From Fiscal Year 2006 through Fiscal Year 2015 the National Park Service spent roughly $10.5 billion on deferred maintenance projects, and yet the overall price tag for deferred maintenance continued to creep ever higher, leading the Government Accountability Office to wonder if the Park Service's strategy for tackling the projects was sound.

An anonymous donor is raising the stakes at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a matching challenge. Each donation designated for the former estate near Blowing Rock, North Carolina, will be matched dollar for dollar if the $300,000 goal is reached.

Two million dollars to help remove 500 tons of debris at Point Reyes National Seashore. Twenty-three-million dollars committed for land acquisition at Grand Teton National Park. Another $2 million to help open Stonewall National Monument.

Running more than 160 pages, the National Park Service Management Policies provides park managers with quick reference to how they are to manage their units, what uses are appropriate, and how to usher visitors out of the park when Congress fails to fund the National Park Service. But the Management Policies, which last were updated in 2006, also leave much to interpretation and exception.