National Park Service
Intermountain Regional Office
U.S. Department of the Interior
12795 Alameda Parkway
Denver, CO 80228
Interior Recovery News Release
Contact: Patrick O’Driscoll
Phone: (303) 969-2839
NPS Announces Recovery Act Projects
DENVER, CO -The National Park Service (NPS) today announced nearly 800 projects totaling $750 million that can be completed across the country with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. This major effort includes projects in the agency’s Intermountain Region, which includes Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Texas.
“These projects are an investment in America’s future that will create jobs, stimulate the economies of local communities, and get our country moving again,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “They are also an investment in telling the story of America to future generations through our national parks by conserving our awe-inspiring landscapes, our rich culture, and our great heritage.”
“We will use Recovery Act funding to make a difference in parks,” said Acting Director Dan Wenk. “We will fix trails, invest in energy efficient vehicles, build new visitor facilities, clean up abandoned mine sites, increase our ability to generate power from the sun, and finally complete overdue maintenance on our buildings and roads.”
A full list of National Park Service projects is available at http://www.interior.gov/recovery/nps. A few examples in the Intermountain Region are:
- $13.1 million will be used to demolish and replace condemned portions of the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument.
- $11.5 million to replace more than five miles of water lines at Mesa Verde National Park.
- $2.37 million to reclaim abandoned mine lands and restore the natural landscape at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve
- $550,000 to rehabilitate the historic trans-canyon trail at Grand Canyon National Park.
- $397,000 to repair backcountry trails and campgrounds in Glacier National Park.
- $199,000 to rehabilitate trails in Big Bend National Park.
“As the largest region of the National Park Service, we are very pleased that these and scores of other projects will begin soon at parks across our eight states, from Montana to Texas,” said Intermountain Region Director Mike Snyder. “This is an important opportunity to help boost local economies and put more people to work when our country most needs it. We are especially grateful that this recovery effort will help us do the job America asks of us daily: To protect and improve our national parks, and to make these scenic, historic and cultural jewels available to more generations of park visitors.”
All the projects announced today are long-standing priorities of the National Park Service and meet the criteria put forth in the Recovery Act: namely, that a project addresses the Department’s highest priority mission needs; generates the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time; and creates lasting value for the American public.
Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on the recovery web site and on http://www.interior.gov/recovery/nps.
