The National Park Service is seeing a surge in private support bigger than anytime in its 108-year history as it also faces a maintenance backlog of more than $23 billion, made worse this fall by hurricane damage to its most popular location.

Three years after setting a goal of raising $1 billion, the Park Service’s official charitable partner, the National Park Foundation, is almost there, having raised $840 million since 2021, according to the foundation’s outgoing president and CEO, Will Shafroth.

That fundraising under the Campaign for National Parks is in addition to efforts of park partners across the country — such as the Trust for Public Land, American Battlefield Trust, Conservation Legacy and the Student Conservation Association — that collectively want to raise another $3.5 billion.

Visits to national parks rose from about 275 million in 2010 […]