Joined by former parkway Superintendent Phil Francis and other park advocates, the Environment North Carolina Research Policy Center held a news conference Thursday at the Parkway’s Visitor Center to release its new report, “Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
The report details how the parkway and 400 other NPS units have been affected by $350 million in cuts to the National Park Services’ operating budget since 2010. They include $784,000 lost by the parkway and $62,000 lost by the Carl Sandburg Home last March due to across-the-board cuts known as sequestration.
Budget cuts have forced parkway administrators to cancel ranger-led education programs, reduce staff and close some campgrounds, visitor centers and picnic areas along the 469-mile linear park, the most heavily used NPS unit in the country with 17 million visitors annually.
Representatives from Environment North Carolina, the Carolina Mountain Club and Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway said they hope the report will help act as a catalyst for citizens to write their congressmen in support of full funding for national parks in ongoing 2014 budget negotiations.
“Two of the things that are most open to the public, regardless of income, are our (public) schools and our parks,” said Hugh Stephens, past chairman
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