The national Parks System costs $1.2 billion annually to operate. Of that amount, $900,000 is spent on costs associated with visitors. The system has 368 locations, including major parks, such as the Grand Canyon, and small, specialized parks that feature one thing. We need to reexamine the type and quality of parks paid for by federal dollars. An independent commission could review the parks and determine whether or not they all should be kept open and what level of fees should be charged to park users. Currently, the people who use parks pay less than ten percent of the costs of operating them.
1. What is the author suggesting?
A commission should start closing the smaller parks.
The government should pay a larger portion of the costs of running the national parks.
There is a need to reexamine the current parks to be sure we want to keep them and see if we need them all.
The National Park System will be fine if we just eliminate some of the smaller specialized parks.