California Needs $4.9 Billion for Public Land Repairs

Hello, it is Ryan, and we could all use an extra bright spot in our day, couldn't we? Just to make up for things like sitting in traffic, doing the dishes, counting your steps, you know, all the mundane stuff. That is why I'm such a big fan of Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere, with daily bonuses. So sign up now at chumbac casino.com. That's chumbac casino.com. National and state parks are visited by millions of Americans every year, but these areas are in dire need of repairs with a combined deferred maintenance backlog now estimated at more than $35 billion with a B dollars. Joining us now on the Kogo News Liveline is senior officer for U.S. Conservation at the Pew Charitable Trust, Rebecca Canofky. Thank you for joining us on San Diego's Morning News. Thank you so much for having me. $35 billion, has that been secured already to help with the deferred maintenance? So the $35 billion is the total need across the country in deferred maintenance. So the bill that was passed in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act, created a fund, the legacy restoration fund, which provided for billions of dollars over the course of five years to help address these maintenance backlog needs. But over many, many years. We've had this snowballing effect due to underfunding as visitation increases as well. And we ended up with this very large deferred maintenance backlog. Now we're five years out after the passage of that bill. We've had tremendous successes. But the fund has now expired. It expired in 2025. And there are many, many more repair needs across the country. You would mention that, you know, the increase in visitors. It feels like it started during COVID. And it hasn't died down. I expected after COVID was over that people would go back indoors again, but they are staying outdoors. Do you see that as a trend that's just going to keep continuing? We too. I mean, parks and public lands are one of the treasures of the United States. I think those visitation trends have been steadily climbing up for many years. And that's in many ways a great problem to have. We just need to make sure that they're safe and in good repair. I think one of the biggest... aspects of this is that local communities, the gateway communities, rely on the tourism dollars from that visitation and also from these legacy restoration fund repairs. To give you a sense just in California alone, in 2024, 39.4 million park visitors spent an estimated $3.7 billion in local gateway regions in California while visiting park service lands. And this is supported 35.7,000 jobs and 2.1 billion in labor. We're speaking with senior officer for U.S. Conservation at the Pew Charitable Trust, Rebecca Canofky. In California, we have some of the best parks in the country. What have you been able to do to help cut down on the list of deferred maintenance? After five full years of funding, LRF will have invested $978 million towards improving over 330 assets. or 34 projects in California. And to give you a sense, though, of the remaining need throughout California for all of the public land management agencies, it's close to $5 billion still. What do we do to make sure that funding is available to fix all the things that need to be fixed in our parks? Great question. Congress has the opportunity to reauthorize this funding. And there's a ton of momentum currently in Congress.

to do so. So right now we have two bills. We have one in the Senate, 1547 and in the House. H.R. 9250, incredibly bipartisan bills. The House bill was introduced just on June 10th, and we already have 211 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House. We already have to 68 in the Senate. We have the opportunity to invest in this and create a legacy for future generations. Well, Rebecca, thank you so much for what you are doing and your organization is doing to really keep up the parks here in California. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much for the opportunity. All right, Rebecca Canofky, senior officer for U.S. Conservation at the Pew Charitable Trust. Hey, it's Ryan Sechrest here, and I have discovered a fun to escape from the daily grind Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino. Chumba Casino has hundreds of social casino-style games. It's all free to play anytime, anywhere with daily bonuses. So get to chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW. Boy, we're prohibited by law. See, terms and conditions, 21 plus. Trade screen time for race time at Virginia International Raceway. August 21st through 23rd, IMSA's Michelin GT Challenge brings some of the coolest cars to VIR for an unforgettable family weekend. Explore, meet drivers, see race cars up close, and experience the thrill of racing from every corner of the track. It's more than a race. It's a memory waiting to be made. Kids 12 and under get in free. Get your tickets at VIRFam.com. That's VIRFAM.com.