Heinrich pushes Interior for list of national parks that could be sent to states under Trump plan
The Valle Grande blanketed by snow in 2019 in the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a national park. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is calling on Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to say which national parks the agency wishes to transfer to states or municipalities. (Photo by the National Park Service)
United States Interior Secretary Doug Burgum recently testified that his agency is eying about 400 national parks for possible transfer to states or localities, but he has not yet detailed which ones the agency wishes to get rid of.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) on Thursday re-upped his call for Burgum to release that list, sending the secretary a letter demanding explanations for how the agency is making these decisions as it simultaneously seeks to cut 30% of its operating budget.
Heinrich's letter also says that only Congress has the authority to transfer national parks 'in most circumstances,' so he expressed his opposition, as ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to the transfer of any national park.
According to Heinrich's letter, President Donald Trump's plan for the Interior Department would cut $900 million from its budget. But Heinrich defended national parks as, among other things, 'engines of economic growth,' as visitors to national parks contributed about $56 billion to the economy in 2023 and supported more than 400,000 jobs.
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Burgum testified that the agency is not seeking to get rid of any of the nation's 64 'crown jewel' national parks, but that some of the more than 400 other NPS sites could be managed by state or local authorities.
Heinrich noted that states often don't have adequate resources to adequately manage the parks that are now under federal control, parks that he said accomplish important conservation and other objectives and 'tell the complex story of our nation.'
'The budget proposal makes clear that the administration expects the states to shoulder the burden of managing these sites without any additional funding or resources, many of which have significant and costly deferred maintenance backlogs.'
In previous committee testimony, Heinrich pointed to the Valles Caldera National Preserve as an example of a park that isn't a 'big-P national park' but still 'incredibly important parts of our National Park System, our history and our culture.'
In addition to the president's budget proposal, the House of Representatives last week passed a reconciliation bill that, among other actions, undoes $267 million in Inflation Reduction Act spending on personnel including rangers, emergency responders, scientists and curators, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
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