Cutting the 'green tape': Conservation group offers top 10 ways for Dept of Interior to streamline
The Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a nonpartisan leader in "market solutions" for conservation, will seek to triple the rate of endangered species' recovery, double fee revenues for national parks without putting all the onus on visitors and eliminate regulations for Americans who voluntarily want to provide assistance in managing habitat restoration.
PERC CEO Brian Yablonski told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that there is a $23 billion backlog in national parks' infrastructure needs, conservation projects and wastewater management.
As parks grow and visitor numbers hit record levels, the Interior Department needs a responsible way to fund the increased needs without burdening U.S. taxpayers or implementing restrictions, Yablonski said.
"One way to address the needs of our national parks directly is to connect funding with demand," Yablonski said.
Doubling fee revenue does not mean doubling fees, he said, noting that in other countries, American visitors often pay a surcharge to that park system because they do not contribute any of the baseline taxes to park conservation.
In that way, a visitor to Skyline Drive who hails from abroad should be charged a little more than a local Virginian going from Staunton to Front Royal who already pays into park coffers through taxation, he said.
However, Yablonski underlined that the national park system is unique in that 80% of fee revenue collected at any particular park stays to support that park specifically. The other 20% goes elsewhere, including into general funds supporting parks that do not charge fees. It would also "depoliticize" park funding because fees are collected independently of Congress.
Record increases in park visitors – according to the National Park Service (NPS) – have shown that people are willing to pay to enjoy America's parkland. Therefore, an increase in the $80 America the Beautiful pass would be one area where there may not be much pain for eager park visitors. NPS reported nearly 332 million visits to parks in 2024, an increase of 6.3 million.
The pass gets Americans into many national parks for free, allows entrance to Skyline Drive and also gives the bearer free parking at other park-owned properties, such as the Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, Amtrak station.
Reducing obstacles to voluntary conservation is one of the best ways to cut 'green tape'," Yablonski said. Landowners seeking to aid voluntary conservation must currently go through an at-times costly and/or strung-out chronological process before they can formally assist the agency.
"It can take up to a year to get those kind of agreements approved," Yablonski said. "We just think there's a way to streamline that and get those agreements approved sooner, especially if a landowner is taking measures to do voluntary conservation on his or her land," he said.
That "green tape" cut leads into PERC's recommendations regarding the Endangered Species Act, Yablonski added.
While the act has been effective in preventing extinction, it has not helped recover species listed as endangered.
Only 3% of endangered species have recovered and been taken off the list, while 99% remain extant.
"That's because the tools needed for both are different. A tool to prevent extinction might be a more regulatory-oriented tool to actually recover something and proactively improve. It is going to be more of a market-based incentive," he said.
"The problem is we're using the regulatory tool when we should be using the incentive-based tool. And so the idea of cutting green tape is actually what are some of the new tools to take in endangered species recovery from a number like 3% and get it to 10%. And I think it's important to set goals because there are folks that seem to be okay with 3% recovery in the environmental community, which to me is shocking. We should want to try something different, try new things, bring new tools to bear to increase endangered species recovery."
The full report will be available on PERC's website on Wednesday.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Interior Department for comment on its communications with PERC thus far.
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