Thank you for your coverage of the recent closure of Spruce Tree House in Mesa Verde National Park (Herald, March 15.) Living in a state like Colorado, we are blessed with beautiful national parks and heritage areas. We recently relocated to Durango, and we did so in part because of the natural history and heritage of the area. In fact, we visited Mesa Verde just before moving.
While the closure of Spruce Tree House is disappointing, it unfortunately also highlights a bigger problem. The infrastructure repair backlog for National Park Service sites here in Colorado is more than $200 million, including over $55 million at Mesa Verde. That repair backlog is a serious threat to the longevity of those sites, as well as the surrounding local economies that rely heavily on tourist dollars driven by our national parks, monuments, and historic sites.
Especially during this National Park Service centennial year, it is important to sufficiently fund our national parks so that they may be enjoyed for another 100 years. The future of special sites like Mesa Verde depends on it.
David and Eleni Albrechta
Durango
