Trust for Public Land New Report: Integrity of America’s National Parks Depends on the Land and Water Conservation Fund 

New Analysis Reveals More Than 15,000 Private Inholdings – Totaling 2.5 Million Acres – Fragment America’s National Parks, Threatening Their Natural and Cultural Integrity  

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – A new report released today from Trust for Public Land (TPL) reveals that America’s national parks, long considered “our best idea,” are far from complete. The report, The Integrity of America’s National Parks Depends on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, provides a comprehensive analysis of the scale and impact of private “inholdings” within national parks and other federally managed public lands—and makes a clear case for why the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) remains essential to safeguarding their future.

According to TPL’s new data, more than 15,000 privately owned parcels, spanning 2.5 million acres, lie scattered within the National Park System’s 433 units. If combined, these lands would be roughly the size of Connecticut. The analysis finds that this patchwork of ownership fragments ecosystems, impedes visitor access, complicates wildfire management, and opens the door to incompatible development—from luxury vacation homes to industrial extraction—within the boundaries of America’s most treasured landscapes.

“America’s best idea—our unparalleled system of national parks and public lands—is still a work in progress,” said TPL President and CEO, Carrie Besnette Hauser. “Within or immediately adjacent to many of our most iconic parks and national forests, privately held parcels coexist, underscoring an unfinished legacy. The real test and opportunity is ensuring that when willing landowners are ready to sell these properties, tools like the Land and Water Conservation Fund are available to seamlessly connect these thriving landscapes to surrounding communities and outdoor recreationalists.” 

If the lens is narrowed to the 63 sites officially designated as National Parks, there are still more than 4,100 private inholdings, totaling nearly 900,000 acres. That means about 4 percent of all land within national park boundaries remains in private hands, with the average parcel size around 217 acres, roughly the size of Disneyland.  

For more than 60 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been long recognized as the nation’s most effective bipartisan conservation tool and was designed to address this management challenge by empowering federal agencies to purchase critical inholdings from willing sellers at no expense to taxpayers. Recent proposals in the President’s Budget Request, however, proposed to divert dedicated LWCF funding from its intended conservation purposes. 

“The Land and Water Conservation Fund is, first and foremost, a vehicle for conservation and outdoor recreation–not a fund to be diverted during difficult fiscal times,” said David Patton, VP, Center for Community Impact & National Lands Initiative Director. “When LWCF is used as intended, it strengthens the integrity of our national parks, reduces long-term management costs, and supports local economies built on outdoor recreation and tourism. Completing the promise of our national parks requires consistent investment and fully deploying LWCF as Congress prescribed-so these landscapes remain whole, resilient, and accessible for generations to come.” 

The report also shows that inholdings are a system-wide issue across all federal public lands—not just national parks. Millions of acres of private parcels are scattered throughout U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service lands, creating vulnerabilities across the entire federal public lands system. Nearly 40 million acres (20%) of the 193 million acres managed by the U.S. Forest Service are inholdings.  

Among its key findings and recommendations, The Integrity of America’s National Parks Depends on the Land and Water Conservation Fund calls on Congress to:

• Protect LWCF’s dedicated annual funding and ensure it remains focused on land acquisition and recreation access, not diverted to non-conservation purposes. 

• Prioritize acquisition of inholdings that safeguard ecosystem integrity, improve public access, and strengthen resilience to climate impacts. 

• Uphold the bipartisan commitment to the conservation legacy that has defined America’s national parks for over a century, as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding.

“America’s national parks belong to everyone,” continued Besnette Hauser. “They are the physical embodiment of democracy—places that unite us across politics, race, and geography. LWCF is how we keep that spirit alive.”

The report comes as land management agencies are challenged to deliver on their missions because of reduced staffing, funding, and shifts in federal policy resulting in reduced access to public lands — measures that run counter to public sentiment. Few issues enjoy such broad, bipartisan support across age groups, income levels, and regions as the protection of our national parks and public lands. Earlier this year, Trust for Public Land commissioned a national survey of 4,000 U.S. residents conducted by YouGov. It showed striking levels of support across party lines for public lands with three quarters of respondents opposing the closure of public lands, while nearly two thirds object to layoffs of staff charged with protecting public lands. 

TPL works in partnership with federal agencies, landowners, Tribal Nations, and local communities to protect high-priority inholdings across the national park system. The organization has helped conserve more than 65,000 acres through more than 220 land conservation projects across nearly 70 park sites over the past fifty years, advancing a long-term effort to ensure America’s most iconic places are protected in their entirety. 

The Integrity of America’s National Parks Depends on the Land and Water Conservation Fund is the most detailed assessment to date of private inholdings within the National Park System and the role of the Land and Water Conservation Fund in completing and protecting America’s system of public lands. Full report, executive summary, and supporting data are available at tpl.org/lwcf-report. 

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About Trust for Public Land
Trust for Public Land (TPL) is a national nonprofit that works to connect everyone to the benefits and joys of the outdoors. As a leader in equitable access to the outdoors, TPL works with communities to create parks and protect public land where they are needed most. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,504 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, raised $112 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected nearly 109.7 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org.