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Grand Canyon National Park.

MARK BRODIE: The U.S. Senate this week could vote on a measure that supporters say would fund vital maintenance projects in national parks, as well as preserve and expand trails, fields and other public outdoor spaces. The Great American Outdoors Act has nearly 60 co-sponsors in the Senate, including both of Arizona's senators. If it passes the Senate, it would still need approval by the House. President Trump has indicated he'd sign the bill if it reaches his desk. I spoke earlier about the proposal with Marcia Argust, project director for the Restore America's Parks campaign, with the Pew Charitable Trusts.

MARCIA ARGUST: There hasn't been much positive news lately, but the Senate may soon change that. It's considering one of the most significant pieces of legislation to impact our parks and public lands in over 50 years. The Great American Outdoors Act will invest in the restoration of our national parks and other public lands and also protect access to lands for hunting and fishing, as well as places like local playgrounds and soccer fields. And by doing that, it's also going to be creating jobs across the country.

BRODIE: What to you are the most important provisions? Because there's a lot in there. So I'm curious, what to you really stands out as being the most critical here?

ARGUST: I think what's really important about this legislation and people should know is that it is not funded with taxpayer moneys. Also, it will ensure that places that are historic sites in our park service are maintained, as well as things that visitors may not normally think about, but are important, like decades old water systems and water lines that are important to visitors, right? So the legislation will take care of some of this deteriorating infrastructure. It also will help to restore some iconic monuments, other things like battlefields, Gettysburg, those monuments need to be stabilized. And then you have cultural sites like Mesa Verde where you need the stabilization of archaeological sites. And if that funding isn't there, you know, we're going to see pieces of our history that fall away, literally.

BRODIE: We've been hearing for so long about the maintenance backlog of projects that need to be done in national parks across the country. How big of a dent would this put in that list of needed repair and maintenance projects?

ARGUST: So the total National Park Service backlog is nearly $12 billion. This bill would direct about $6 billion to help restoration needs, and that would address the priority projects. And that's, you know, really important because the Park Service really is in a mode of triaging projects.

BRODIE: It's interesting that this bill would basically deal with half of this backlog of these needed repairs. And, you know, people are pretty excited about that. I guess that maybe speaks to the lack of funding that the parks and these maintenance projects have gotten over the last several years.

ARGUST: Well, remember that the national park system is over 100 years old. So you, you have facilities that are 50, 60, 70 years old. And infrastructure has a finite life cycle. You add to that hundreds of millions of visitors coming to the parks each year. You know, also add to that funding that hasn't been able to keep up each year. And so there's a perfect storm right where the Park Service simply hasn't been able to maintain all the resources that the Park Service manages.

BRODIE: Your organization put together a state-by-state list of the projects in the states across the country that need maintenance. And Arizona's was close to the top in terms of the most money that would be needed, almost $600 million. The vast majority of that, of course, goes, would go to the Grand Canyon National Park. Is there a sense of how this $6 billion or so dollars would be allocated? Do we know what the, the most critical projects are and where those projects are at this point or does that still have to be decided?

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Grand Canyon National Park.

ARGUST: The National Park Service ... Well, first, let's, let's talk about Arizona for a minute. Arizona has an embarrassment of riches, you know, 24 national park sites that draw 13 million people each year. And those people are spending $1.3 billion. And that's just in, you know, the local communities. As far as how the money would be spent if the Great American Outdoors Act is enacted, the Park Service has a system of prioritizing needs, and that's based on what the mission of a site is. You know if a certain asset in the site is the actual mission, for instance, if the Washington Monument is falling down, that would be a pretty important need to fix. It's also based on visitor safety and access and cultural preservation. So there's a number of criteria that the Park Service takes into account.

BRODIE: Have we seen any changes in the types of projects that are needed or maybe the status of some of those projects during this pandemic when parks in large part closed and then were empty for a little while and are now starting to welcome back smaller numbers of visitors? Has that had any impact on what we've seen over the last number of years?

ARGUST: I don't think the pandemic has had a change to the types of deferred maintenance. What I do think has happened is that during the pandemic, there's certainly been a recognition of the value of our public lands and our national parks. And also, you know, with small businesses — certainly around the parks that have been struggling even more when people haven't been able to go to the parks. That is, caused people to cry out even more for the need to have legislation that will make sure that these resources are sustained in the long term because they recognized what a boon these parks are to their local economies.

BRODIE: All right. That is Marcia Argust, project director with the Restore America's Parks program with the Pew Charitable Trusts. Marcia, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.

ARGUST: Thank you.

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