California Needs $4.9 Billion for Public Land Repairs

U.S. national and state parks need repairs estimated to have a deferred maintenance backlog at more than $35 billion, and Congress has an opportunity to help them. Veronica Carter and Bret Burkhart learned more from senior officer in U.S. Conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts, Rebecca Knuffke.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
National and state parks are visited by millions of Americans
every year, but these areas are in dire need of repairs,
with a combined deferred maintenance backlog now estimated at more
than thirty five billion. With a B Dollars.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Joining us now on the Coco News liveline as Senior
Officer for US Conservation at Pew Charitable Trust, Rebecca Kanufki,
Thank yous for joining us on San Diego's Morning News.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Thirty five billion dollars has that been secured already to
help with the deferred maintenance.

Speaker 4 (00:31):
So the thirty five billion is the total need across
the country in deferred maintenance. So the bill that was
passed in twenty twenty, the Great American Outdoors Act, created
a fund, the Legacy Restoration Fund, which provided for billions
of dollars over the course of five years to help
address these maintenance backlog needs. But over many, many years,

(00:53):
we've had this snowballing effect due to underfunding as visitation
increases as well, and we ended up up with this
very large deferred maintenance backlock. Now we're five years out
after the passage of that bill, we've had tremendous successes,
but the fund has now expired. It expired in twenty
twenty five, and there are many, many more repair needs
across the country.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
You would mention that, you know, the increase in visitors,
it feels like it started during COVID and it hasn't
died down. I expected after COVID was over that people
would go back indoors again, but they are staying outdoors.
Do you see that as a trend that's just going
to keep continuing?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
We doo.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
I mean, parks and public lands are one of the
treasures of the United States. I think those visitation trends
have been steadily climbing up for many years, and that's
in many ways a great problem to have. We just
need to make sure that they're safe and in good repair.
I think one of the biggest aspects of this is
that local communities, the gateway communities, rely on the tourism

(01:52):
dollars from that visitation and also from these legacy Restoration
Fund repairs.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
To give you a.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
Sense, just in California alone, in twenty twenty four to
thirty nine point four million park visitors sent an estimated
three point seven billion dollars in local gateway regions in
California while visiting Park Service lands and this supported thirty
five point seven thousand jobs and two point one billion.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
In later Well, we're speaking with senior Officer for you
as Conservation at the Pew Charitable Trust, Rebecca Kanucki. In California,
we have some of the best parks in the country.
What have you been able to do to help cut
down on the list of deferred maintenance?

Speaker 4 (02:31):
After five full years of funding, LRF will have invested
nine hundred and seventy eight million towards improving over three
hundred and thirty assets or.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Thirty four projects in California.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
And to give you a sense though, of the remaining
need throughout California for all of the public land management agencies,
it's close to five billion dollars.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
Still, what do we do to make sure that funding
is available to fix all the things that need to
be fixed in our parks?

Speaker 4 (02:57):
Great question. Congress has the appertunity to reauthorize this funding,
and there's a ton of momentum currently in Congress to
do so. So right now we have two bills. We
have one in the Senate fifteen forty seven and in
the House HR. Nine two five zero, incredibly bipartisan bills.
The House bill was introduced just on June tenth, and

(03:19):
we already have two hundred and eleven by partisan co
sponsors in the House. We already up to sixty eight
in the Senate. We have the opportunity to invest in
this and create a legacy for future generations.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Well, Rebecca, thank you so much for what you are
doing in your organization is doing to really keep up
the parks here in California. Thank you so much for
joining us.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
All right, Rebecca Kanucki, Senior Officer for US Conservation at
the Pew Charitable Trust