The Trump administration’s proposal to lop 14 percent off the Interior Department’s budget for fiscal year 2020, which would continue a series of cuts to the National Park Service, spotlights how vulnerable these unique places are.
“The core element of the national parks is that they are in the perpetuity business,” Gary Machlis, former science adviser to the director of the Park Service, once told me. “The irony is that our mission is to preserve things in perpetuity, but we do it on an annual budget and a four-year presidential cycle.”