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.

In the following column, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation CEO Carolyn Ward warns of the problems the weight of the National Park Service's unfunded maintenance needs will have on the Parkway.

Ray Russell is in the middle of the monthlong Relay With Ray, a run that will “explore and celebrate every twist, turn, nook, and cranny of the Blue Ridge Parkway” – all 469 miles of it – and raise awareness for the scenic parkway that offers stunning views of the Appalachian highlands.

If there are any billion-dollar babies in the National Park System, they would be the Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, both of which contributed more than $1 billion in tourism benefits to the communities surrounding their borders, according to a 2015 analysis of the National Park System's value to the national economy.