$750 Million to the National Parks Creating Jobs in a Variety of Fields

At the Dinosaur National Monument and Quarry, visitors can watch paleontologists remove fossils in a three-story glass building attached to a mountain, according to Dinosaurland KAO, Vernal, UT. Photo courtesy of Dinosaurland KAO.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Congress has directed $750 million toward national park infrastructures projects through the Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.. The funding comes as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“Investments in national park infrastructure will help to improve safety and public access; restore our national heritage; and bring immediate economic benefits—including thousands of new jobs in rural and urban communities nationwide,” said Karen Hevel-Mingo, Southwest regional program manager of the National Parks Conservation Association, Washington, D.C.

Nearly 800 projects are planned, which the National Parks Service, Washington, D.C., plans to use to create jobs in areas including: construction, deferred maintenance, energy efficiency equipment replacement, trails maintenance, abandoned mine lands safety projects, and road maintenance.

In addition, as part of this package, the NPS will provide about $15 million in grants to protect and restore buildings in historically black colleges and universities.

Among the Utah projects that are now getting underway is the demolition and replacement of the condemned Quarry Visitor’s Center at the Dinosaur National Monument for a price tag of about $13 million. Also, Zion National Park will receive funds to install additional solar panels, increasing the park’s renewable energy use to roughly 20% of the total demand, according to the Department of the Interior.

To find out more information about the current full list of projects which have been approved and received funding, seeing the National Park Service Recovery Act Projects chart which gives the states, parks, project descriptions, and funding for each project.