest is World Heritage travel.
In San Antonio, tourism is a $13.6 billion economic engine each year. Nearly 21 million overnight leisure visitors experience our city annually. Maintaining our most valuable assets, including San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, is a mandate. Consider that a study commissioned by Bexar County forecasts the World Heritage Site to generate up to $105 million more in economic activity, with more than 1,100 newly created jobs, for San Antonio and the county by 2025.
Our national parks face these challenges in large part because Congress has not made them a funding priority. The entire National Park Service budget makes up just 1/14th of 1 percent of the federal budget, yet it continues to decline.
Congress created the National Park Service a century ago to protect America’s treasured natural, historical and cultural sites, and to ensure that Americans can enjoy these treasures. It is Congress’ responsibility to ensure the agency has the resources it needs to fulfill that mission.
Our representatives in Congress need to work together to make funding our parks a priority again. In this centennial year of our National Park Service, Congress must commit to making sure San Antonio’s missions and all our parks have the resources and support they need to continue protecting America’s favorite places.
Rebecca J. Viagran, District 3 City councilwoman, is a member of the Visit San Antonio board of directors.
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