About $15-million on Yellowstone-
My opinion.
Anyone who has traveled extensively will find many Park and public land projects were originally built with stimulus funds from the Great Depression. You will often find a cabin, amphitheater, trail, etc. was built by the New Deal’s CCC or WPA. Despite the controversy over the stimulus funds for the “great recession,” similar projects have finally been undertaken 75 years later.
Story. Biden touts stimulus projects in national parks. By Matt Volz. Associated Press Writer
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
It’s good to see some of that money go to the National Parks. I just returned from a trip to Olympic National Park and I’m always amazed that a Park its size can be maintained to the degree it is on their current budget. National Parks are so important to preserve at least a piece of the natural landscape.
3/4 billion isn’t enough considering that the NPS has a $7B backlog of deferred maintenance. That’s just repairing, to say nothing of modifying/adding/changing.
Anyone who’s ever driven the Zion NP tunnel, hiked the YOSE trail to Columbia Rock, or stayed at Mt Hood’s Timberline Hotel should appreciate the work of the CCC/WPA. I’d love to see a return of those programs.
All that wonderful CCC/WPA work occurred in the absence of building codes, labor codes, OHSA, EPA, and ESA. I doubt we could build 10% of the projects today given the regulatory hurdles and the ones we could would be at 10x the cost in adjusted dollars.