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Editor's note: This article is a response to a column by Jay Ambrose ("To fix national parks, just raise users' fees," Oct. 23).

Many first-time visitors to our community are often surprised to learn that Tucson is the only large city in the United States that is literally situated in the middle of a national park — the 91,000-acre Saguaro National Park, situated on the east and west edges of the city.

That juxtaposition of a national park and a large urban area creates unmatched recreational opportunities for Tucsonans and our many visitors, but also brings serious management challenges for the National Park Service, since Saguaro (like all national parks) cannot meet all its needs with federal appropriations alone.

Some suggest that our national parks can be "fixed" simply by raising user fees or introducing corporate marketing "partnerships." But America's national parks are our collective national heritage — described by a British observer in 1912 as "the best idea that America ever had."

The parks belong to all of us — and each of us, individually, has a stewardship responsibility to help preserve and protect these special places for future generations.

Saguaro National Park needs additional resources to help fight buffelgrass and other invasive vegetation, to help track desert tortoises, to restore critical habitat for lowland leopard frogs, to continue an ongoing saguaro census within the park, for wildlife conservation research, for trail maintenance and repair, for enhanced interpretive services, and for environmental education partnerships with Tucson schools, so that our children can learn about the park's significance and the overall Sonoran Desert ecosystem. These needs are real and they are immediate.

Arizona Sen. John McCain offered an innovative solution last year by introducing the National Park Centennial Act — creating a National Park Centennial Fund within the U.S. Treasury so that individual Americans would have an opportunity to leave a legacy for their children (and all future generations) by making a personal contribution to the preservation of our national parks.

The Centennial Fund would provide a guaranteed stream of additional funding through the National Park Service centennial in 2016, to help address the maintenance backlog and augment funding available to address the critical resource-preservation needs within our parks.

Unfortunately, McCain's common-sense solution has not yet been approved by Congress or embraced by the administration, so the problems within our national parks remain.

Alternatively, many parks (including Saguaro) have partnered with nonprofit "friends organizations" to help address the most critical needs by seeking private stewardship support from local communities.

Tucsonans who wish to support Saguaro National Park (either financially or through volunteer service), can do so by contacting Friends of Saguaro National Park, 300 E. University Blvd., Suite 140, Tucson, AZ 85705; or via e-mail at fosnp@friendsofsaguaro.org.

If you have another favorite park you'd like to support, you may contact the National Parks Conservation Association (www.npca.org).