An initiative to build a $1 billion endowment for national parks in these distressed economic times is bold and ambitious, one that could do much good for a National Park System that Congress has been unable, or unwilling, to fully fund. But it won't happen overnight, and it will take continued support from administrations yet to be elected.

Though the national park movement is more than a century old, efforts are ongoing to support that movement and enhance the protection of national park lands globally. Recently the National Park Service bolstered those efforts by agreeing to work with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature on the support of parks and other protected areas world-wide.

Memo to Congress: Don't cut national park funding.