Support Centennial Initiative to Rejuvenate U.S. National Parks
Action Alert
For Immediate Release
05-01-08
Contact: Drew Vankat, Policy Analyst
drew@imba.com
303-545-9011
Voice Your Commitment to Improve National Parks
Our National Park System has been called the nation's best idea. It seems like an overstatement until you look across the Yosemite Valley from Halfdome, cruise through Canyonlands on a mountain bike or ski past buffalos in the midst of a Yellowstone snowscape.
The park system will turn 100 years old in 2016. Thankfully, the government is planning major steps to ready parks for their next century. After years of thin spending, both the president and congress rallied with a healthy cash infusion for park operations. Both branches now want to pass new legislation to make the park system even better -- the Centennial Initiative.
The Centennial Initiative will trigger a series of programs designed to help get rangers out from behind their desks, reduce the park system's environmental footprint, protect cultural resources and, important to our community, enhance human-powered recreation.
The Centennial Initiative will cost money and decision makers are exploring innovative ways to pay for it, from collecting offshore oil and gas royalties already owed to the government, to cash and in-kind contributions from the private sector and even a special National Park Service postage stamp. While they don't agree on everything, they are certainly getting closer.
What You Can Do to Help:
Five senators have just introduced the National Park Centennial Fund Act, S. 2817 and need the support of their colleagues. You can help by sending an email to your two U.S. Senators asking them to sign on as co-sponsors of this important legislation.
