Golden Gate National Recreation Area, one of a few National Parks in urban centers.
The New York Times ran an editorial yesterday on the debut of Ken Burns’ new documentary on the National Parks called America’s Best Idea. The editorial calls for this “best idea” to be “protected and celebrated” as well as to look at opportunities for new parks.
Now may be a good time, especially with the recent concern over children not having access to nature and renewed interest in National Parks from people (and the new presidential administration).
TPL President Will Rogers wrote on this issue (and the Burns documentary) for Huffington Post, noting the following that directly applies to where investment is needed aside from preserving what we already have:
The National Park system is also incomplete in that it needs to grow to keep pace with the recreational needs of our ever-increasing population. If we don’t grow the system, we risk loving to death the parks that we have. And nowhere is this truer than in and around cities, where most of us live. We need new and expanded national parks, especially in our urban areas.
