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    National parks

    National parks: Fix the parks America loves.

    America's national parks need major repairs to roads, water systems and buildings, and private gifts have helped the parks since before the Park Service existed.

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    Ryan K. Hertel · heyitskenton

    The problem

    What we're up against.

    • A growing repair bill.

      At the end of fiscal year 2025, the parks needed an estimated $24.2 billion in repairs to roads, buildings, water systems and more.

    • Built long ago.

      Much of the parks' infrastructure dates from a big building program of the 1950s and 1960s, and many structures have reached or passed the end of their expected lives.

    • Loved, and busy.

      The parks had 323,014,305 recreation visits in 2025.

    What works

    Proven, and ready to grow.

    • A fund just for repairs.

      A dedicated repair fund put $9.5 billion over five years into repairs across five federal land agencies, the Park Service among them.

    • What it fixes.

      The Interior Department expects the Park Service's projects to address about $4.7 billion of repair needs once they're finished.

    • People who give their time.

      In 2025, more than 138,000 volunteers worked for the National Park Service.

    • Partners on the ground.

      More than 290 philanthropic organizations and cooperating associations work alongside the parks.

    What a family could fund

    Where the money goes furthest.

    • A partner Congress created.

      Congress created the National Park Foundation to accept and administer gifts for the parks. In its year to September 2025, it received $144.4 million in contributions, by its own filing.

    • Gifts that finished the job.

      The National Park Foundation has put more than $43 million toward transforming the visitor experience at the Lincoln Memorial.

    • Families did it a century ago.

      John D. Rockefeller Jr. and his son Laurance paid for land and roads that enlarged and improved Acadia, Grand Teton, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Virgin Islands and Yosemite.

    Honest limits

    What money can't promise.

    • The backlog keeps growing.

      Even with the repair fund, the backlog rose from $23 billion in fiscal year 2024 to $24.2 billion in 2025. The fund's effect on the backlog is unclear.

    • The numbers are shaky.

      The Interior Department's inspector general found the Park Service couldn't manage its repair backlog well because its data were inaccurate and unreliable.

    • Gifts come with rules.

      Selling naming rights in parks is against the law, and a gift can't start construction until there's enough money in hand to finish the work.

    • The repair fund has run out.

      The fund's last yearly deposit was for fiscal year 2025; bills to renew it are before Congress.

    Hard questions

    Asked and answered.

    1. You might ask

      Why parks, when people need help?

      Ryan

      That's each family's choice, and other chapters fund people directly. Parks serve people too: visitors spent $29 billion in nearby towns.

    2. You might ask

      Won't private money let Congress spend less?

      Ryan

      It's a fair worry. The law behind the repair fund says it isn't meant to supplant yearly maintenance funding, though that funding has declined since. Matched gifts are one guard: the parks' matching fund only works when federal money comes too.

    3. You might ask

      Isn't this the government's job?

      Ryan

      Mostly, yes: Congress provides the base, and gifts add to it. But private giving helped the parks even before Congress created the National Park Service in 1916.

    In the slider

    See what your fortune could do here.

    National parks

    The slider prices this cause with these numbers:

    • The National Park Service's repair backlog is $24.2 billion.
    • Clearing all of it is the whole need.
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    More of the Blueprint

    Keep reading.

    23 more chapters on the way

    Back to Keep 100

    Sources

    Every number in this chapter, and where it came from.

    1. Source 1: By the Numbers: Infrastructure (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 22 May 2026. Checked 15 October 2026.

      Repair needs at the end of fiscal year 2025, not counting day-to-day operations.

    2. Source 2: Frequently Asked Questions about Director's Order 21 (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 8 June 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    3. Source 3: National Park Service Deferred Maintenance: Overview and Issues (R48136) (opens in a new tab)

      Congressional Research Service, 25 July 2024. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Nonpartisan analysis for Congress, via a public mirror.

    4. Source 4: Public Interest in National Parks Remains Strong as Visits Top 323 Million in 2025 (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 13 March 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    5. Source 5: The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA): Frequently Asked Questions (IF12888) (opens in a new tab)

      Congressional Research Service, 28 August 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Nonpartisan analysis for Congress, via a public mirror. The fund put up to $1.9 billion a year into repairs from fiscal 2021 to 2025.

    6. Source 6: Leaving a Legacy: National Park Service fact sheet (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of the Interior. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The department's own estimate for when the projects are finished.

    7. Source 7: Volunteer (Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park) (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 24 January 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      A park's own page, giving the national figure for 2025.

    8. Source 8: Our Partners (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 29 April 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

    9. Source 9: 54 U.S. Code 101111: Purpose and establishment of Foundation (opens in a new tab)

      Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. Checked 16 October 2026.

    10. Source 10: National Park Foundation (opens in a new tab)

      ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Checked 16 October 2026.

      From the Foundation's own tax filing, for the year to September 2025. Giving varies a lot from year to year.

    11. Source 11: National Park Service awards contract to transform visitor experience at the Lincoln Memorial (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 20 February 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

    12. Source 12: The National Park Service Faces Challenges in Managing Its Deferred Maintenance (opens in a new tab)

      US Department of the Interior, Office of Inspector General, 13 September 2023. Checked 16 October 2026.

    13. Source 13: Director's Order #21: Donations and Philanthropic Partnerships (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service. Checked 16 October 2026.

      The Park Service's binding rules for gifts, as amended through March 2025.

    14. Source 14: Legacy Restoration Fund for Deferred Maintenance: 119th Congress Reauthorization Bills (IN12729) (opens in a new tab)

      Congressional Research Service, 13 August 2026. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Nonpartisan analysis for Congress, via a public mirror.

    15. Source 15: Economic Contributions to Communities (opens in a new tab)

      National Park Service, 25 September 2025. Checked 16 October 2026.

      Visitor spending in 2024, from the Park Service's own model.