Summit Sets Course for Protecting America’s National Parks, Connecting to People

from the National Parks and Conservation Association

Historic gathering of leading national park champions shapes outline for supporting National Park Service’s mission for 2016 centennial and the century to follow

Recognizing a growing need to unite the advocates, partners and supporters of national parks in advance of the upcoming 2016 National Park Service (NPS) centennial and beyond, the most diverse group of national park leaders ever convened gathered last week in Washington, D.C. to attend America’s Summit on National Parks. The Summit was a first of its kind event established in coordination with the NPS through a partnership of the National Park Foundation (NPF), the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and the National Park Hospitality Association (NPHA).

The two-day Summit, which took place January 24-26, was inspired by NPS’ recent Call to Action report [PDF download] and was designed to create unifying, clear objectives that will ensure the protection, enhancement, and support America’s iconic landmarks for centuries to come. The Summit inspired thought-provoking dialogue on some of the greatest challenges and opportunities facing national parks currently. The Summit produced a working document outlining the participants’ shared “Statement of Principles” and “Action Items” to ensure that the seeds of progress begun from the passionate and inspired conversations will take root, leading to growth, change, increased accessibility and ultimate strengthening of the national park system and national park programs. The Summit drew prominent members of Congress, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, major political advisors and top conservation, tourism and communication leaders.

In a joint statement regarding the Summit, Tom Kiernan, president of NPCA; Neil Mulholland, president of NPF; and Derrick Crandall, counselor of NPHA said:

“Our parks need to evolve with us. The passionate leaders and advocates who attended this Summit are committed to a united vision for the national parks to thrive in the next century. We understand that appropriate funding, diverse outreach, natural resource protection and conservation, updated facilities, and adequate staff are necessary to make sure our national parks remain attractive, healthy places for people to visit and enjoy. And, though there are many challenges, we are confident that this newly unified focus, support and dedication by the park community will make these goals obtainable.”

Yosemite - Call to Action Report

Among the most notable directives coming out of the Summit were to increase outreach to youth and other diverse populations; to make units within the NPS system more representative of the diverse makeup of the nation; to use technology, such as social media, smart phone applications, video games and other electronic technologies to attract visitors and improve park experiences; to highlight healthy food and opportunities for safe, active fun during park visits; to increase public awareness of the 2016 centennial; to create an endowment to provide the NPS with secure funding for the future; to encourage supporters and lovers of national parks to become more engaged with their members of Congress and other decision makers, and to grow the base of support for national parks, particularly among the health, education and tourism communities.

Leading up to the 2016 centennial, the current stewards of our national parks will take up the gauntlet thrown by this Summit. Through their work, these original goals will be enhanced and the shared vision will become action.

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For more information about the Call to Action, click here.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of three novels set in Glacier National Park, “Sarabande,” “Garden of Heaven: an Odyssey,” and “The Sun Singer.”

Let’s stop Underfunding the National Parks

“Our national parks and monuments support $13.3 billion of local private-sector economic activity and 267,000 private-sector jobs. Yet our national parks suffer from a $580-million annual operating shortfall and a backlog of maintenance projects that exceeds $9 billion. — National Parks & Conservation Association (NPCA)

According to the NPCA, tourism in the National Parks was up 5% last year. This brought money into many local economies as visitors stopped at restaurants and service stations, bought souvenirs, stopped at grocery stores for picnic supplies, and stayed in hotels that are either locally owned or that employ many people from the region.

To my way of thinking, investing in the National Parks isn’t optional. At a time when more funds are needed, the President’s requested National Park Service budget for 2011 is $21.6 million less than the 2010 budget. Bluntly put, this is backwards thinking.

We’re looking at a sinking ship that keeps taking on more and more passengers.

In 2008, Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, a former NPS chief historian, said that “the chronic under-funding of the National Park Service is not now and has not been for the past 50 years a matter of money – it is a matter of priorities!” That year, the $5 billion needed for the park service represented only 0.002 percent of the President’s proposed budget.

As I think of this, I’m reminded of many people I’ve known who purchase a new car every other year, go out to eat several times a week, hold a weekly barbecue and beer party in the back yard for their friends, and then complain that they can’t put a dime in a savings account, attend a concert or buy a novel. They love having skewed priorities and then complaining about how the results are not their fault.

The parks are the same way. When we overlook the the cost of handling the crowds, maintaining roads and trails, fighting fires and floods, and keeping the entire NPS infrastructure sound, we justify the unconscionably low NPS budget request by saying “why the hell do we need to spend all this money on a bunch of trees and lakes?”

We need to spend it because it’s where we live. It’s where our children will live. And it’s all connected to our spirituality and our culture and our air quality and our food supply and our water supply and our weather and to each of us–even if we never set foot on a trail or take a canoe ride down a river.

As the NPCA says, “Investing in the National Parks is investing in America.”

–Malcolm

Purchases of my Glacier National Park adventure novel “The Sun Singer” and the e-book edition of my contemporary mythic saga “Garden of Heaven” benefit Glacier National Park through Vanilla Heart Publishing’s “Drop in the Bucket” Program.

National Parks Off the Beaten Track

Well-known parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone often get more attention than the 56 other national parks. Here are ten others to consider as you make this summer’s vacation plans:

Smallest: Hot Springs, Arkansas. Only 5,549 acres, but it has 47 thermal springs. Jump in a tub and enjoy.

1860s bath house, Hot Springs - NPS

Least Visited: Kobuk Valley, Alaska. While Grand Canyon had 4.4 million visitors in 2008, Kobuk Valley only had 1,565. Why? It’s far away and there are no roads. Get a plane, boat or snowmobile and see what it’s like north of the Arctic Circle.

Most Bears: Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee. The park has an average of two black bears per square mile. No wonder there are often bear-sighting traffic jams along park roads.

Most Prehistoric: Petrified Forest, Arizona. Once upon a time it was a tropical floodplain. Now you can see 225 million years of history in the fossilized trees.

Tallest or Thickest: Your call. It’s either the Redwoods or King’s Canyon/Sequoia in California. The Redwoods include trees 38 stories high. While Sequoia has tall trees, too, they include the General Sherman tree that’s wider than three lanes of traffic.

Most Isolated: Isle Royale, Michigan. It takes a 3-5 hour boat ride to reach this primitive wilderness in Lake Superior.

Wettest: Olympic, Washington. You’ll find many ferns, mosses and lichens in this rain forest with an annual precipitation of twelve feet.

Darkest: Big Bend, Texas. In this remote and relatively cloud-free desert, the Milky Way is bright enough to cast a shadow.

Deepest: Crater Lake, Oregon. The lake in this volcanic basin is the seventh deepest lake in the world at 1,943 feet.

Crater Lake - NPS Photo

Newest: Great Sand Dunes, Colorado. This 30-square mile dune field was switched from a national monument to a national park in 2004. You’ll find short-horned lizards, bighorn sheep and mule deer here as well as some wonderful dunes to slide down.
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Source: “National Parks Less Traveled” in AARP Magazine, May/June 2010

Purchases benefit the Glacier Park Centennial Program

Glacier National Park – New Employee Dorm for Lake McDonald

Andrews and Anderson Architects, PC

Drawing of new employee dorm to be constructed at Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald Lodge for seasonal employees.

WEST GLACIER, MONT. – Glacier Park, Inc. (GPI), a concessioner in Glacier National Park, has awarded a construction contract to Swank Enterprises of Kalispell, Mont., for the construction of a new employee dormitory near Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier National Park’s Lake McDonald Valley.

The concessioner- funded construction of the new dormitory will begin late October 2008 and continue over the winter with completion anticipated by summer 2009.

The new dormitory was first conceptualized and approved in the park’s 2005 Commercial Service Plan/Environmental Impact Statement which was completed by the National Park Service at Glacier after an extensive public involvement process. The new dormitory will house approximately 43 employees and will replace housing provided in three other buildings currently located at the lodge complex in the vicinity of Snyder Creek.

According to Park Superintendent Chas Cartwright, “The buildings to be replaced lie in the flood zone of Snyder Creek and have significant life health issues. The utility systems that service the buildings also need replacing.” Cartwright noted, “Rather than put additional funds toward rehabilitating these structures and the utility systems within the flood zone, the decision was made to relocate the housing into a new structure away from the flood area.” The new dormitory will be located adjacent to the Lake McDonald Post Office near the Going- to- the- Sun Road and is compatible with the architectural design of the historic Lake McDonald Lodge, a National Historic Landmark.

EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA™

The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American people so that all may experience our heritage.

The new dormitory will provide double occupancy rooms with individual bathrooms for each dorm room that will allow GPI a more flexible type of housing.

“As employment demographics at western national parks have changed in recent decades, it has been increasingly difficult for park concessioners to retain summer employees for the entire work season. This new facility will greatly enhance GPI’s ability to attract and hire employees who are not constrained by college schedules,” said Cartwright.

After the dormitory construction is completed and when funding is available, the old dormitories will be removed from the flood zone as planned for in the Commercial Service Plan.

According to Cartwright, “Removal of the old, dilapidated dormitories will provide additional space for expanded parking that is needed for the entire lodge complex and adjacent hiking trails.”

SCA – Over 50 years of student work for the parks

The National Parks are underfunded and understaffed. But every spring, students volunteering via Students Conserving America head out and do substantive work in National Parks Across the country.

In 2007, for example, SCA volunteers donated 159,152 hours in California, 114,597 in New York, 95,070 in Florida, and that’s not the half of it.

The National Park Service is asking SCA for over a million hours of help this spring and summer. If you’re a student and like hands on work, check the SCA web site. You may end up fighting invasive plants, monitoring water quality, teaching conservation, conducting condor surveys, or fixing bridges.

If you’re looking for a way to help the parks this year, donate $25, the NPS will match it, and the result will provide 35 hours of volunteer work. Students will be working in Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia and elsewhere.

The volunteer work is hard, tiring, and often conducted under difficult conditions. Yet, there are high school and college students waiting to head out into the back country and pick up a shovel or an axe and make a difference. They’ve been doing it for all of us since 1957.

 

Copyright (c) 2008 by Malcolm R. Campbell

Glacier Park Names New Superintendent

NPS News Release

DENVER – Chas Cartwright, a 21-year veteran of the National Park Service (NPS) has been named superintendent of Glacier National Park in Montana, according to Intermountain Regional Director Mike Snyder. Cartwright will assume his new position in late May. He will replace Mick Holm, who served as superintendent for six years before retiring from the NPS.In making the announcement, Snyder said, “Chas brings a wealth of in-depth knowledge and broad experience to this vital position. He is a seasoned superintendent, with a firm commitment to the preservation and protection of park resources, and a keen ability to interact with partners, communities, and Congressional leaders.”

Cartwright currently serves as superintendent at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, where he is responsible for the management of 199,045 acres.

During his 36 years of federal service, he has held a number of managerial positions including associate to the NPS deputy director in Washington, D.C. Since 1989, he has held a number of superintendent positions at park units including Dinosaur National Monument in Utah and Colorado, Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site in North Dakota, and Hovenweep National Monument in Utah and Colorado. He has also held acting superintendent positions at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico and Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.

Cartwright began his career with the NPS in 1987 at Canyonlands and Arches National Parks and Natural Bridges National Monument as their first archeologist. Prior to joining the NPS, he worked for the Bureau of Land Management as an archeologist, and for the United States Forest Service as a fire lookout, river ranger, and firefighter.

“To say that my wife Lynda and I are excited about moving to Glacier country is an understatement,” said Cartwright. “I am honored to be selected as Superintendent and look forward to getting acquainted with all of the various individuals and groups who care about the park. My focus will be on building relationships. Glacier National Park has an incredibly dedicated staff of permanent and seasonal employees, volunteers, and partners, whom I look forward to working with.”

A native of Detroit, Cartwright graduated from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology (1972). He is an avid athlete who regularly bikes, skis, swims, hikes, and kayaks. He is married to Lynda Stocks, a native of Moab, Utah, who has a son and daughter, and they in turn have five grandchildren.

As superintendent of Glacier National Park, Cartwright will be responsible for the management of 1,013,572 acres, a staff of approximately 151, and an annual operating budget of more than $12,030,000. This site was designated Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park World Heritage Site in December 1995.

- NPS -