National Park Week

Sally Jewel, Secretary of the Interior, gave a major conservation speech at the National Geographic Society on Tuesday, April 19th. ACA Public Policy Chief Louis Metzger attended the event. 

Following the Secretary's speech, she was interviewed by Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief of the National Geographic.

Secretary Jewell presented a brief history of the park and public land system and noted that at this time, when national parks are being visited in record numbers, almost 307 million visits last year, the parks have almost $12 billion in maintenance expense backlog. Also, national parks and public lands are being threatened by a movement to return public lands to the states to do with as they wish, e.g. sell it off for development. 

Although Secretary Jewell did not use this term, some have called this movement "the public land heist." Secretary Jewell also presented her vision for the next 100 years and noted that rejuvenating the parks and public lands will require all of our support. 

Please let your senators and representatives know that you support the National Park Service and want public lands to remain public!