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02-06-2007, 08:14 AM
By The Associated Press and Seattle Times staff
Under President Bush's 2008 budget, unveiled Monday, national parks in Washington state, along with others around the nation, would get extra money next year to prepare for a big birthday bash — their own.
The National Park Service would get its largest-ever funding increase in preparation for the park system's 100th birthday in 2016.
Bush allots $2.4 billion for the agency, $230 million more than he requested last year. His plan includes $100 million that would be matched by private donations for the centennial.
Olympic National Park would get an additional $1.67 million for operations, a 15 percent increase over its 2006 budget. Mount Rainier would get an extra $1.25 million, an increase of 12 percent. The North Cascades National Park would see an 11 percent increase, about $670,000.
The budget proposal doesn't include money to repair damage from November's flooding, which caused more than $30 million in damage to national parks in Western Washington. That would be covered under a different budget.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., panned Bush's proposal, calling the plan to leverage private donations "an illusion."
The new funding is largely the result of shifting funds from existing important park programs, such as construction, into a new budget column with a new label, Rahall said.
Ron Tipton, senior vice president for programs at the National Parks Conservation Association, said the proposal would help deal with crumbling facilities, growing pollution and lack of park staff.
For the second year in a row, the Bush administration also proposed selling off up to 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools and roads. Western lawmakers and environmentalists blasted the plan, saying short-term gains would be offset by the permanent loss of the land.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the new chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that oversees environmental spending, pronounced the plan dead on arrival.
"We're going to find a way to fund the [rural] schools program without selling even one acre of public land," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003558617_nationalparks06m.html
Under President Bush's 2008 budget, unveiled Monday, national parks in Washington state, along with others around the nation, would get extra money next year to prepare for a big birthday bash — their own.
The National Park Service would get its largest-ever funding increase in preparation for the park system's 100th birthday in 2016.
Bush allots $2.4 billion for the agency, $230 million more than he requested last year. His plan includes $100 million that would be matched by private donations for the centennial.
Olympic National Park would get an additional $1.67 million for operations, a 15 percent increase over its 2006 budget. Mount Rainier would get an extra $1.25 million, an increase of 12 percent. The North Cascades National Park would see an 11 percent increase, about $670,000.
The budget proposal doesn't include money to repair damage from November's flooding, which caused more than $30 million in damage to national parks in Western Washington. That would be covered under a different budget.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., panned Bush's proposal, calling the plan to leverage private donations "an illusion."
The new funding is largely the result of shifting funds from existing important park programs, such as construction, into a new budget column with a new label, Rahall said.
Ron Tipton, senior vice president for programs at the National Parks Conservation Association, said the proposal would help deal with crumbling facilities, growing pollution and lack of park staff.
For the second year in a row, the Bush administration also proposed selling off up to 300,000 acres of national forests and other public land to help pay for rural schools and roads. Western lawmakers and environmentalists blasted the plan, saying short-term gains would be offset by the permanent loss of the land.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., the new chairman of an Appropriations subcommittee that oversees environmental spending, pronounced the plan dead on arrival.
"We're going to find a way to fund the [rural] schools program without selling even one acre of public land," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003558617_nationalparks06m.html