The Great American Outdoors Act Will Restore and Protect Our National Parks and Public Lands
The Great American Outdoors Act Will Restore and Protect Our National Parks and Public Lands
Washington, D.C., August 4, 2020 – The Great American Outdoors Act -- the greatest conservationist law in half a century --was signed into law today by the President of the United States. It is a historic, bipartisan conservationist bill that will support local economies, improve outdoor recreational areas, and protect public lands.
The bill fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund and establishes the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Fund, which would direct up to $6.6.5 billion in non taxpayer monies over five years to address the priority repairs of the National Park Service’s $12 billion in backlog maintenance.
The Great American Outdoors Act is the biggest investment in national parks in over half a century. Its passage reflects the work of the Restore Our Parks campaign supported by an informal coalition of national, state, and local organizations seeking to protect national park and public land resources by addressing the maintenance backlog, including the Trust for the National Mall:
The act will help sustain the 5.2 million American jobs the recreation industry supports each year—spending from park visitors alone supports over 340,000 jobs annually—and a recent National Park Service (NPS) analysis projects that it will generate an additional 100,000 park-related jobs, says our partner, Marcia Argust, Project Director of the Restore Our Parks campaign at Pew Charitable Trusts.
Read the full statement from Restore Our Parks.
Read more about why this progress is critical to the work of the Trust for the National Mall.
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About the Trust for the National Mall
The Trust for the National Mall is the leading nonprofit partner of the National Park Service dedicated to restoring and improving the National Mall.
We steward private support to design and deliver modern and resilient solutions that will transform the visitor experience and preserve the historic legacy of America’s premier National Park.