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The National Park Service is facing a backlog of 28 studies ordered by Congress meant to determine whether to add new park sites, national trails, national heritage areas, and wild and scenic rivers to the National Park System. This backlog is causing the studies to take longer than expected, producing frustration among advocates who would like to see new sites added to the system or existing sites elevated in status.
Each study costs an average of $350,000 and is expected to be done within three fiscal years, according to a report submitted to Congress last year. But “in practice studies have taken longer to prepare," it says. The report attributes the delays to “the large number of studies authorized by Congress and the extent of available resources.”
Congress added 11 new studies to the backlog in December. Among the 28 studies in the backlog right now, three are in the West. They include the Dearfield Homestead, Colorado's largest black homesteading settlement; locations along the Transcontinental Railroad in Utah; and new parks along the California coast in the Los Angeles area.
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We in the advocacy community have seen this film before where a nominally progressive president comes in with grand promises about leveraging the administrative state to advance progressive policy goals and then just waits until the last minute... It is a total unforced error. It is points left on the field.”
