Over the next few months, you will be hearing stories about the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. It was established under the Department of the Interior by an act of Congress signed by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916.

But there is a growing movement on the political right to get rid of the government agency by privatizing the national parks. This is a position being championed by the infamous libertarian Koch brothers and the politicians they buy, including Presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who has already introduced a bill in Congress to do just that.

The mainstream media pundits and news organizations consider this a non-starter, since the bill has no chance of passing in this Congress. Even if it did pass President Obama would surely veto it. But what if Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz or any of the other Republicans now vying for the highest office in the land actually beat Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton in next year's general election? There is a distinct possibility the privatization movement could gain steam and we could lose America's best idea to corporations.

But there is a point that seems lost in today's mixed up political debate. Perhaps the American public doesn't realize that the parks are already privatized in a big way. Private concessionaires already control the profitable operations in our national parks and they are sucking the profits out, all while the National Park Service cannot get another dime out of Congress simply to fund maintenance.

In fact, a private company with mob ties runs the restaurants, stores and even gets the proceeds from pay showers and firewood sold in the parks. In Shenandoah, Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, Delaware North - a company that makes much of its money from gambling - runs the show.

This is what you will never learn from the mainstream media in this country. The private corporations and Republicans would like nothing more than to kick the Park Service rangers out and build casinos in some of America's most treasured landscapes. That's why we need your help to fund a trip out West to investigate what's going on in Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.

I've been a watchdog journalist for many years and involved in covering many such environmental stories in a way that fosters success. We can reverse the privatization of the national parks once again as John Muir and others did in the early days, with your help.

All the money we raise here will go to pay the expenses for a camping trip out west in the spring to investigate the performance of the private contractors. Our experience in Shenandoah tells us that the low quality of service creates a negative image on the part of the general public toward the National Park Service.