Where do the Democratic candidates for president stand on national parks and public lands?/Rebecca Latson file

Editor's note: It's ridiculously early in the runup to the 2020 presidential election, but not too early to quiz the candidates seeking the Democratic nomination on where they stand on various issues, including the national parks. Danny Bernstein decided to test the candidates on whether they support increased funding for the National Park Service. This is what she learned.

How important are national parks to the Democratic candidates? Do they think that their potential voters care about America’s public lands? I decided to find out by emailing them all -- 24 of them. The twenty-fourth candidate declared he was running while I was working on this piece.

I gave them a week to respond. This is what I asked:

Subject: Press inquiry - Funding our national parks

I am writing an article on where the Democratic candidates stand on funding national parks - 419 units of the National Park System - to reduce, even eliminate, the maintenance backlog. This is for National Parks Traveler, www.nationalparkstraveler.org, which provides daily editorial coverage of U.S. national parks. 

I didn't see anything on your website about national parks and public lands and where you stand on funding our parks.

It's not about the environment in general.  Please... I'm asking a specific question.

Will you support increasing funding for the National Park Service to eliminate the maintenance backlog?

Thank you in advance for a prompt, focused reply.  My deadline is Saturday May 19.

- - - -

To find their email address, I went to each website. Most were not encouraging or advertising an email address. But I quickly figured out that I could use info@, contact@ or/and press@ to get to them. I also wanted to ask them when they last visited a park unit, but I didn’t. It would be one more reason for them not to answer.

Instead, I looked up the number of park units in their home state; it seemed important to this quest. Do they come from a state with many parks, some designated "national parks"? Or does the state only have a couple of units, such as Delaware? In my total, I didn’t count historic trails or heritage areas.

Many candidates didn’t answer. I got a canned reply from a few that sounded similar to this one: 

Hello and thank you for emailing Biden for President! Due to the large number of emails that we receive each day, we are unable to personally respond to every email message. Below are answers to some of our most frequently asked questions. We hope that they are able to point you in the right direction.

The best way to support Joe Biden is by making a contribution to help fund our campaign for President. You can make a secure online contribution by going here …

But a few candidates gave me a real answer. Because I was more interested in their positions than if they answered my email request, I also looked at their websites and searched for their name and “national parks.” Here are the responses I received:

Steve Bullock - Montana

to Danny

Hey there -- the answer is... yes!

Jay Inslee – Washington

Governor Inslee is a longtime supporter of our national parks and supports increasing funding for the National Park Service to eliminate the maintenance backlog. Would also point you to our plan we released earlier this week.

https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/a-call-to-action-for-a-climate-cons...

This Climate Corps will have three elements. The first of these programs, called the National Climate Service Corps, will give young Americans the opportunity to serve in creating sustainabile solutions in their own communities. They’ll get right to work changing the world with their hands, even as they earn new skills to assist in future employment: learning how to retrofit buildings, install solar panels on rooftops, and build healthier and pollution-free communities with clean water, food security, and green development. Their work will also include the conservation of natural resources and addressing the backlog of public lands projects. And it will involve recovering and rebuilding resilient communities in the face of increasingly devastating climate disasters.

Seth Moulton - Massachusetts

A PLANET WITHOUT AN EXPIRATION DATE

We’re facing two primary challenges in this country right now. The first is that our economy is changing faster than ever before, and Americans everywhere are being left behind. The second is climate change. That’s why we need a Green New Deal: because if we do it right, we can solve both problems at once.

The Green New Deal needs to be built around green jobs and clean energy, decarbonization, and breakthrough technologies, and access to green energy for the developing world—and America should lead the way in winning this moral and economic opportunity. We can lead the world in green tech and green jobs, and we should set the standards for other countries to follow.

The New Deal paved the way for a strong economy and American leadership in the last century. Let’s shape the Green New Deal to help America lead this one.

Bernie Sanders - Vermont

Dear Danny,

Thanks so much for reaching out, and for your important question regarding Bernie’s stance on protecting our National Parks and public land.

Bernie believes that our parks should be protected both for the sake of environmental protection, and as a recreational resource for current and future generations. Bernie has taken a strong stance in support of funding for National Parks. He has called for full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Congress created the LWCF in 1965 to fund local, state and federal conservation and recreation efforts, and while it has been successful, it has too often faced cuts to its funding. In a recent statement, Bernie said:

“To my mind, it is important that we adequately fund the government programs that keep our air, water, and land clean and conserve our natural treasures for future generations to enjoy. As a member of the Senate energy and environment committees, I will continue to fight for full funding of the LWCF.”

Thank you again for reaching out to us with your question. If you would like to stay informed with the latest news and statements from Bernie and his team, you can follow him on social media on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.

In solidarity,

Michael

Team Bernie

Rep. Swalwell - California

You can attribute this statement to Rep. Swalwell:

"Yes, I support increasing funding for the National Park Service to eliminate the maintenance backlog. The Trump Administration’s attempts to devastate the NPS’ budget must end, and we must avoid government shutdowns that rapidly exacerbate damage to our parks. Public lands are a public good, and the planning process for maintaining our parks must get back on track to ensure that the interests of all Americans are protected for current and future generations. As President, I would urge Congress to send me the kind of legislation that U.S. Sens. Portman, Warner, Alexander, and King introduced in February to establish a “National Park Service Legacy Restoration Fund.” Their bill uses a share of existing government revenues from on- and offshore energy development; I’d rather find a sustained funding stream that can last for decades without further exacerbating our global climate problems." 

Elizabeth Warren – Massachusetts

From My Plan for Public Lands in Medium, Published April 15, 2019

https://medium.com/@teamwarren/my-plan-for-public-lands-e4be1d88a01c

We also have a responsibility to care for the lands in our possession — but for too long we haven’t funded our public land management agencies accordingly. Today our national parks alone face a bill of over $11 billion in deferred maintenance. The result? Crumbling roads and bridges, leaking roofs, and unmaintained trails now closed to hikers. It’s not just an embarrassment. It’s also poor stewardship of a hugely valuable economic resource. So let’s fix it. As president, I will fully fund our public land management agencies and eliminate the infrastructure and maintenance backlog on our public lands in my first term.

Andrew Yang – New York

From his website,

As President, I will…

Maintain protections for currently designated public lands and monuments and explore the designation of new lands when and where possible during my tenure.

Appoint a Secretary of the Interior who pledges to not return publicly held land back to private hands without my express approval.

Oppose turning federally held land over to states, preventing the sale or for-profit extraction of lands by state governments.

Restore protection to much of the 13m+ acres of land stripped of it during the tenure of the current administration.

Reinstate federal water protections ended under the current administration.

Expand the Every Kid in a Park initiative to provide funding for school trips to natural monuments and public lands, thus instilling a love and reverence for these treasures to future generations.

Green New Deal

Most candidates support the Green New Deal. See the recent article on National Parks Traveler: https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/05/democratic-presidential-candidates-staking-out-their-environmental-positions

Almost all websites had a version of the following from Kirsten Gillibrand’s website:

We need to act on climate change and protect our environment.

Climate change is the most serious threat to humanity today, and we need immediate and bold action to address it. Kirsten was one of the first supporters of the Green New Deal, which would take major steps to save our planet by investing in infrastructure, creating a green jobs economy and protecting clean air and water. We can get to a net-zero emissions economy by creating tax incentives to reward innovation and investment in renewable energy technology. We also need to put a price on carbon to steer companies away from fossil fuels and toward clean and renewable   energy sources. We also need to rejoin the Paris climate agreement, stop the expansion of offshore drilling and drilling on public lands and require companies to report climate risks.

Climate change is the broad category. It’s easy to say that you’re for the Green New Deal – the implementation is so vast and so far into the future. It’s very important but it doesn’t solve the problem of the cabin or statue in a historic park that needs maintenance. 

Conclusion

With such a small sample size and smaller response rate, it’s difficult to correlate responses from candidates with the number of parks in their constituency. My conclusion is that national parks are not a major talking point in the forthcoming election. But maybe if every reader of National Parks Traveler wrote to a few candidates to let them know that national parks are important and should be funded, public lands would not be ignored in the national debate. 

Just email to contact@ [their website]. Let me know via a comment to this article if you get a reply.