WASHINGTON – Parks PAC launched today as the first and only political action committee in the nation created to solely defend America’s national parks through political action. Parks PAC plans to weigh in on 20 U.S. House races in the 2026 cycle.
In a time when bipartisan support is rare, the National Park Service continues to defy this trend. The most popular agency in the entire federal government, NPS is viewed favorably by 76% of Americans, including 78% of Republicans and 79% of Democrats. Nearly three in four Americans oppose selling off public lands.
In a single week this summer, roughly three million acres were stripped from protected public lands. The NPS repair backlog has climbed to an all-time high of $24 billion, and a quarter of its permanent workforce has been cut since DOGE began in January 2025. Next year’s federal budget proposes cutting the Park Service by nearly a third.
Our national parks are core to our nation’s ideals – 85 million acres held in trust for every American, from the Grand Canyon to the Great Smoky Mountains, from Civil Rights landmarks to the battlefields where the country was made. These lands are our common ground; they belong to all of us, whether these lands are ancient or new to our families.
“Defending the parks is not a partisan cause. It is a consensus cause. These places have had defenders for a hundred years. What they have not had is an elections-focused organization of its own,” said Paul Bradfield, Project Director at Parks PAC. “The parks belong to all of us, and for too long the people voting to plunder them have paid no political price. Supporting National Parks is wildly popular with voters across the spectrum, and it’s time elected officials who vote to destroy our parks face those consequences at the ballot box.”
Parks PAC has a Board of four people with park advocacy backgrounds:
- Ron Sundergill – the Founder of Parks PAC. He previously served as the Pacific Region Director of the National Parks Conservation Association, retiring in 2024
- Deb Callahan – Works at the intersection of environmental policy and politics; Deb has led organizations, including a decade as president of the League of Conservation Voters. In 2018, she founded North Star Strategy, a consultancy serving nonprofits and businesses
- Sandra Ramos – a veteran political organizer, strategist, and national park activist, also known as National Park Patch Lady.
- Charles Thomas – Executive Director of Outward Bound Adventures for sixteen years; former Pacific West Regional Manager of Youth Programs for the National Park Service, overseeing programs across 59 National Parks.
Parks PAC invites Americans of every political stripe who believe our parks are worth fighting for to join the effort at www.ParksPAC.com.
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About Parks PAC: Parks PAC, Inc. is the first and only political action committee in the nation whose primary focus is defending our national parks through political action. It works to elect leaders who will protect and fully fund the parks, and to hold accountable those who would plunder them.