Report: Great Lakes Parks Facing $30 Million Backlog
By John Myers, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.
Oct. 10–Lake Superior’s national parks may seem pristine and unaffected by humans, but Isle Royale and Apostle Islands are hurting from pollution, understaffing and budget shortfalls.
That’s the finding of a report released Tuesday by the National Parks Conservation Association. Threats to parks along the U.S. side of the Great Lakes include rapidly dilapidating historic resources, invasive species, mercury and sulfur air pollution and a chronic lack of money to make repairs, the report said.
For the past seven years, the parks association, with 325,000 members nationwide, has been releasing reports on the status of parks across the nation.
This report is the first on the Great Lakes region and, in addition to Apostle Islands and Isle Royale, it includes Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan and Keweenaw National Historical Park near Lake Superior. Combined, they face$30 million in backlogged repairs and improvements, the report said.
Park supporters say the nation’s natural treasures, with little new money from Congress, are being loved to death by visitors. President Bush last year proposed up to $3 billion to spruce up the parks for their 100th anniversary in 2016, but the money hasn’t yet arrived.
“We want people to understand that these parks face collective threats that are common but which can be controlled or reversed … by things like improved federal funding and some things by visitors being more careful when they visit,” said Lynn McClure, Midwest regional director of the association. “There’s a $200 million centennial challenge [funding] bill that still hasn’t cleared the Senate that would go a long way to solving the problems.” That bill would help pay for the backlog in repairs and fund an additional 3,000 rangers at parks nationally to help protect resources and inform the public, she said.
At Isle Royale, biologists say a warming climate is threatening the park’s moose population. Funding shortages have prevented work on a 100-year-old boathouse that is falling apart. Airborne mercury and sulfur dioxide deposited in park waters and on park lands may be affecting plants, animals and fish.
Last month, park officials banned ships from releasing ballast water in park waters in an effort to keep out the VHS fish disease and other exotic species that have moved into the Great Lakes by hitchhiking inside freighters.
At Apostle Islands, only two permanent environmental staff members are responsible for protecting 21 islands spread over 265,000 acres. Sand dunes and beach grasses are at risk from trampling and invasive plant species. White-tailed deer are so numerous that they threaten a rare plant called the Canada yew with over-browsing and elimination from the islands.
Historic buildings at six historic lighthouses on the Apostles, some of which are major visitor attractions, need new roofs, painting and other maintenance beyond the park’s current budget.
The problems are even worse at other Great Lakes parks, such as Indiana Dunes, where the proximity to major industrial pollution sources and municipal sewage plants is causing severe environmental damage.
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