Kaitlyn Kincaid speaks Thursday, August 18, 2016 while interviewed at the Chattanooga Times Free Press.From the trails of Signal Mountain to the ancient Moccasin Bend to the battlefields of Chickamauga, we enjoy the blessings of the National Park Service.
Our own vast Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park is a part of the National Park System, which celebrates its 100th anniversary today. That marks a century of commitment to preserving precious lands.
Among those lands are the 12 national parks in Tennessee, including the most visited one in the nation – the Great Smoky Mountains. Visitors flock to Tennessee to drive through the Smokies, to hike our piece of the Appalachian Trail, and to honor our history on the battlefields at Shiloh, Stone’s River, and nearby Chickamauga.
So, Tennessee has a vested interest – mostly through our heritage, but also through our economy – in the National Park System. When tourists visit our state’s national parks, they spend millions in our local economies. In 2014, almost 8.5 million people came to Tennessee’s national parks, spending more than $570 million in those gateway communities.
But these days, parks are long overdue for badly needed repairs, due to unreliable congressional funding and aging infrastructure. As a result, there is a systemwide backlog of maintenance projects totaling an estimated $12 billion, and nearly $300 million in Tennessee alone.