Give national parks a great 100th birthday

For those of us who love to spend weekends hiking the hundreds of miles of trails in Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks, we were reminded recently about the power of Mother Nature. Flooding destroyed park roads, including the Hoh Road in Olympic National Park, damaged park buildings and closed all entrances to Mount Rainier National Park.

For those of us who like to stroll along the Ohanapecosh River at the Grove of the Patriarchs among giant Douglas fir, western red cedar and western hemlock, it is distressing to learn that many of those trees, the boardwalk and interpretive displays now lie under four feet of mud and debris. The road to the Grove of the Patriarchs has been washed out several miles from the trail.

For people who depend on Mount Rainier or the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park for their livelihood, it is critical to know that, according to the National Park Service, 1.3 million visitors to Mount Rainier National Park spent $30 million in the local area in 2001, supporting 649 local jobs. But the storms surely will have an affect on those economic benefits.

There are many other facets that wed us to Mount Rainier and Olympic, each with different and special meanings. Unfortunately, the recent storms show us how those parks, and all of our national park system, are at risk. Our parks need fixing.

The $30 million price tag for reconstruction and storm cleanup at Mount Rainier alone comes at a time when the National Park Service is operating under an estimated $800 million systemwide shortfall for day-to-day operations; the maintenance backlog is estimated at $4.5 billion to $9.7 billion.

In just 10 years, the Park Service will celebrate its 100th birthday, and it is up to Congress, the White House and the American public to give national parks a centennial celebration we can all be proud of.

The National Parks Conservation Association has proposed a comprehensive plan for fixing all national parks, including emergency funding to reconstruct and clean up the recent destruction here in Washington. Moreover, a significant funding increase for all national parks is needed in next year's budget as the first installment toward the new National Parks Centennial Challenge, announced by Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne this summer.

The public's involvement in the process of fixing parks is imperative. Thousands have already signed NPCA's Pledge to Fix Our Parks at npca.org/fixourparks and are personally committing to helping national parks.

To provide another opportunity for the public to get involved on behalf of the parks, NPCA is hosting a Centennial Challenge Roundtable at the Seattle REI flagship store in downtown Seattle from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight.

The event will enable the public to hear from elected officials, the superintendent of Olympic National Park and others involved in national park protection; discuss the challenges facing parks, and learn what we can all do to restore them before their 100th birthday.

It's up to all of us to restore the faded glory of our national parks. I am taking the online pledge to fix them. What can you do?

David G. Graves is the Northwest field representative for the National Parks Conservation Association. For more information about tonight's event, pick up a postcard at REI or contact NPCA at 206-903-1444.

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