The costs of upkeep in the nation's parks and forests is obscured by different "definitions of maintenance and shoddy bookkeeping" at the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, congressional auditors said yesterday.
The General Accounting Office added that it is impossible to tell whether the agencies' cost estimates, which run into the billions of dollars, are too high or too low, the Associated Press reported.
According to the agencies' estimates, the USFS maintenance backlog totals $13 billion, of which $10 billion is for logging road maintenance. The NPS has a backlog of $6.1 billion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service $615 million, and the Bureau of Land Management as much as $325 million.
Rep. Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, chair of the House Appropriations Interior Subcommittee, has argued against the creation of new national parks or additional land purchases until the growing backlog of maintenance needs is resolved.
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