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Senator Murray visits with fourth graders in Seattle earlier this year to celebrate the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative by the National Park Service.
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) released the following statement on the centennial of the National Park Service, founded in 1916. This year marks 100 years of stewardship of America’s national parks and engaging communities through recreation, conservation, and historic preservation programs. In May, Senator Murray visited a National Park Service program, Every Kid in a Park, to mark the Park Service centennial. The program Every Kid in a Park gives fourth graders nationwide free access to experience federal lands and waters throughout the school year.
“As a nation, we owe it to future generations to preserve and protect our outdoor spaces, and on the centennial of the National Park Service this week we recognize our unparalleled national park system,” Senator Murray said. “I plan to keep pushing for strong investments in the National Park Service and the Land and Wildlife Conservation Fund, which supports projects in Washington state and across the country. I will do whatever it takes to support the protection of our precious public lands.”
In light of the NPS centennial, Senator Murray also highlighted the continued push for permanent reauthorization of the Land and Wildlife Conservation Fund (LWCF), which helps protect and enhance our national parks. Created in 1965, the LWCF is an enormously successful tool for protecting our nation’s outdoor heritage for future generations, improving access to existing public lands, supporting working forests, and enhancing recreation opportunities in urban areas. The LWCF has put more than $637 million into Washington projects, including the protection of more than 120,000 acres of land and the creation or enhancement of hundreds of recreation facilities.
The Energy Policy Modernization Act that was passed by the Senate in April also permanently reauthorizes the Historic Preservation Fund and creates the National Park Maintenance and Revitalization Fund, to address the deferred maintenance needs at National Park Service sites across the country, including important infrastructure improvements at Mount Rainier National Park, Olympic National Park, and the North Cascades National Park.
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