The National Park Service is spending at least $67 million from national park entrance fees to help fund President Donald Trump’s beautification projects in Washington. According to a New York Times analysis of federal records, the Trump administration is funding nearly $60 million in repairs to nine ornamental fountains in D.C., and another $7 million toward the renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
In April, the administration awarded a no-bid contract to Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to repair the Reflecting Pool and paint it blue. Federal records show that the contract is worth $13.1 million, more than seven times what Trump initially promised the work would cost. Additionally, the firm is being paid an inflated profit margin, according to federal documents obtained by The New York Times. The profit margin for federal construction contracts is typically between 6 to 12 percent. Atlantic Industrial Coatings submitted a bid that charged 20 percent, adding at least $850,000 to what a more typical contract would have cost.
“Our parks and public lands have been underfunded for decades, and there are many genuinely urgent projects in need of funding across the country,” said Aaron Weiss, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities. “Instead, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is determined to divert millions of dollars to projects that President Trump can see out his window.”
The Park Service has a backlog of deferred maintenance projects for repairs to bathrooms, campgrounds, roads, visitor centers and other aging infrastructure that came to an estimated $23 billion at the end of 2024.
Quick hits
Fast-track copper mine review put Arizona owl habitat at risk
National park entrance fees are funding Trump’s D.C. vanity projects
Corporation claims it’s running out of money and can’t afford cleanup of a former Colorado uranium mill
Forest Service treated 35% less dangerous fuels for wildfire risk in 2025
Colorado state forester says pine beetles’ assault on ponderosas expanded nearly 150% in 2025
Reflecting Pool contract has ‘inflated’ profit margin, according to analysis of federal documents
Growing body of research examines the affect of wildfire smoke on fertility
Opinion: Wyoming’s public lands—why they’ve always felt like home
Quote of the day
The Lincoln Memorial is one of the most significant civic landscapes in the country, and it deserves care. The question is whether Congress and the federal government are providing enough funding for the entire national park system.”
—Natalie Britt, the president and chief executive of Zion Forever Project, New York Times
Picture This
Ah, camping. It can be in-tents!
Sometimes spending a day in the wilderness isn’t quite enough to truly capture the feeling of a special place. Let’s be honest, though…sometimes it is. You know who you are. <slowly raises paw> For others, maybe you’ve really wanted to experience a park after dark: taking in the starry night sky, getting lost in the howling of a distant coyote (wait, what??), hearing the rustling sound of something on the other side of a very thin tent wall (why didn’t you splurge on the more moderately affordable tent with better zippers?), wondering if it’s just your partner…until you remember you’re single and out there alone. Then things get really existential. Is anyone ever really alone? Who am I? How far is the car? Also, something is definitely now crawling in the tent. How many hours until dawn?
Magical.
Story time: What are some of your favorite camping stories or experience from some nights spent in a national park? Are you in a tent right now and have a visual on the spider? It’s not a spider?
Well, good luck with that.
Image: Tent seen illuminated from within under a night sky @joshuatreenps NPS/ Hannah Schwalbe
Featured image: Contractors painting the Reflecting Pool surface blue. Source: Wikimedia Commons.