The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) is asking,
"Where is America's hottest real estate market? It could be our national parks."
In their report America's Heritage For Sale the NPCA highlights the risks of private lands within the National Parks being developed inappropriately, and calls on Congress to increase funding to purchase these lands.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is one of ten case studies highlighted in the report. There are over 150 private inholdings in the park. It is located in a popular resort area and faces increasing pressure from residential and commercial development. The report urges the immediate purchase of 3 parcels that are available and would protect valuable environmental and cultural areas.
The report examines 55 national parks altogether, so I was a bit disappointed that Sleeping Bear Dunes was the only park in the Great Lakes region to be studied.
Funding for land acquisition in the parks has dropped dramatically in the last decade. Ironically the Land and Water Conservation Fund receives over $900 million dollars a year from oil and gas leases on the continental shelf. But only a small fraction of these funds are allocated to their intended purpose. The NPCA is calling for a reversal of that trend.
Over the past two years, the attention of the Administration, Congress, and the American people has turned increasingly toward the 2016 centennial of the National Park System. A variety of initiatives, including Centennial Challenge legislation now under consideration in Congress, have the potential to bring together the citizens of this nation around a great, common purpose—preparing our National Park System for its second century.
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