I am setting out on a photography project to show how budget cuts are affecting the national parks and why the national parks are worth protecting. This project just launched on kickstarter. I've read so many articles about how the parks are being affected but I want to show the affects of budget cuts. Pictures will tell this story better than words will.
Why this is important?
The national parks are an incredible resource for our country. They conserve historic and beautiful places and they bring in roughly $10 in economic activity for every dollar invested. In today’s dollars the park budget has fallen by nearly 15% in the last decade and the parks are now facing an additional $110 million in budget cuts.
Currently over 1/3 of the trails in the park system are in poor or seriously deficient condition and 90% of the roads are in fair or poor condition.
These new cuts will force the parks to have fewer employees and many visitors centers will have shortened hours or will be closed all together. A visitor’s center I just went to last summer in Grand Teton national park will be closed under these new cuts.
How the project will be successful?
To accomplish this I will visit 10 national parks and capture how they are affected by budget cuts. I have already started researching ways to show how the parks are affected, I have been pouring over data to find places in the parks that have been affected by cuts. I will also capture the very best of our national parks, the wildlife and scenery to show why our national parks are worth preserving for future generations. Everyday during the project I will be up before dawn and stay out until dark to make sure I capture the images needed to tell the story of the condition of the national parks.
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