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Second Century Commission on National Parks Wants To Hear From You

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The National Parks Second Century Commission has been traveling around the country since late last summer looking into the needs of the National Park System. Now the commission wants to hear your thoughts about the parks' needs.

The first public meeting is set for tomorrow, February 20, in Washington, D.C., with additional meetings set for San Francisco and Chicago.

Chaired by former Senators J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., D-Louisiana, and Howard H. Baker, Jr., R-Tennessee, the commission is a first-in-a-generation effort to examine the national parks today and chart a vision for their second century of service to the nation. The commission consists of nearly 30 national leaders and experts with a broad range of experience, including scientists, historians, conservationists, academics, business leaders, policy experts, and retired National Park Service executives.

The upcoming “town meetings” are designed as open forums where the general public is invited to provide input on issues affecting the national parks. Those public meetings will be held:

• February 20, 2009, in Washington, D.C., from 9 a.m.–noon at National Geographic, 1145 17th Street NW. Commissioners John Fahey, Denis Galvin, Stephen Lockhart and Deborah Shanley will be in attendance.

• February 24, 2009, in San Francisco, California, from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. at the Fort Mason Center Golden Gate Room, entrance at the intersection of Marina Blvd. and Buchanan St. Commissioners Milton Chen and Stephen Lockhart will be in attendance.

• March 4, 2009, in Chicago, Ill., from 2 p.m.–5:30 p.m. at the Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington Street. Commissioners Gretchen Long and Deborah Shanley will be in attendance.

To ensure that as many individuals as possible are heard at the meetings, each speaker will be limited to a brief three-to-five minute statement. Participants at the town hall meetings are welcome to submit written materials or statements of any length, either in hard copy or electronic format.

The commission is particularly interested in public input around six key questions about the future of the national parks:

• How can national parks become more relevant to everyone in America’s increasingly diverse population?

• How should national parks and the programs at national parks change to meet emerging interests in the future?

• How can the National Park Service better lead and assist our nation’s citizens and communities in preserving important historic and material culture outside the national parks?

• What role should national parks play in our society to help address issues such as climate change and the massive loss of plant and animal species predicted for the 21st century?

• How do you envision the National Park System fitting into a national network of protected areas, considering future expansion of the system and the role of other areas managed by other federal agencies and private landowners?

• What is the role of the national parks in American education and life-long learning?

If you can't make any of these meetings, you still can lend the commission your thoughts by logging onto this website.

The commission has being convened by the non-profit, non-partisan National Parks Conservation Association, the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System.

You can find more information about the commission, including a complete list of commission members and bios, at this site.

Comments

This sounds like an advertisement stating "These are the ways we think we can expand funding...please come and support our ideas!" The National Parks are what there are. I completely disagree with having 391 sites as it is. Rosie the Riveter, Maggie Walker and many other sites are not National Parks. To be a National Park...you have to be a park first. I'm not suggesting getting rid of these other places. Just give them to a historical or other type organization.

National Parks (real parks) are relevent to all Americans regardless of their heritage, skin color, gender or sexual orientation. Marketing strategies may be a good idea in urban setting to attract more people to visit National Parks but let's not try to change the parks to be more diversity freindly. People wearing Green and Grey should not be teachers. They should be there to improve the experience of the public during their visit, we already have a Department of Education. (one with lots of bailout dollars)

The NPS has a deferred backlog of billions of dollars and they want to look for ways to expand into communities outside of the parks. That makes about as much sense as giving Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac billions more dollars to straighten out the real estate mess...oops!

My point is I would like to see the NPS go back to doing what it was intended to do, preserve and protect the parks. And then make sure that it is done well.


Our great natural resouce is being terribly neglected. From the Everglades, the Smokies, to Yellowstone & Yosemite. The infrasturcture is in poor condition and it seems to be a thorn in the side to congress they choose to ignore.

What a shame we have no one in Washington to speak for the millions who enjoy the parks and the many more who could enjoy them with the proper reconstruction. We need road fixed, lodges repaired, temp. summer rangers, trails rebuilt, sinage and on and on. Why do we spend soo much on those who contribute nothing and igonre the areas where the working class go to enjoy a summer.

There is no voice in Washington for us and the condition of our parks is one example of us being pushed aside for the sake of a few votes.

I could go on but no one listens anyway

Hank


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