Hotels in the National Parks – a sternly worded memo

Why we’re out there – NPS Photo

When many of today’s historic hotels in the National Parks first opened, America was a different kind of place, so people appreciated “rustic” and didn’t expect to have all the comforts of the city out in the woods because, well, if they preferred the comforts of the city they would stay in the city.

From time to time, I complain about the inconsiderate people who ruin camping experiences for everyone else by “serenading” the woods with loud music, loud TV sets, video game racket, and various other hobbies that have no place in a wilderness setting. Frankly, I’m there to get away from all that. Those who are addicted to racket can (a) wear earphones or (b) go away.

The same Internet that makes it possible for me to say a few kind words about old hotels gives others an opportunity to say nasty things about those hotels even though old buildings in a restricted environment can’t (and shouldn’t) compete with one’s favorite, modern resort. But, I can’t help but wonder why people complain about the very things they should have expected to find.

People, The Hotels are Really Old

I wonder why we can’t tolerate “rustic” these days as good sports rather than griping on line about things that are, quite frankly, to be expected in a hotel built 100 years ago in an environment that isn’t kind to structures and in a place that cannot be disturbed by the kinds of “improvements” we take for granted in big city hotels that operate year-around with full access to the best transportation, water, power, DSL and everything else anyone could possibly ask for in a hotel.

Old hotels are likely to have smaller rooms, older-style bathrooms, thinner walls, floors/ceilings that creak and groan, balcony doors and windows that might rattle in the wind, no television or hotel-wide WiFi or DSL. We used to call this kind of thing charming because going to a National Park was traditionally considered “roughing it” even if you didn’t sleep in a tent. Light sleepers can take white noise machines. WiFi addicts can: (a) find the designated WiFI areas (if any), (b) consider entering a 12-step program before staying in a historic hotel so that the lack of instant access to the world outside the park won’t be more important than enjoying what is there, (c) Go away.

When staying in a National Register listed hotel, it’s good to remember that preservation of historic structures always trumps restoration, much less renovation.  Buildings are updated to comply with codes. But updating them because people want modern bathrooms, TV sets in rooms with less insulation between rooms, and a five-star, New York City experience in a wilderness setting is not only destructive to the historic building, but down right lousy management. In the preservation business, we often talk about Paul Bunyan’s axe. If you keep using it, you have to tolerate its fragility and construction and chop accordingly; otherwise, when you replace the handle one year and replace the axe head another year, it might look like Paul Bunyan’s axe. But it isn’t. It’s now a replica and no longer a historical treasure.

You Don’t Expect Granny to Dance Like a Teenager

I don’t know, maybe fewer people are tolerating granny these days because she’s old and acts her age and cannot do this or that with the same efficiency and style as a much younger person. Yes, I know, science will probably figure out how to keep replacing granny’s parts so that one day granny will be a teenager again. Of course, she won’t be granny any more either.

Old buildings also act their age, especially when their age=history. We cannot have it both ways. If we want to stay in a historic hotel, then we need to love it for what it is rather than taking away all of its history by modernizing the original building away over time with “improvements.”

In many ways, the National Park Service is the ultimate steward of these properties, because NPS  controls what can be changed and what cannot, how the hotel must function within a pristine environment, and even how much you pay for a room. Suffice it to say, the hotels are old, expensive to maintain and difficult to operate.

We’re there for nature, not pampering; so it would be nice, I think, for some constructive reviews on sites like TripAdvisor rather than listing “faults” that really are the realities of rustic accommodations in century-old hotels.

–Malcolm

For More Information

• Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and Guidelines for Historic Preservation
• National Trust for Historic Preservation
• Heritage Preservation Services, National Park Service

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.”

New Logo and Blog for the National Parks and Conservation Association

When I joined the National Parks and Conservation Association (NPCA) in the 1960s after working in and taking trips to many of the parks, the group had a oval-chaped logo with the silhouettes of three bears. That logo was around for 50 years.

Now NPCA has decided it’s time for a change: “After about a year and a half of research, focus-group testing, surveys, and outreach, NPCA finally unveiled a modernized logo yesterday.” Naturally, some people wanted to keep the old logo. I support the changes, the logic of which is explained here.

Even before setting three of my novels in Glacier National Park, I was a “friend” of the parks. Since I live in the southeast, I’ve been to Smoky Mountain National Park more than any other. When I joined the NPCA, the Internet as we now know it did not exist. I depended on the print magazines from the Sierra Club and the NPCA for parks and conservation information.

Now, I’m happy that with the logo, the NPCA has also updated its online presence with a new blog called the Park Advocate. As NPCA suggested to members in this morning’s e-mail message, “Check out the blog for regular news on the parks, read about NPCA’s latest work in the field, enjoy photos and videos from around the country, and share your ideas and opinions on issues affecting our national parks.”

What a great way to keep up! Even if you’re not at NPCA member, the blog and its RSS feed will help you keep up with the latest news about the National Parks.  If you’re a Facebook member, you’ll find the NPCA is there, too.

–Malcolm

If you’re a fan of Montana’s Glacier National Park and/or are planning a visit to Many Glacier Hotel, you might enjoy my e-book about the history of Swiftcurrent Valley: “Bears, Where They Fought.”

The 15-page booklet is available on your Kindle for only 99 cents. (Click on the cover to learn more.) You’ll also find it included in Vanilla Heart Publishing’s anthology of fiction, nonfiction and poetry “Nature’s Gifts.”

Joshua Tree National Park Kicks-off Restoration Projects

from NPCA

Photo by Alex E. Proimos

Twentynine Palms, Calif. – In partnership with the National Parks Conservation Association, Arrowhead® Brand Mountain Spring Water has announced the first jointly supported, volunteer-based restoration project at the iconic Joshua Tree National Park to help revitalize and restore the park, leading up to its 75th Anniversary.

Breaking ground this weekend, Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water employees will team-up with park officials and community volunteers to restore two highly travelled areas of the park – the Hidden Valley Trailhead and trails leading out to the popular rock climbing area, Houser Buttress.

Once a refuge for cattle rustlers and mountain lions, Hidden Valley is now one of the park’s most popular rock climbing, picnicking and hiking destinations, and it’s in critical need of conservation and restoration efforts.

Among the group of volunteers are Boys and Girls clubs from Yucca Valley and Desert Hot Springs and marines from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center located in Twentynine Palms, CA.

Volunteers will perform critical work to prevent soil erosion and destruction around the trailhead, which has created a slipping hazard to hikers. Volunteers will also eliminate “social trails” created when visitors walk off the designated trail-areas. Additionally, participants will plant native vegetation, lay vertical mulching to curtail erosion, remove wooden ties that line the trail and replace them with rocks to restore the area, and dig postholes for fencing to secure the site. Finally, old trail signage will be replaced with new ones that better describe trails for hikers and help preserve the desert’s natural landscape.
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The Park

One hundred and forty miles east of Los Angeles, the 800,000-acre Joshua Tree National Park features a fragile desert ecosystem. Visitors can explore both “low” and “high” desert landscapes here where the Colorado and the Mojave deserts meet.

Photo by thirteenthbat

Joshua trees are found in the cooler, wetter Mojave in the western portion of the park. Explorer John Fremont reportedly called them “…the most repulsive tree in the vegetable Kingdom.”

A member of the Yucca genus, the fast-growing Joshua trees get their name from 19th century Mormons crossing the Mojave Desert who said the trees’ limbs resembled the outstretched arms raised to the heavens in prayer.

The trees, with their multi-fiber trunks and extensive root systems can survive in the desert for hundreds of years, with some trees living up to a thousand years. Joshua trees bloom in the spring, displaying creamy white flowers to complement the dark green spear-shaped leaves.

–Malcolm

NPCA offers Park Field Guide Application

from the National Parks Conservation Association:

Washington, D.C.— A new mobile app field guide featuring national parks across the country was released October 8th by the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) and is available free to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users.

The most versatile and interactive mobile field guide app available, NPCA’s new National Park Field Guide provides a complete view of park wildlife, as well as a comprehensive ecosystem review of 50 national parks. Unlike any other mobile app on the market today, the guide includes bird portraits, call recordings, information about endangered and poisonous species, range maps, and wildlife. Users will also find current news about featured parks, access and reservation information, and directions to park visitor centers.

“We are pleased to offer this innovative and informative mobile field guide free of charge to national park visitors,” stated Megan Cantrell, NPCA Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement. “The new guide will enhance the experience of park visitors by providing a fun, educational companion for families and nature-lovers to learn about the many natural treasures that parks have to offer.”

From seashores and recreational areas to scenic riverways and historic sites, the field guide mobile app features 50 national parks across the country that support critical wildlife habitats. Among the many national parks featured include: Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Cape Cod National Seashore, and Gettysburg National Military Park. To view a complete list, click here.

“With more than 300 million national parks visitors annually, our new field guide will help engage and educate a new generation of advocates for our national parks,” said Cantrell. “The more people who understand that our national parks are America’s legacy to our children and in urgent need of care and repair, the better chance we have at protecting them for the future.”

The field guide was developed for the National Parks Conservation Association by eNature.com. At the heart of this mobile app is eNature’s comprehensive, geographically segmentable database of U.S. wildlife, both animals and plants.

eNature.com’s core content of wildlife information includes almost 6,000 individual species and is the same data set used to create the printed Audubon Field Guides. Data has been carefully reviewed and vetted by leading biologists, zoologists and other natural history specialists. eNature.com has consistently been one of the Internet’s most-visited sites for nature and wildlife information and has won numerous awards and accolades.

“With eNature’s unsurpassed wildlife content base, we are able to create a mobile app guide uniquely capable of targeting specific parks so users can quickly identify and enjoy the wildlife they come across,” stated Tom McGuire, eNature’s President.

The National Park Field Guide is available here or visit the Apple App Store from your iPhone and search Park Guides.

Hero's Journey Story Set in Glacier Park

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

Will Methane Trump Glacier National Park?

Some 20 years ago, Montana’s Glacier National Park was called the most endangered national park in the system. As the park approaches its 2010 centennial celebration, it remains in peril.

In 1985, the North Fork Preservation Association (of which I was a member) and other groups called “foul” when Rio Algom proposed a strip mine called Cabin Creek a few miles up the Flathead River from Glacier in British Columbia. Many issues surfaced, but the one that stopped the mine was a provision of the US/Canadian Boundary Waters Treaty that forbids either country from polluting the waters of the other.

Now, as BP Energy Corporation of Canada moves forward on plans to create a 50,000-acre coalbed methane field in British Columbia, the problem may again focus on water. The operation involves pulling millions of gallons of water out of the aquifer to release the gas. The ramifications for the downstream ecosystem of the Flathead River and the adjoining Glacier National Park could be disastrous.

The river has protected status in the United States, but not in Canada where attempts to secure the valley by enlarging Canada’s Waterton Park have been pushed back by coal interests.

Glacier, and its sister park across the Canadian border, are combined under separate administrations as the world’s first peace park. Waterton-Glacier was designated a World Heritage Site in 1995. The current threats were brought to the attention of the United Nations World Heritage Committee this past summer, prompting the committee to vote unanimously to investigate. A report is expected by February of next year.

You can learn more about the the current threats to Glacier National Park in the coal mining article on the National Parks and Conservation Association Website. See also the NPCA’s article about Glacier as a World Heritage Site.

You can also follow the issues on the Waterton-Glacier Endangered Website.

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Malcolm’s personal note: I have been a fan and a rabid supporter of Glacier National Park ever since working there in the 1960s. Since then, I have served as an editor for two books about the park, written articles about the shining mountains, and hounded many of the people who thought that maintaining the ecosystem there should take second place to mining and other development. My 2004 novel “The Sun Singer” is set in the park’s Swiftcurrent Valley.

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