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Tom Wharton
A vital goal for this country would be to prepare the parks, to guard the parks, to conserve the parks, to make the parks relevant to the American people in honor of the 100th anniversary."
    President George W. Bush used those words to help launch a program to get the nation's 390 national park units improved in time to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016.
    This ambitious goal includes spending up to $3 billion in increased philanthropic, partnership and government resources.
    According to the National Park Service, goals include the following:
    * Improving priority facilities to acceptable condition.
    * Restoring native habitats by controlling invasive species and reintroducing key plant and animal species.
    * Doubling the number of volunteer hours.
    * Enrolling 2 million new Junior Rangers.
    In a panel discussion during last summer's Outdoor Writers Association of America conference in Virginia, Thomas Kiernan of the National Parks Conservation Association talked about the importance of these special places to Americans.
    "The parks are in desperate need of new energy, new funding and even a revitalized vision," he said. "Without these, the parks will continue to decline. Parks tell the American story and tell what it means to be an American."
   
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As anyone who has visited a national park in recent years knows, love and affection have not often been translated into money spent maintaining and improving facilities and trails or even preserving the environment.
    Kiernan offered a few examples of such neglect.
    At Yosemite, 25 percent of trails go without maintenance each year, he said.
    But, as Bill Wade of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees put it, not all of the problems can be solved by throwing money at them.
    "Without question, that is important, but it is only part of what needs to be done as we approach the 100th anniversary," he said. "The other part of it is that we need to go deeper and look at the governance of the National Park Service and the institutional processes of management."
    The hugely popular and important national park system in the U.S. needs an influx of new ideas and cash as the system approaches its 100th year. It is encouraging that the Bush administration recognizes this need and is starting to put a budgetary and administrative emphasis on improving the system.
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    * TOM WHARTON can be contacted at wharton @sltrib.com. His phone number is 801-257-8909. Send comments about this story to livingeditor@sltrib.com.