E&E NEWS / GREENWIRE • September 7, 2021
With national parks across the country reporting record attendance this summer, Sen. Angus King says there’s one solution Congress could embrace: Create more parks. “If you have a demand problem, one way to beat it is to increase the supply,” King (I-Maine) said. King, chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, said he intends to schedule a hearing on the subject. Writing in Sierra magazine last month, Michael Kellett, executive director of the New England-based conservation group RESTORE: The North Woods, named 12 places that he said “deserve national park protection.” Kellett, who directs RESTORE’s New National Parks campaign, said an expansion of the park system would relieve pressure on existing parks, help fight climate change by sequestering large amounts of carbon dioxide, and contribute to President Biden’s goal to preserve 30 percent of the nation’s lands and waters by 2030. “National park designation for just a dozen representative areas could boost the park system by 50 percent, the largest expansion since 1980,” Kellett wrote.