When I was 27, I was hired as the captain of Glacier Bay National Park’s tour boat, Thunder Bay. It wasn’t until that summer that I really took in the mysteries and wonders of our natural world. I sat with a Park Service naturalist right next to me for 97 days, 12 hours per day that summer.
That four-month period altered my life permanently. The mysteries that the Park Service naturalist unlocked for me still burn inside me today. There would be no UnCruise Adventures, no advocating for the protection of public lands and far less joy in my life had that brief summer in the bay never taken place.
As Congress reconvenes in 2017, we are presented with a new opportunity to advocate for the funding of our country’s national parks, an under-appreciated economic engine driving tourism to our state.
In 2015, more than 550,000 people visited Glacier Bay National Park, a major tourist draw in Alaska. Yet serious maintenance issues need to be addressed, such as trail maintenance and renovating Glacier Bay Lodge. Front country trails desperately need improvements and expansion to safely host the increasing numbers of park visitors.
In Alaska national parks alone, there’s $114 million in deferred maintenance and much of that is critical infrastructure such as roads, bridges, trails and buildings. We can’t expect this economic engine to keep running without proper maintenance. At risk is the more than 17,000 jobs and nearly $1.2 billion in visitor spending that was generated in 2015 alone, by visitors to Glacier Bay and all of Alaska’s national park sites.
Today, I take my annual vacation aboard a kayak inside the bay. It refreshes my soul and gives me hope for our future. As our National Park Service embarks on its second century, please reach out to U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Congressman Don Young to ensure our parks have the resources they need to ensure future generations have opportunities to find their own inspiration within our parks.
Captain Dan Blanchard,
CEO and owner, UnCruise Adventures
Juneau
