Dear Congress,
The National Park Service (NPS) is the single largest protector of public history and culture in the country.
Two-thirds of our more than 430 national park sites are dedicated to history and culture. However, according to NPCA’s new report, A Cultural Resource Challenge for the National Park Service, they have been forced to do more with less for many years.
Before the recent staffing cuts, out of the 20,000 NPS employees across the country, only 138 are full-time historians. In fact, since 2011, the Park Service has lost 25% of its historians. Tight budgets have forced park managers to make difficult choices, diminishing the agency’s ability to preserve and interpret America’s diverse history.
I urge you to provide $250 million for long-underfunded cultural resources and history programs at America’s national parks.
This much-needed funding infusion would:
- Help NPS hire 450 historians, archivists, ethnographers, and other cultural resources experts.
- Aid the Park Service in managing historic and cultural resources, including a system-wide plan for protecting those resources from climate change threats.
- Give park staff the opportunity to digitize archives, expanding visitor access to unique American artifacts from anywhere in the world and helping park professionals keep better track of the system’s historic objects.
NPS is one of America’s greatest storytellers, and NPS rangers work tirelessly to bring history to life, creating unforgettable experiences for visitors to hundreds of national park sites dedicated to history across the country.
