$3 billion proposed for National Parks

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne came to the country's most-visited national park _ the Great Smoky Mountains _ on Tuesday to promote a Bush administration plan to give the national park system a $3 billion gift for its 100th birthday in 2016.

"The president has been very clear that he would like to use these 10 years as the time of preparation" for special projects tied to the centennial, Kempthorne told The Associated Press in an interview.

"It is not simply to roll out a master plan in 10 years. But instead it is to roll up our sleeves right now and get to work."

The goal is to have "actual projects on the ground, new programs that have been implemented, that are in place" by 2016, the former Idaho governor said.

Kempthorne and National Park Service Director Mary Bomar were to hold a public listening session Tuesday evening with park supporters to begin generating ideas _ the first of 17 such sessions scheduled through the end of the month from Anchorage to Los Angeles. A session is set for March 27 in Albuquerque.

The administration proposes a $258 million increase in national parks' funding in fiscal 2008 to $2.4 billion. Beyond that, the plan offers an additional $100 million for operations, including restoring some 3,000 seasonal park rangers, and $100 million in new federal money to match $100 million in new private giving for special centennial projects each year through 2016.

Kempthorne came to the Smokies for this initial session because the park is so popular _ some 9.4 million visitors came to the 520,000-acre preserve on the Tennessee-North Carolina border in 2006, more than double the second-most visited park _ the Grand Canyon.

But he said good projects can happen anywhere.

"We have 390 national park units. Any of the 390 over the course of these 10 years can be a viable candidate for a signature project," he said. "The opportunity here is to inspire and to involve the American public in our parks."

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Republican with a home near the Smokies and membership on the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing the parks, is a supporter. So is Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., chairman of the House Interior Appropriations subcommittee.

Kempthorne said Dicks called him at home after the parks proposal was announced to say "this is the budget he had hoped to see for a number of years."

The National Parks Conservation Association contends the national parks have been operating with an annual shortfall of more than $800 million, resulting in a long backlog of maintenance and preservation needs.

Support groups like the Friends of Great Smoky Mountains, which has raised more than $17 million for Smokies projects since 1995, and the Great Smoky Mountains Association, which has raised $15 million since 1953, have helped fill those needs.

Kempthorne said he hopes the possibility of matching federal money will do even more.

"We have 144 different friends organizations at the respective parks. And they have said, 'We are willing to step up and be the margin of excellence. We just don't want to be the margin of survival. (But) we need to see that the federal government will do its part,'" he said.

"Well, with this operations budget, we have stepped up," Kempthorne said.

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National Park Service: http://www.nps.gov/2016

Great Smoky Mountains: http://www.nps.gov/grsm/

National Parks Conservation Association: http://www.npca.org/nationalpriority