Congress already approved this money. Now the Department of the Interior (DOI) is blocking it anyway — and Nevada's national parks are paying the price.

Last month, DOI refused to release funding for more than 100 previously approved National Park Service agreements nationwide. Nevada alone stands to lose roughly $5.4 million, about a fifth of the entire $25.9 million cut. Lake Mead National Recreation Area is hit hardest, losing nearly $3.5 million meant for surveying illegal roads and protecting nearby cultural sites — work the Desert Research Institute was set to carry out at Overton Arm and Government Wash, one of the park's most popular backcountry areas. Death Valley National Park loses $1.3 million for projects including the closure of abandoned mines, and hundreds of thousands more are being pulled from bat monitoring and weather stations in the Mojave Desert and from work at Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument.

This isn't new spending. It's money Congress already set aside, being withheld at the last step before it could reach the ground. "Blocking these agreements did not save a dollar," according to Kate Groetzinger, communications director for the Center for Western Priorities.

Nevada's parks protect cultural history, wildlife, and public land that families across the state rely on. That work shouldn't stop because of a paperwork decision made in Washington.

Sign the petition to demand the Department of the Interior release Nevada's approved park funding before more damage is done.