A backlog of repairs and maintenance at Illinois state parks has piled up to the tune of three-quarters of a billion dollars, and no one is sure how the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is ever going to catch up.
DNR says nearly $750 million in repairs and maintenance are needed.
“It is truly a staggering amount,” says former DNR director Brent Manning. “If you allow things to go downhill, depreciate in a very significant fashion, replacement costs get higher and higher.”
At risk are the parks’ natural areas, campgrounds, lodges, trails, hunting areas and other amenities. The DNR says its 324 state parks, fish and wildlife areas, recreational areas, state forests, state trails and natural areas receive 45 million visits a year and generate $3.2 billion in economic activity.
Advocates for Illinois’ state parks say the repairs have been put off too long.
“If the roof is leaking and you can’t afford to patch it, then before long, it’s not just the leak that needs to be fixed, it’s the whole roof that needs to be replaced,” says Jerry Beverlin, who retired as DNR’s director of land management in 2003. “I don’t know how long it’s been since they had a really decent capital budget; it’s certainly been since the Blagojevich administration started — a little over eight years.
“Things have been pretty slim.”
DNR receives about $50 million a year in general tax revenue, so it would take 15 years of the agency’s general revenue fund appropriation to cover the backlog. The remaining three-fourths of the agency’s budget comes from special funds, federal grants, fishing and hunting licenses and other fees.
Manning, who was DNR director under Govs. Jim Edgar and George Ryan and now heads the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, likes to say — only partly in jest — that DNR’s annual appropriation amounts to “a rounding error for larger social service agencies.”
Some have suggested the state should begin charging entrance or parking fees, but DNR has not taken a position on the issue. The agency has the authority to charge entrance fees to parks if it decides to make the change through the state’s administrative rules process. But so far, Illinois state parks remain free and open to the public, although some fees are charged for camping and other special uses.
“We continue to look at all revenue possibilities with our budget,” says DNR spokeswoman Januari Smith.
DNR’s financial problems are twofold.
First, the agency’s share of general revenue funds (state tax dollars) has been halved over the last decade. According to DNR, the agency received $107 million in general revenue funds in fiscal 2002 — about half of the agency’s total budget that year. For Fiscal Year 2011, that figure dropped to $51 million.
Putting off park maintenance has been a money-saving strategy for state budget writers for years. And when additional budget cuts were announced last summer, DNR was told to put off park maintenance again.
The agency has been left to rely more and more on special funds, but some of those funds are restricted and can’t be used for all of DNR’s expenses. In addition to hunting, fishing and state parks, the agency oversees the Illinois State Museum, and regulations for mines, minerals and water resources, among other functions.
Accounts that receive money from hunting and fishing licenses, for example, also receive federal matching funds. The Illinois General Assembly can’t legally take money from those accounts — although it has tried on several occasions. But the legislature can and does tap into other special funds, although it has done away with the term “sweeps” and now just “borrows” from the funds with the promise to repay the money within 18 months of the transfer.
No matter what the practice is called, it leaves less money available for DNR to use for parks and other expenses. And in a budget statement posted on DNR’s website, Director Marc Miller says those funds are starting to run dry.
“The IDNR [has] leaned more heavily on its constituents, through licenses and fees,” Miller writes. “Balances in funds that hold these revenues have been depleted because of GRF cuts and because of sweeps of cash in those funds.
“Current projections are that without some change, most of these other funds [such as Boating, Natural Areas, State Parks, Parks and Conservation] will be drawn to near zero within one to two years.”
Lenore Beyer-Clow, policy director for Openlands, a Chicago-based advocacy group, says her organization has come down hard on efforts to sweep funds dedicated for land acquisition and protecting open space. She says millions of dollars have been transferred out of the Open Space Land Acquisition and Development Fund and the Natural Areas Acquisition Fund, both administered by DNR.
Those funds receive a percentage of a tax on the sale of real estate.
“They are designated for land acquisition, and they are being swept out or borrowed for other things,” she says. “In March, they took $23 million from OSLAD and $9 million from other DNR funds, including $3.5 million from NAAF.” The Natural Areas Acquisition Fund also helps care for natural areas and helps DNR maintain natural heritage staff.
“And that was the second borrowing,” Beyer-Clow says. “Back in September of last year, they took $15 million from OSLAD [for a total of $38 million]. We haven’t seen that paid back yet.”
Open Space Land Acquisition and Development grants are distributed to park districts and communities to acquire land for parks or to improve parks they already have. DNR recently announced $11 million in those grants to be awarded.
“We have some pretty big concerns about that,” Beyer-Clow says. “The state has been borrowing internally, since it can’t borrow and restructure its debt.” The Illinois Senate voted down a plan May 29 to borrow $6.2 billion to pay off its old bills.
With serious limitations in funding and lots of work to do, Beverlin says DNR will have to set priorities and then communicate those to the public.
“You can’t get from point A to B until we decide what we do for a living here,” he says. “It’s going to be tough, and sooner or later, there’s going to have to be an explanation of ‘Here are our priorities, and here is where we’re going, and here is how we are going to get there.’”
Those decisions won’t be easy. “What are we going to let the reins drop on?” Beverlin asks. “Is tourism more important than resource protection issues?”
Manning says public safety has to be the No. 1 priority.
Mississippi Palisades State Park near Savanna and Starved Rock State Park near Utica, for example, have some of the state’s most spectacular natural features, including rocky bluffs along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Such natural wonders draw visitors, but they can also create additional maintenance requirements because trails, stairways, bridges and railings on steep slopes are more difficult and expensive to maintain than those on flat surfaces.
Still, they must be kept in good shape to keep visitors safe.
Manning says needs must be prioritized for public use and natural resources protection, but that, too, can be complicated. And not all state sites have the same function.
Public waterfowl hunting areas, for example, are protected by levees that must be maintained. They require pumps and other infrastructure to help managers mimic wet and dry cycles of wetlands to benefit migratory birds and other creatures year round — as well as hunters during the fall. But it all costs money, so managers may turn their attention to those sites that generate income. “If you start looking at things in terms of what’s bringing income into the site, then suddenly, campgrounds become very important because they generate income,” Beverlin says.
“The thing I would like to see is a five-year plan,” he says. “If you keep doing things by need, you are responding in a reactionary way instead of setting goals and standards. Then it gets a little bit simpler, plus you can tell the public what your goals and plans are.”
Illinois’ natural resources inspire and entertain.
The state counts on its oak-hickory forests to draw deer and turkey hunters, its native grasslands to entice upland game hunters, and healthy wetlands to attract waterfowl for duck and goose hunters. The state’s lakes and waterways draw anglers and boaters of all kinds. Licenses, permits and fees charged to hunters, anglers and boaters help DNR defray the costs.
But invasive species of plants and animals can damage or degrade the natural character that made the parks so attractive in the first place.
Invasive species — with the exception of jumping Asian carp — aren’t always noticeable. Often, invasive species such as bush honeysuckle, autumn olive, garlic mustard and many others look just as green as their surroundings. Only a trained eye would spot trouble.
“It’s like cancer. It’s here right now, and it’s going to get worse if you don’t do something,” says John Ebinger, professor emeritus of botany at Eastern Illinois University.
Once established, invasive species — often those from other continents that thrive without their natural enemies — are difficult or impossible to eradicate. That means it takes a long-term commitment to keep them in check — and preserve the state’s natural character.
“You’ve got to go back time after time,” Ebinger says. “You can never eradicate a species that reproduces well. You have to try to keep it under control.”
Ebinger says funding to control invasive species has been spotty. “Erratic. That’s a good word for it,” he says.
Invasive species are one of the two top reasons — along with habitat loss — behind most of the species on the threatened or endangered list. “There are threatened and endangered species that are well-adapted to their habitats, but their habitats keep changing,” Ebinger says.
Beverlin says site managers aren’t likely to hear many complaints about invasive species. “Very seldom is it going to be, ‘There is bush honeysuckle all over the site,’” he says. “It’s going to be a boat ramp or campground issue — things people can see.”
If those natural resources disappear, at least some of those park visitors (and their licenses and fees) might be lost, too. “It’s going to be an issue,” Beverlin says. “I think that somewhere down the road [if something is not done], the oak-hickory forest may be a thing of the past.”
To charge?
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has the legal authority to charge admission or parking fees at state parks, but it stayed quiet on the subject during the recent legislative session.
“We are one of the few states that don’t have fees for state parks,” says former DNR director Brent Manning. “But I do have mixed emotions in that regard. Fishermen and hunters already pay their fair share for participation in fish and wildlife areas and state parks.”
Hunters, anglers and boaters all pay for a variety of licenses, stamps and other fees. They often point to bicyclists, bird-watchers and other casual park users who do not pay extra.
“I understand the logic if people feel like, ‘I pay taxes, and I should have this opportunity,’” says Jerry Beverlin, who retired as DNR’s director of land management in 2003. “That’s not something you can just blow off, but there are people who are paying part of their way.
“I don’t know if anybody is paying all of their way,” he says. “It’s still not enough.”
“Taxes don’t come anywhere near covering what the real cost is,” Manning says.
He says some sort of license or stamp purchased by park users would be the easiest to implement.
That would eliminate the need for a tollbooth or extra employees to staff entrance points.
Manning says spot checks — much the way conservation police officers check hunting and fishing licenses — is an effective enforcement measure.
“Those are the kinds of things it is going to take to make some things work,” Beverlin says.
Chris Young is a staff writer and photographer for the Springfield State Journal-Register.
Illinois Issues, July/August 2011
