Addressing the Maintenance Backlog on Federal Public Lands

The federal government owns nearly 30 percent of all lands in the United States, and those lands generally are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the Forest Service (FS), and the National Park Service (NPS). Each of the agencies responsible for managing federal land has a significant backlog of overdue maintenance projects. These maintenance needs are known as deferred maintenance, and together they form the maintenance backlog. The total maintenance backlog in 2019 was over $19 billion, with the largest share ($12 billion) held by the National Park Service (NPS). The deferred maintenance backlog has become a more pressing issue as use of America’s federal lands continues to increase. In 2018, national parks received more than 300 million visitors, which is roughly 33 million more than in 2009. Unless effective policy solutions are implemented, deferred maintenance costs likely will continue to grow as more visitors create more wear-and-tear on roads, trails, and other resources in the parks. Effectively addressing the maintenance backlog could enhance the visitor experience by improving infrastructure, such as roads and bathrooms, that have fallen into disrepair. It also would help ensure that federal lands are being conserved properly. In this policy paper the authors begin by examining how the maintenance backlog was created and why it has persisted over time. They then outline several solutions that potentially could be adopted to address the maintenance backlog. These solutions include giving park managers more control over entry fees, amending land acquisition policy to set aside money each year to be spent on deferred maintenance, and making use of concessionaire agreements to allow private companies to manage federal lands more effectively