Mount Moran looms above Oxbow Bend in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park

In a rare bipartisan vote, Congress sends billions to the national parks

Lawmakers commit to fixing roads and buildings on forests and grasslands, as well as putting $900 million a year toward land and water conservation.

Mount Moran looms above Oxbow Bend in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.
Photograph by Charlie Hamilton James, Nat Geo Image Collection

A 40-year-old sewage system at the bottom of the Grand Canyon—built to protect the Colorado River from pollution—is in such disrepair that the national park this summer began limiting visitors to nearby campgrounds.

Leaks at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church National Historic Park, where Martin Luther King, Jr. served as pastor, have left crumbling plaster and stains on the ceiling. The primary electrical system at Fort Mason in Golden Gate National Recreation Area has been deemed unsafe.

From 50-year-old ranger housing in Yellowstone, to the decaying Arlington Memorial Bridge across Washington, D.C.’s Potomac River, to rundown trails in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, repair work in the country’s national parks and recreation areas has been delayed for decades as Congress avoided footing the multibillion-dollar

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