Jobs Interactive: Potential in Restoring Our National Parks

Note: The most recent information can be found in the 2019 version of this report, which uses National Park Service fiscal year 2018 data. It can be found here.

Our national parks are American treasures. They not only preserve significant historical sites and natural resources, but they also are economic engines for local communities and states. In 2016, the centennial of the National Park Service (NPS) drew record crowds: 331 million visits. These visitors spent more than $18 billion in communities adjacent to parks, which in turn supported 318,150 jobs and nearly $35 billion in national economic output.  But many of our irreplaceable parks need repairs. As the NPS begins its second century, it is grappling with $11.3 billion in deferred maintenance at the more than 400 sites it manages. Roads are crumbling, trails are blocked, buildings are deteriorating, and water and sewer pipes are leaking. Years of inconsistent congressional funding have made it difficult for NPS to make all of the needed repairs, which means the agency has had to postpone less critical maintenance.

Paying down the repair backlog will help ensure that America’s parks continue to protect the nation’s history, expand recreational opportunities, and support local economies, including creating infrastructure-related jobs. A 2017 study—"Restoring Parks, Creating Jobs: How Infrastructure Restoration in the National Park System Can Create or Support Jobs," commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts and conducted by the independent firm Cadmus Group—found that more than 110,000 jobs could be created or supported if funds were invested to resolve the NPS maintenance backlog. This interactive map shows where those positions could be located and includes data on park visitation and visitor spending.