MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A conservation group is urging Congress to spend nearly $2 billion by 2016 to buy 1.8 million acres of land within the national park system.

The proposal by the National Parks Conservation Association includes about $3 million for Hawai'i's Volcanoes National Park.

The group says the nation risks losing thousands of acres within national parks to developers without the purchases and recommends the federal government buy land in 55 of the National Park Service's 391 units in the coming budget year.

The targets include 125,000 acres that would complete the expansion of Petrified National Forest Park in Arizona.

The National Park Service controls some 84.3 million acres nationwide, but 4.3 million acres of privately owned land sit within park boundaries.