National parks face budget cuts

AUSTIN (KXAN) - National budget cuts could be affecting your everyday life before you know it. One place you might notice the cuts are at your national parks.

The National Parks Service is preparing for cuts that could impact all 398 parks during their busiest season.

The plan is to save money by cutting back spending, shortening park hours, and putting hiring freezes in place. But some worry the cuts could harm resources and actually put park visitors at risk of danger.

For example, park administrators at Yosemite National Park in California, fear that cutting down on things like trash pick-up could attract more bears onto campgrounds.

While Each park will be affected differently, the message from visitors is the same.

"All the volunteers and the paid staff are so important and they're so knowledgeable of the history of each of the national parks and to lose that is to lose so much of who we are as Americans," said Marilyn Horton.

Horton and her husband were visiting the President Lyndon Johnson National Historic Park in Johnson City on Sunday. They drove from Connecticut and plan on stopping by more national parks en route to Arizona.

While given the chance to indulge in history and nature at the national park; they're now worried that others won't have the same opportunity in years to come.

"It's our history," said Marilyn. "Things we want to hand down to our children to see budget cuts or to lose that is to lose so much of who we are as Americans.

Local stores in towns like Johnson City are also concerned that park budget cuts will also negatively impact their business, as they make a majority of their income from tourists stopping by.

No decision has been finalized on exactly how much will be cut from each individual national park.