The National Park Service turned 90 last year and Congress presented it with an early centennial birthday gift — a $219 million increase in funding, the largest dollar increase in the agency's history.

When Congress approves the fiscal year 2008 budget, national parks could receive another $261.2 million. Congress should make sure every penny of this increased funding remains in the budget and continue increasing funding for this vital agency.

Such funding is sorely needed because the Park Service has been operating with a shortfall of $800 million annually for up to a decade. That has resulted in a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog.

All have a tremendous stake in these natural wonders that have been enshrined as national parks. They provide not merely vistas of scenic beauty, but respites from the hurly-burly of modern life. What could be more serene than wandering among giant redwoods or gazing on the Yosemite landscape?

In preparation for the national park system's centennial in 2016, the Park Service has planned a 10-year effort to restore funding and reinvigorate managing the parks as a national trust.

Last year's funding increase, which jump-started the Bush administration's National Park Centennial Initiative, allowed the Park Service to hire 500 permanent full-time employees; 3,000 seasonal employees, equally divided among maintenance employees, rangers for interpretation and public education, and rangers to meet law enforcement, medical, search and rescue, backcountry patrols and lifeguard needs; and $8 million more for park police operations.

The funding also includes a $50 million increase for various maintenance accounts and $10 million more to maintain historic and prehistoric sites with the park system.

For Ventura County, the increased funding provided $7.7 million, a 22 percent increase, for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area; and $6.9 million, a 16 percent increase, for the Channel Islands National Park.

For fiscal year 2008, the Park Service has specifically requested $305,000 and 8.4 full-time equivalent employees for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to establish a minority youth program, and $467,000 and six full-time equivalent employees to provide critical maintenance for new and existing parklands.

In addition, $499,000 and 4.5 full-time equivalent employees have been requested to protect and preserve newly designated marine reserves in Channel Islands National Park.

The Park Service hopes to make up its $800 million annual shortfall in $100 million increments between now and the 2016 centennial celebrations.

National parks truly belong to the people. You can help by getting involved in the National Parks Centennial Challenge, which has the potential of providing up to $3 billion in new funding for the parks over the next decade.

The challenge includes a commitment of $100 million annually for discretionary funding of activities to bring excellence in the parks to higher levels, and a challenge for the public to contribute at least $100 million annually for signature programs and projects. The public's contributions would be matched by up to $100 million in mandatory federal funding.

The challenge and the push for funding are being promoted by the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit advocacy group dedicated to protecting and enhancing America's national parks. The Park Service cannot lobby on its own for funding and the NPCA was founded more than 85 years ago with help from Stephen Mather, the Park Service's first director.

What better centennial present for the National Park Service than a public-private partnership that reinvigorates one of this nation's most valued treasures?

As Tom Kiernan, NPCA president, wrote: "America's national parks are the touchstones of our shared history and culture. In some ways, they represent the soul of the nation. They represent our hopes, our dreams, our struggles. They are our absolute best places."

Stewardship of the best places deserves people's best efforts. The time to start is now because, as the NPCA says of America's national parks, "It's not like we can make new ones."