Indianz.Com > News > Cronkite News: Indian schools in line for Great American Outdoors Act funding
Arizona projects get sizeable cut of Great American Outdoors Act funds
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Arizona projects got $110 million last year and will get another $159 million in the fiscal year that started this month, or more than 9% of all funding nationally under the Great American Outdoors Act for those two years.
The money, dedicated largely to national parks but also to federal lands and tribal schools, has been welcomed by tourism and environmental groups, who said it is long overdue.
“The National Park Service has been underfunded over the years,” said Kevin Dahl, senior program manager for Arizona in the National Parks Conservation Association’s Southwest region.
“These are our jewels, and with visitation and with normal wear and tear, there’s a lot of buildings, a lot of roads, trails, etc. and those all need regular maintenance,” he said. “When you don’t maintain them over time, the backlog of maintenance becomes pretty high.”
For national parks, the backlog of deferred maintenance totaled $11.9 billion in 2018, according to data from the National Park Service. More than $507.4 million of that was for projects in Arizona, with $313.8 million needed in the Grand Canyon National Park alone. Joe Galli, senior adviser in public policy at the Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce, said the funding is critical to not just the park, but the region. “It’s very good for improving facilities and maintenance, and enhancing the visitors’ experience, those things are critical to the lifeblood of visitation in Arizona which is a critical component of our economy,” he said. National parks funding is just one element of the Great American Outdoors Act, which took effect last year. The act, which is permanently funded with revenues from offshore oil and gas leases, is expected to eventually provide up to $1.9 billion a year.Thanks to the Great American Outdoors Act, our public lands and Tribal schools are finally able to fund their deferred maintenance programs with $1.6 billion annually over the next five years. https://t.co/cqcodEWm2v pic.twitter.com/i6Rrr8dSpq
— Secretary Deb Haaland (@SecDebHaaland) October 27, 2021
Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
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