You don’t have to love late nights under the stars or long western road trips to be invested in the National Park Service. Mostly that’s because the natural and historic treasures preserved by the NPS are all Americans’ patrimony, whether you visit them in person or not.

But that’s because there are several NPS units right here in Western Pennsylvania — though most people don’t even know it.

The NPS, by far the most popular department of the federal government and one of the few extremely popular institutions left in America, has been in the headlines recently due to the Trump administration’s careless attempts at shrinking government and achieving greater efficiency. A current budget proposal, for instance, would cut over one-third of the NPS’ budget — a $1.2 billion reduction — while some administration officials have floated devolving some NPS responsibilities to states.

These moves would be serious mistakes based on a misunderstanding of the role played by the NPS in American life — not just as a conservator of the country’s patrimony, but also as an engine of economic development. The NPS is not a luxury; it actually represents one of the most important functions of the federal government, and must be handled with tremendous care — just like the sites the service protects.

THE NPS IS HERE

Yellowstone, Yosemite, Everglades, Acadia, Shenandoah. The names of the National Parks are seared on the American consciousness like little else. But the NPS manages much more than the 63 National Parks: It actually has 433 official “units,” including everything from battlefields and historic homes to rivers and lakeshores. These might be junior members of the NPS system, but they are a tremendous entry point to understanding why the NPS exists, and why it’s so important.

There are five NPS units in Western Pennsylvania alone:

• Fort Necessity National Battlefield preserves the site of George Washington’s rout at the hand of the French, as he marched to the Forks of the Ohio to tell them to clear out.

* Friendship Hill National Historic Site preserves the country home of Albert Gallatin, secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison whose work helped define the young American economy. The site includes several miles of trails on a bluff above the Monongahela River in Fayette County.

• Johnstown National Memorial preserves the remnants of the dam on the Little Conemaugh River that gave way on May 31, 1889, killing over 2,200 people. It includes the original clubhouse built for Pittsburgh industrialists who used the lake for recreation — but failed to maintain the dam.

• Allegheny Portage National Historic Site preserves the location of the first railroad to cross the Allegheny Mountains, straddling Blair and Cambria counties. This was a historic feat that was essential to the development of America across the Appalachians, including Pittsburgh.

• Flight 93 National Memorial preserves the Somerset County site where the United Airlines jet was plunged to the earth by heroic passengers on Sep. 11, 2001, along with the monument to their bravery.

Each of these sites includes a visitor’s center with museum exhibits and on-site staff nearly 365 days a year to welcome guests and answer questions. They are all free of charge.

WOUNDING AMERICA

Is it possible to save money on the National Park Service? Of course it is: It’s a government bureaucracy, which means almost by definition there’s waste or inefficiency to be found. We would happily join with our fellow taxpayers in supporting a good-faith effort to streamline the NPS, so its focus remains exclusively on its mission.

Neither a one-third funding cut nor devolving NPS units to state control represents such an effort. The draconian cut would necessarily mean dramatically reduced services, including open hours, at dozens if not hundreds of sites.

NPS units are some of the most reliable, and reliably edifying, natural and historic sites in the country: Their hours are typically more extensive than private museums’, and they offer educational programs usually at no cost. They are truly and completely public, representing a shared understanding that America’s natural and cultural heritage must not just be preserved, but made available to all Americans as our inheritance, to pass down through the generations.

Deep funding cuts that would make these places available to fewer people would deeply wound not just the system, but everyday Americans’ ability to learn about and appreciate their own nation. Further, NPS units are economic lifelines especially in rural communities: The five Western Pennsylvania sites listed above, for instance, attracted nearly one million visits last year alone. Weakening the NPS would weaken the places where it operates.

NATIONAL GEM

What about state control of less-visited sites? For example, Friendship Hill receives fewer than 20,000 visitors a year. Would it be better as a Pennsylvania historic site?

First of all, if the commonwealth managed the site just as the NPS does, it wouldn’t save money at all: It would just shift the burden to state taxes. And it’s unlikely such a move would result in greater efficiency. Pennsylvania doesn’t even have a comparable historic site program, so it would have to invent one — at significant cost in money and effort.

NPS units have a consistency and cachet that states simply can’t match. Even if Pennsylvania got its act together, it’s hard to imagine the state doing a better job than the NPS.

But perhaps most important of all, NPS sites are national for a reason: They preserve places whose importance extends beyond state lines, and properly belongs to all Americans. Albert Gallatin wasn’t just a Pennsylvania figure: He was an American figure, whose legacy includes the National Road and the Louisiana Purchase. And his memory should be preserved at the national level.

The National Park Service is one of the true gems of the U.S. government, and of American society as a whole. Of all the places to seek cuts to the federal government, it should be among the very last.

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS