Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says the National Park Service doesn’t have the money to remove all those dead trees along the Natchez Trace Parkway. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith questioned Burgum during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Wednesday, saying…
“The Trace, much like the rest of Mississippi, continues to see the fallout from the 2023 drought and pine beetles that devastated the trees across our state.”
Burgum responded..
“We’ve got a massive backlog on deferred maintenance and part of that relates to roads. This department has never received the funding to maintain those roads the way they need to.”
He said the answer would be to reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to provide money for the work that needs to be done along the Trace.
In addition to creating an eyesore, the dead trees often fall into the Parkway causing a safety hazard.
