Publisher’s note: This editorial is from the Feb. 26, 2018, Las Vegas Sun.

Looking at one part of President Trump’s budget, you might think his administration is riding to the rescue of the National Park Service.

But a broader view of the overall budget reveals something very different. The administration’s plans for our national parks threaten to tear them to pieces.

While Trump recommends spending $18.7 billion to fix a massive maintenance backlog, which would seem like a good idea, the problem is that all but $257 million of that funding would come from private industries that would be given access to the parks to use for commercial purposes — mainly oil and gas companies. More specifically, the funding would be derived from the government collecting a percentage of energy leasing receipts.

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