Politico E&E Features SEEC Institute National Parks and Climate Report
Democrats highlight climate peril to national parks
A new report tied to House Democrats comes as Republicans propose cuts to the National Park Service.
BY: GARRETT DOWNS
07/15/2025 06:22 AM EDT
E&E DAILY | As floods and wildfires have battered national parks in recent years, a new study from green and Democrat-aligned groups aims to tie climate change to ecological decline.
The report from the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Institute and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, to be released Tuesday, argues that parks will continue to see degradation until the rise in global temperature begins to cool — whether that’s decreasing snowpack in Yellowstone, wildfires in Yosemite or sea level rise in Acadia. The report was first shared first with POLITICO’s E&E News.
The report comes as House Republicans and President Donald Trump have sought cuts to the National Park Service in fiscal 2026 spending bills. NPS has also lagged in staffing goals for the summer.
In recent weeks, two parks, the Grand Canyon National Park and the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, have been battling active wildfires burning thousands of acres.
The fire in the Grand Canyon destroyed a historic lodge along with dozens of other buildings. In 2022, a catastrophic flood damaged portions of Yellowstone National Park.
“As it stands, most of the units in the National Park System — from the iconic Grand Canyon National Park to Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and hundreds of other sites across the country — are seeing ecological decline, year over year,” reads the report, titled “America’s Best Idea in Peril."
“It is happening slowly in some places and alarmingly fast in others, but as temperatures keep going up and precipitation continues to become more intense and unpredictable, America’s 'best idea' is being eroded away.”…