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06-01-2007, 08:29 AM
JEFFREY P. MAYOR, The News Tribune
The National Park Service has set eight goals as the foundation of its Centennial Initiative, the agency’s preparations for its 100th anniversary in 2016.
“The challenge facing the National Park Serviee is to conserve what is timeless while keeping pace with the modern needs of America,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a report sent to President Bush on Thursday. The goals, Kempthorne said, are to ensure that the 391 units of the park service are relevant to today’s Americans.
The agency plans to improve priority facilites, restore native habitats, improve natural resources, reduce environmental impacts, double the number of volunteer hours, enroll 2 million new Junior Rangers, encourage partnerships and reshape the agency’s work force.
At Mount Rainier National Park, those efforts will focus on facilities within the National Historical Landmark District and the study of global warming, said assistant superintendent Randy King.
“We’re trying to protect the historic character of those facilities, as well as the natural resouces at the park,” King said.
He cited the Sunrise Lodge as one example of a building in need of rehabilitation by 2016.
“There’s a lot of structural deficiencies that need to be addressed, similar to what we’re doing at Paradise Inn right now,” he said.
As for global warming studies, the goal would be to turn the park, in conjunction with Olympic and North Cascades national parks, into a working laboratory.
Kempthorne said the agency will release on Aug. 25 each park unit’s proposals, as well as which projects and programs that should be funded in 2008.
source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/75518.html
The National Park Service has set eight goals as the foundation of its Centennial Initiative, the agency’s preparations for its 100th anniversary in 2016.
“The challenge facing the National Park Serviee is to conserve what is timeless while keeping pace with the modern needs of America,” Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said in a report sent to President Bush on Thursday. The goals, Kempthorne said, are to ensure that the 391 units of the park service are relevant to today’s Americans.
The agency plans to improve priority facilites, restore native habitats, improve natural resources, reduce environmental impacts, double the number of volunteer hours, enroll 2 million new Junior Rangers, encourage partnerships and reshape the agency’s work force.
At Mount Rainier National Park, those efforts will focus on facilities within the National Historical Landmark District and the study of global warming, said assistant superintendent Randy King.
“We’re trying to protect the historic character of those facilities, as well as the natural resouces at the park,” King said.
He cited the Sunrise Lodge as one example of a building in need of rehabilitation by 2016.
“There’s a lot of structural deficiencies that need to be addressed, similar to what we’re doing at Paradise Inn right now,” he said.
As for global warming studies, the goal would be to turn the park, in conjunction with Olympic and North Cascades national parks, into a working laboratory.
Kempthorne said the agency will release on Aug. 25 each park unit’s proposals, as well as which projects and programs that should be funded in 2008.
source: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/75518.html