'America's best idea' deserves our investment.

Byline: Seth Shteir

THE crimson sun is disappearing behind a shadowy mesa when my class edges up to the rim of the Grand Canyon. Several excited fifth- and sixth-graders point skyward, as if to salute the coming dusk. But it's not the stunning red rock formations or mind-blowing scale of the Grand Canyon that captivates them, but two pterodactyl-like condors soaring over the chasm in the light spring wind.

It's moments like this that made my classes' claustrophobic nine-hour bus ride from Los Angeles worthwhile, and why President Theodore Roosevelt declared 800,000 acres of the Grand Canyon a national monument in 1908.

On one visit, Roosevelt, like my fifth- and sixth-grade class, was so moved by the Grand Canyon's majesty, he gave a famous speech. "Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children's children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights which every American if he can travel at all should see."

Now the sentiments of President Roosevelt and enthusiastic young visitors like my students from the San Fernando Valley are captured in a new documentary about the history of the national parks by Ken Burns. "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" chronicles the diverse, fascinating and, at times, contentious history of the National Park System while also celebrating the experience of countless visitors.

It's through the lens of history that the viewers of "America's Best Idea" will become aware of both the evolution of the national parks and the common thread connecting our national parks' past with their present. Some of the challenges our parks faced 40 or 80 years ago, like chronic federal funding shortfalls, are present today while other threats, like climate change, are new.

What does it mean for the National Park Service - the agency responsible for overseeing our national parks - to have a $600 million annual operating shortfall and a backlog of maintenance needs of $8 billion? A great deal. Consider whether a corporation could remain solvent with $8 billion worth of debt.

In 2008, Washington Mutual filed for bankruptcy when saddled with $8.2 billion worth of debt. Funding is no less crucial in a government agency like the National Park Service than it is in a corporation.

It is funding that allows National Park Service biologists to track and study wolves in Yellowstone's backcountry; that hires interpretive rangers so they can take children on hikes to learn about the ecology of Joshua tree forests; that gives park maintenance staff the manpower and resources to patch potholes in park roads and clean dirty bathrooms. Our parks need long-term increases in their budgets to ensure that the caretakers of our parks can do their jobs.

While chronic funding shortfalls have long plagued the Park Service, climate change is a new threat that is disrupting ecosystems in our national parks.

Higher temperatures are melting glaciers at an unprecedented rate in Glacier National Park in Montana; oceans are becoming more acidic from the absorption of carbon dioxide and damaging coral reefs at Biscayne National Park in Florida; and warmer water and high peak stream flows associated with climate change are stressing salmon in Olympic National Park in Washington.

In order to protect our parks from further damage, we need a nation-wide commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, invest in renewable energy, and dedicate funding from federal climate change legislation to help wildlife survive the effects of climate change. Projects that reduce stress on wildlife like invasive species removal, acquiring and protecting critical wildlife corridors and restoring wetlands can increase the resiliency of wildlife and our natural systems in the face of climate change.

Despite these threats the national parks have endured as America's best idea. As the National Park Service nears its 100 birthday in 2016, now is the time to reinvest in our parks for our children and grandchildren. Fundamentally democratic, unapologetically idealistic, unabashedly spiritual - yet grounded in the American pragmatism and land ethic - our park system is unique.

And there's no question that my sixth-grade class would agree. Walking on the rim trail back toward our hotel, one of my students best expresses why the work of the National Park Service is worth celebrating and why national parks like the Grand Canyon are inspirational:

"The view is amazing! It looks like it could go on forever. All the pictures and paintings never captured how big it is or how wide and beautiful."

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Joshua Tree National Park, located in southeastern California, was declared a U.S. national park in 1994.

Gabriel Bouys AFP/Getty Images