As Congress works in the coming months to reach accord on legislation that would provide billions of dollars to address the National Park System's nearly $12 billion in maintenance work that's been put off for a year or longer, the backlog continues to inch higher and higher. If a funding mechanism is passed, then the National Park Service will have to craft a national priority list of projects that need to be tackled. While that list doesn't exist yet, here's a look at some possible top priorities.

The health of America’s national parks depends upon the health of the waters that surround, and flow through, them. At the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), we work every day to protect and restore waterways across the country to benefit national parks, the communities that surround them, and the millions of people who visit them each year.

Under the category of "what were they thinking?" an employee for the National Park Service and one assigned to the office of the Secretary of Interior used government credit cards for personal expenses, according to investigations. In the Park Service case, the card was used to purchase a water heater for the personal residence of a supervisor at Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, the investigators determined.

Spray-painted graffiti is becoming an increasing problem in parks around the country, so it was encouraging to learn about a successful investigation of one such incident at Gateway National Recreation Area. This case involved graffiti on top of a historic gun battery structure at the park, and nice work by a ranger has resulted in charges against the individuals responsible.