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A new Department of the Interior report released this week revealed that visitors to National Park Service lands contributed a whopping $42.5 billion to the economy in 2021, up about 25 percent from 2020. This spending supported around 268,900 jobs in park gateway communities, proving that public lands are an essential economic force for these communities.
“Nature is essential to the health, well-being and prosperity of every family and community in America, as well as to the local economies of gateway communities that support our national parks,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in a statement. “As we continue to welcome families to our parks and public lands across the country, the Interior Department is committed to making investments in our lands and waters that will support tens of thousands of jobs, safeguard the environment, and help ensure that national parks and public lands are ready to meet the challenges of climate change and increased visitation.”
In 2022, the National Park Service will implement a new socioeconomic monitoring project that will conduct annual surveys at 24 parks for at least 10 years. This project will give an in-depth understanding of visitor spending and experience.
Wildland firefighters just got a raise… but is it enough?
Grassroots Wildland Firefighters vice president Lucas Mayfield and advocate Michelle Hart come on The Landscape to talk about what it’s like to be a wildland firefighter and what the federal government can do to attract new people to the profession. They talk about historic, but temporary, increases to firefighter pay and benefits announced by the White House this week, as well as legislation called Tim’s Act—after Michelle’s husband who died while fighting a fire—that would make those changes permanent, in addition to providing comprehensive mental and physical health coverage, housing assistance, retirement savings, and more.
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We’re asking our folks to work in riskier and riskier environments now, and we’re seeing it more where firefighters are being killed. It does weigh on you. Our folks are fatigued.”
