We’ve been treated to quite a spring here in the California desert. After experiencing the greatest Joshua tree bloom on record this past April, one of our hardest-fought battles finally ended in victory last month—NPCA and our supporters have defeated the Eagle Mountain Landfill proposal once and for all.

Eagle Mountain would have been the largest landfill in the country, and proponents had proposed building it smack in the middle of a mountain range bordered on three sides by Joshua Tree National Park wilderness. At peak capacity, the facility would have accommodated 20,000 tons of garbage—per day—for 117 years. A projected map of the area showed that the landfill would have harmed 75 percent of the critical desert tortoise habitat within the park—one of the most important remaining refuges for this federally threatened species.

On May 23, the Los Angeles County Sanitation District officially scrapped the project. They reported a list of reasons that read like NPCA’s own arguments against the landfill: a belief that people in the area were better served by more recycling and waste diversion, a desire to avoid environmental harm, and concern over the current need for the project, which was originally envisioned back in the 1980s.

NPCA worked on this issue for 15 years and challenged the legality of the project all the way to the Supreme Court. Even after landfill proponents lost the legal battle in 2011, they still attempted to find ways to amend the proposal and move ahead with the development anyway.

More than 300,000 concerned citizens spoke against the landfill, through several proposal stages and presidential administrations. Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar recently flew over the site and began work on a conservation solution for the region; Senator Dianne Feinstein shared a letter of concern against it; and the Desert Sun, the major newspaper in the region, wrote an editorial in favor of abandoning the landfill and adding the adjacent wilderness land back to the national park. We agree with the newspaper! This strong and persistent opposition has truly meant a better future for Joshua Tree National Park, adjacent wilderness lands, and critical wildlife habitat.

This victory is especially significant for me on a personal level. Not only do I love to backpack, camp, and recharge in this stunning and unique park, I also put together a book on the desert tortoise several years ago that collected student photography as a way to spread appreciation for this threatened animal and the importance of preserving its habitat. This decision will hopefully help many more students and their families enjoy the beauty of this slow and stately desert icon. Joshua Tree remains one of the most important refuges for this species. NPCA is glad that the officials in Los Angeles County finally made the right decision and are finding more responsible ways to manage Southern California’s waste—it’s a real win for everyone.

Yesterday, NPCA President Tom Kiernan stepped down after a memorable fifteen years leading the organization. During his tenure, Tom dramatically increased the size and scope of the organization and played a pivotal role in our fundraising efforts. He’s also the kind of person who leads by example, sharing his genuine love of the outdoors and real sense of connection to issues that matter to so many of us in the conservation community. We know he’ll be a great success as the next chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, an organization that shares NPCA’s interest in finding more sustainable energy sources that might address global warming.

During this transition, Executive Vice President Theresa Pierno will serve as our acting president. We asked Theresa a few questions about the days ahead as NPCA faces the prospect of change internally.

Q: Do you foresee any shifts in NPCA’s program work as a result of this transition?

Our strategic plan leading up to 2016 was already in place before Tom made his announcement. I don’t think you’ll find any surprises in the work we hope to accomplish in the coming months. We will work to protect parks from air pollution, to ensure parks are well-funded and managed, to broaden the base of national park supporters to include more diverse audiences, and to support legislation that would create new parks and protect park ecosystems. And we must also ensure the park system continues to evolve and reflect the diversity of America’s story.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges ahead for national parks in the next six to 12 months?

As we prepare for the Park Service’s centennial in 2016, we have major challenges ahead to ensure that we are doing everything we can to preserve these treasured places for the future. From restoration work in the Everglades to maintaining strong interpretive ranger programs to protecting sensitive park wildlife and landscapes from the impacts of climate change, we have a unique opportunity to show that the American people value our national parks by giving them the resources they need to be healthy and thriving. Fortunately, park enthusiasts around the country understand what is at stake, and our 750,000 members and supporters regularly speak out on a host of issues, from clean air and water to preventing incompatible development. We also have a fantastic staff that works hard to preserve these critical places and stop legislation or policy decisions that could harm our parks.

I want to make sure my children and grandchildren get to see the best of America and enjoy these incredible, iconic places just as much as I do.

Q: Are there recent accomplishments you hope to build on during the coming months?

President Obama just added three new national monuments to the park system, including a site honoring Underground Railroad hero Harriet Tubman that we have spent years advocating for—a great victory and a signal that our federal government values preserving our history. And even with the recent funding cuts, NPCA and our supporters worked very hard with leaders in Congress to gain $400 million in national park restoration funding after Hurricane Sandy.

NPCA also co-founded and I co-chair the America’s Great Waters Coalition, a network of partner groups that protect vital watersheds around the country, from the Everglades to the Colorado River to the Great Lakes. These organizations are doing so much great advocacy and restoration work, from improving wildlife habitat at Galveston Bay in Texas to increasing public access to recreation on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay. It’s inspiring to see what a coalition of committed people can do, raising the profile of these restoration projects nationally, securing funding to help important watersheds, and connecting people to new opportunities to enjoy the waters in their neighborhoods. Healthy national parks depend on healthy waterways.

Q: Do you think the transition will hamper NPCA’s ability to get things done?

We are sad to see Tom leave, but one of the very best parts of working at NPCA is our strong commitment to teamwork and our strong leadership team of experienced staff members who have been working on park protection for many, many years. We have a strong field presence with our 24 regional and field offices, as well as skilled, dedicated staff in our national office in Washington, D.C. We are ready to dig in and keep our great momentum going during this transition.

Learn more about Acting President Theresa Pierno on NPCA’s website and read NPCA’s recent press release announcing Tom’s departure.

Despite the great natural beauty of the area, the park has a long history of oil and gas development near and even inside its boundaries. Its proximity to the Chattanooga Shale means that a boom in area fracking operations could put the park’s land, air, and water at risk. Big South Fork is one of five parks that NPCA studied in-depth in the new report, National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing. Learn more about the effects of fracking on this and other parks on NPCA’s website and tell President Obama to protect our federal lands from the dangers of this controversial oil and gas extraction method.

Each month, NPCA puts together a slideshow exploring one of the 401 amazing sites in our National Park System. To get the featured park delivered to your inbox each month, sign up for Park Lines, NPCA’s newsletter, at www.npca.org/join.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

If you liked this story, you might also like

• National Parks Deserve to Be Protected from Oil and Gas Development (April 25, 2013)
• Take an Online Tour of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Featured in NPCA’s New Report on Fracking (April 30, 2013)
• On the Edge: Fracking and the Fate of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (June 19, 2012)

Imagine boating to paradise and then—without meaning to—causing it harm. Thanks to more than a decade of work in the Virgin Islands, a national park visit by boat is now gentler on the marine environment.

The spectacular coastal scenery, crystal clear waters, reliable winds, and beautiful bays of Virgin Islands National Park and the Virgin Islands Coral Reef National Monument have made them popular destinations for boaters. In the past, these visitors had to use anchors to secure their vessels, causing considerable, albeit unintentional, damage to sea grass beds, coral reefs, and other  benthic (seabed or seafloor) resources. To combat this problem, the park embarked on a mooring program to provide a safe and reliable alternative to anchoring with the long-term goal of creating an anchorless park.

Moorings are permanent installations that allow boats to stay in one place without using anchors. In our case we drive heavy-duty augur-like devices about 15 feet into the seabed and then connect a line to a buoy on the surface (see a diagram of how this works). Boats attach to the buoy and are secure. Anchors are a more temporary solution, disturbing the seabed every time they are dropped and then retrieved. Just imagine the damage that could be done by 50 boats dropping anchors and then pulling them up day after day.

Park leadership and the Friends of Virgin Islands National Park finally achieved our long-held goal of an anchorless park in February 2013. Since the beginning of the program, the Friends group has installed 340 moorings and invested more than $663,000 in this program.

Starting back in 1999, the Friends installed 180 moorings for overnight use in ten bays around St. John. These white mooring balls along the north and south shores of St. John have played a significant role in protecting coral reefs, allowing the recovery of sea grass and protecting other benthic resources. The sea grass beds had been seriously depleted due to anchoring, but now if you snorkel in the mooring fields you will see a rich carpet of sea grass–much to the delight (and survival) of the myriad of marine creatures that make the sea grass their home.

In 2004, the Friends embarked on a program to install moorings in the recently designated Coral Reef National Monument. As a marine protected area, anchoring was prohibited within the monument. But, while we supported the conservation policies of the monument, we felt that the prohibition on anchoring precluded many of the traditional uses of the monument’s waters.  Installing moorings was the perfect answer and a “win-win” for both the users and the environment: allowing users to continue to enjoy this unique marine environment while providing needed protection to the natural resources. In this case, the Friends installed two dive moorings at popular dive sites in the monument, six moorings for blue runner fishing, and 125 storm-mooring berths and 11 day-use moorings in Hurricane Hole, a traditional refuge here for vessels during tropical storms. These moorings were installed in four phases between 2004 and 2008.

All of the moorings mentioned above were for boats up to a maximum of 60 feet in length. Vessels larger than that still had to anchor. Earlier this year, we installed 14 moorings for boats between 60 and 100 feet in six bays, finally making the park anchorless.

The protection of the park’s marine resources was obviously the principal objective of the mooring installations. However, the moorings also have a significant impact on the visiting boaters’ experience by providing a safe and convenient means of securing their boats while enjoying Virgin Islands National Park and the Coral Reef National Monument.

Theodore Roosevelt was our greatest conservation president. President Roosevelt’s boundless vision and determination resulted in a system of national parks that is the envy of the world, and has been called “America’s Best Idea.” Ironically, his namesake national park, which includes his North Dakota homestead, is currently facing a threat that could permanently degrade a patch of land that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity.

Across the nation, an oil and gas boom is taking place, largely through the utilization of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract oil and natural gas from shale formations buried deep beneath the surface. Wells have sprouted up on the outskirts of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and many more are planned there and across the nation, including near other National Park Service-managed lands like Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. But with this rapid boom, the negative impacts of large scale oil and gas development on national parks has largely been ignored. That is why the National Parks Conservation Association has released a new report on how fracking for oil and gas near national parks is already impacting these treasured places, and how impacts could increase unless we act now.

National Parks and Hydraulic Fracturing: Balancing Energy Needs, Nature, and America’s National Heritage is a comprehensive report on what large-scale oil and gas development adjacent to national parks does and could mean for these parks and the people who love and visit them. It details the known and suspected impacts of fracking on the environment, including harm to air, water, and wildlife—the things that make our national parks so special. It also provides five case studies that analyze national parks that are already in the middle of the oil and gas fracking boom: Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Glacier National Park, Grand Teton National Park, Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River and Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, and Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and Obed Wild and Scenic River.

This year’s Most Endangered Rivers report from American Rivers makes one thing clear: It is not sustainable for a single river to support 36 million people.

That’s the situation today for the Colorado River. Though millions use its water, it is already so over-tapped that it now dries up to a trickle before reaching the sea. Climate change and population growth have the potential to make the situation worse. The Bureau of Reclamation’s own report (Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study, December 2012) stresses that there is not enough water to meet current demands across the basin, let alone support future demand increases. Scientists predict climate change will reduce the Colorado River’s flow by 10 to 30 percent by 2050. We can’t stay on the path we’re on now if we want this iconic river and its surrounding parks and communities to remain healthy.

That’s why, now more than ever, it’s time to talk about how best to conserve the river while ensuring our protected lands remain unimpaired for future generations.

Images of this iconic river are entwined with the majestic national parks it travels through, from the meadows and rich valleys of Rocky Mountain to the dramatic vistas of the Grand Canyon. A Park Service brochure of the region captures so much of it so well for me:

The national parks of the Colorado River basin set aside the best of the river corridor’s most scenic, natural, and cultural wonders to serve the country’s heart and spirit … Dinosaur National Monument’s cathedral-like canyons where the Green and Yampa Rivers meet … Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park’s steep, narrow gash through some of the hardest rock on Earth … Curecanti National Recreation Area’s vast blue shimmer in the Colorado high country … Canyonlands National Park’s meandering gulches in the heart of Utah’s red rock country … the stark meeting of big water and big desert in Glen Canyon and Lake Mead National Recreation Area … more than 2,000 sandstone arches at Arches National Park … and the breathtaking, mile-deep descent into geologic time that is Grand Canyon National Park.

These parks and recreation areas depend on the river for their health and vitality, and in turn create economic boons for surrounding communities throughout the basin. Yet, it is a nearly impossible challenge for the National Park Service to fulfill its mandate to conserve resources in these parks due to ongoing water management issues. The various federal agencies managing the river have aimed to provide a reliable supply of water to this rapidly growing region of the country but haven’t significantly considered how to incorporate the protection of parklands. Americans recognize the special character of these wild places and protect them for present and future generations. It is now my turn, and yours, to speak up on behalf of national parks to ensure these southwestern jewels remain for our children and theirs.

In their report, American Rivers points to the need for Congress to fund programs that will encourage better water management of the Colorado River for the 21st century. NPCA couldn’t agree more. All concerned agencies, including the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the National Park Service must be involved in the development of a long-term, basin-wide framework to proactively manage water flows to address the needs of surrounding cities, agriculture, hydropower, recreation, and environmental resources. Full participation with an open, transparent process and adequate funding are both crucial to the future of this great American waterway.

NPCA’s Colorado River program is working to incorporate healthy river flows and healthy national parklands into the land- and water-management discussions more fully. These protected natural areas are part of larger landscapes and ecosystems that require collaboration among disparate stakeholders to protect. We work with federal, state, and local agencies to promote proactive measures for long-term restoration and protection of these public lands and waters. We believe that by highlighting the profound impact river management and continued diversion has on our national parks—places that are both beloved for their beauty and valued for their economic leverage—we can engage a diverse network of voices that will advocate to save the Colorado River.

For more information, see our recent press statement on American Rivers’ Most Endangered River and learn more about NPCA’s Colorado River program. You can take action for the Colorado River on the American Rivers website, and learn more by reading the Most Endangered Rivers report and watching the video below.

Here are five interesting facts that stood out for me as I read through the report:

1. Civil War tourists love learning and tend to have cash to spare: They earn a higher household income, on average, than the general population, and more than half are college graduates, compared to the nationwide average of 24 percent.
2. The average family of four visiting a Civil War battlefield spends $1,000 on their trip—and their spending looks something like this:
3. In Virginia alone, tourists at Civil War battlefields stay twice as long and spend twice as much as the average tourist.
4. On average, visits by 956 tourists support one job in a battlefield community.
5. In Philadelphia, property values increase an average of 1.6 percent for each mile closer the property is to a national historic district.

For more great information on battlefield visitation in general and the specific effects places like Antietam, Chickamauga, and Harper’s Ferry have on their communities, read the report on the Civil War Trust website.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

If you liked this story, you might also like

• Living History and Solemn Reflection at Antietam Commemoration (September 28, 2012)
• Did You Know? Only 28% of Civil War Battlefields Have National Park Protections (September 12, 2012)
• From Civil War to Civil Rights: All Peeps Created Equal (March 29, 2013)

There are few places better known or more loved than Yosemite National Park. As a transplated Californian originally from Iowa, it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I first emerged from the park’s famous Tunnel View to the jaw-dropping, iconic sight of El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls rising from the Valley floor and Half Dome shining in the background. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve come out of that tunnel now, but the novelty hasn’t worn off. Yosemite is the first place I take family and friends who visit from the Midwest, and it never fails to transform each of them in some way, as I believe it does for everyone who visits.

Today, I am asking people around the country to take action to help protect this majestic valley, as much for my personal love of Yosemite as my professional role to help protect the park for future generations.

My friends, family, and I are just a few of the four million people from around the world who visit Yosemite each year, mostly during the busy summer season. This enormous number of visitors during just a few months’ time means that park officials must manage large crowds while maintaining strong protections for the park’s outstanding resources—a significant challenge. Officials must adhere to many management guidelines, but one of the most important is commonly referred to as the Merced River Plan.

In 1987, Congress provided a Wild and Scenic River designation to 81 miles of the Merced River within Yosemite. The goal of this designation–the highest level of protection awarded to a river—is to preserve the Merced’s free-flowing condition and to protect and enhance its unique values that deemed it worthy of the designation. Like any body of water, a river’s health is not just about the water itself, but the riverbank and surrounding area that directly impact its vitality. In the case of the Merced River, this means that large portions of Yosemite Valley are key to its protection.

Unfortunately, for the last 13 years, Yosemite has been unable to proceed with crucial changes in infrastructure and management because the Merced River planning process has been held up by litigation. The good news is that the park has recently released a new version of the plan. NPCA supports the park’s preferred alternative (listed as alternative five in the planning documents), which is also the environmentally preferred alternative. This management strategy strikes a reasonable balance between protecting resources and delivering a quality visitor experience. It also provides a compromise for groups who have challenged versions of the plan over the years, potentially allowing this multi-million dollar process to move forward.

NPCA supports the preferred alternative of the Merced River Plan because it will maintain access for all visitors, near and far, but will also increase access to public transportation, making infrastructure changes that will decrease congestion in Yosemite Valley while allowing the same number of visitors to visit and enjoy its many natural wonders. The preferred alternative calls for more camping facilities, allowing those of us on a budget who love the most pure sights, smells, and sounds of nature more options to stay overnight, while enhancing protections for the river corridor’s natural resources. More than 200 acres of meadow will be restored under the preferred alternative and, in time, the riverbank will return to a more natural state.

Because Yosemite National Park is beloved by so many who have different opinions about how to best manage the park’s iconic natural wonders, it’s impossible to completely satisfy everyone. I personally, and NPCA organizationally, hope that park officials will find a way to continue to provide bike rentals for Yosemite Valley and implement even more public transportation in and around the park. Although some detractors raise issues with controversial aspects of the plan, such as the elimination of certain swimming pools, an ice skating rink, and rafts for rent, it shouldn’t stop the plan’s approval. My mom doesn’t travel from Iowa to Yosemite to do the types of things she has available in her own backyard. She comes to walk among the big trees, marvel at the sheer granite walls, feel the spray of waterfalls on her face. I support this Merced River Plan because it means that someday her grandchildren will be able to do the same.

You can tell Yosemite’s planners that you support the plan as well by taking action on NPCA’s website. (Note: The last day to comment is April 18, 2013.)

Today the country celebrates an important milestone in preserving its history. After years of advocacy and study, President Obama has finally named three new national monuments as part of the National Park System, including a new national park site on Maryland’s Eastern Shore honoring Harriet Tubman. This new national monument encompasses several sites in Dorchester County, Maryland, of great historic significance to Tubman’s early life as an enslaved person and during her career as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.

American schoolchildren grow up learning about Tubman and her legendary bravery, hearing how she escaped from slavery and risked her freedom—perhaps her own life—to free dozens of others on the Underground Railroad. Now, just a couple of weeks after the 100th anniversary of her death, the Park Service will help to tell her story.

As an enslaved girl on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Tubman was hired out to work for “Miss Susan,” a mistress who was quick to use the whip. Once, after she caught Tubman stealing a lump of sugar, Miss Susan flew into a violent rage. Tubman fled to escape another beating, and hid in a pigpen for days until hunger forced her to return. She was brutally whipped for her transgressions. 

In October 1849, Tubman escaped to Philadelphia. In December 1854, Tubman, who could neither read nor write, asked a friend to send a coded letter to Jacob Jackson, an Eastern Shore neighbor and a free and literate black man. The letter instructed Tubman’s three brothers to prepare for her pending return to guide them to Philadelphia and freedom. They successfully escaped on Christmas Day, telling no one of their plans, not even their mother who was expecting her sons for Christmas dinner. The Jacob Jackson Site will be part of the Harriet Tubman National Monument and managed by the National Park Service in partnership with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the State of Maryland.

Later, as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Tubman returned to Maryland multiple times to liberate friends and family members. Much of the landscape found today on Maryland’s Eastern Shore has changed little since Tubman roamed the territory in the 1800s. The preservation of those fields, trails, and waterways—intact and unimpaired for benefit and enjoyment of future generations—makes this designation an even sweeter victory.

Of equal or greater significance is what this national monument designation will do to advance public understanding of women’s history in general, and the role of African American women in particular. Of the 398 units in our National Park System prior to today’s designations, just seven were tasked directly with commemorating some aspect of women’s history.

Tubman also served in the Civil War as a Union nurse, spy, and scout, on one occasion leading Federal troops along an obscure path which allowed them to more stealthily approach opposing Confederate forces. Tubman’s courageous work contributed directly to the preservation of the Union and highlighting that legacy will help the National Park Service create a much broader and more accurate picture of who really matters when it comes to understanding the conflict that defined this nation. After the war, she continued to serve her people and her country selflessly until her death in 1913. 

While the national monument is a great step forward, it does not accomplish everything advocates hope to achieve on Harriet’s behalf. The national monument would leave out the Poplar Neck plantation (in Talbot and Caroline Counties, Maryland) from which Tubman escaped in 1848. It also does not include any properties in Auburn, New York, including the A.M.E. Zion Church where Tubman worshipped, her personal residence, and a home for the aged she raised money to build and operate. For the past six years, NPCA has actively worked with partners such as the Association for the Study of African American Life & History (ASALH), the Maryland Office of Tourism, and a variety of other federal, state, local, and grassroots champions to pass legislation introduced by Senator Ben Cardin and cosponsored by Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Gillibrand (D-NY), and Schumer (D-NY) to preserve these additional sites. Our work on the legislative front will continue even after the designation of the national monument.

As the National Park Service advances towards its centennial in 2016, much discussion has been had about the best ways to create a 21st century park system for a 21st century America. A Tubman site helps advance that goal by commemorating the legacy of a woman who rose from humble beginnings under the worst circumstances any of us could imagine to become one of this nation’s most admired historic icons. Tubman’s story is important because in many ways it is our history at its best. Thanks to bold action of President Barack Obama, her narrative is now a story we can share more broadly with the world, and for that, maybe help make that world a better place.

Colonel Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers

In addition to the long-awaited site honoring Tubman, President Obama also designated two other national park sites sharing important parts of our nation’s history, including the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. Though Harriet Tubman’s story is widely taught, Young’s fascinating legacy and the story of the Buffalo Soldiers is less familiar to many.

In 1884, Second Lieutenant Charles Young became just the third African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Young distinguished himself as a soldier in the Ninth U.S. Cavalry, one of the black troops known as the Buffalo Soldiers that served, among other roles, as some of the nation’s first park rangers. Despite the rigid segregation of the U.S. military at the time, Young rose through the ranks to become a colonel; served as a professor of military science, French, chemistry, geometry, and geology at Wilberforce University in Ohio; and went on to become the first African-American acting national park superintendent at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park in 1903. The national monument preserves Young’s home in Xenia, Ohio, and helps tell not only his story, but the story of life as a black soldier in the 19th century.

First State National Monument

Last but not least, today’s announcement helps preserve an urban oasis along the Brandywine River in Delaware—the only state in the country that did not have a national park site. The First State National Monument tells much of early America’s history, from the Native American Lenape tribe that lived in the river valley to the Wyeth family of artists who still paint its beautiful landscapes. The largest battle of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of the Brandywine, was fought here, and the birth of industry was literally propelled by the Brandywine River’s steady flow. Even the paper used to print the Declaration of Independence was made on the Brandywine River. The new monument also commemorates the legacy and perseverance of early Dutch, Swedish, and English settlements, a vital aspect of the state’s rich history.

More than five million people live within 25 miles of the main property, making it readily accessible to the public and a conservation centerpiece for the state and the region.

Learn more about the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers, and First State National Monuments on NPCA’s website.

Today, March 22, we celebrate World Water Day. Officially sanctioned by the United Nations, this year’s theme is water cooperation, which recognizes the need to balance demands and priorities among multiple players involved in water management decisions.

Much of Everglades restoration is about water cooperation and finding appropriate management solutions to meet the many needs of those dependent on the ecosystem while restoring the historic “River of Grass.” 

In the spirit of water cooperation, many partners came together this week to celebrate the completion and ribbon cutting of a one-mile bridge on Tamiami Trail, a major Everglades restoration project and the largest construction project in the history of the National Park Service (NPS). NPCA staff and board members joined with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy, and Everglades National Park Superintendent Dan Kimball on an inaugural crossing of the bridge.

Tamiami Trail (U.S. Highway 41/State Road 90) connects Tampa to Miami and forms a portion of the northern boundary of Everglades National Park. It provides access to one of the most popular areas of the park–Shark Valley Slough. The road is also the only way to access the Big Cypress National Preserve Visitor Center and Headquarters.

Since the road was built in the 1920s, Tamiami Trail has acted as a dam, cutting off the natural north-south water flow through the greater Everglades ecosystem. As a result, Everglades National Park is starved of vital water, deteriorating habitat for wading birds and other wildlife and altering the park’s unique ridge-and-slough landscape.

In 1989, Congress recognized the need for immediate restorative action and authorized a law known as the “Modified Water Deliveries project,” which included bridging this one mile of Tamiami Trail.  Construction started 20 years after it was authorized. Finally, today, cars can drive over the bridge with water flowing underneath as they look south to the vast expanse of Everglades National Park.

We are thrilled that this first phase of bridging is finished and appreciate the many benefits it brings. This project is critical to restoring water flows and distribution that marine wildlife, fisheries, and nesting colonies of birds rely on, including the endangered Everglade Snail Kite and the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. Additionally, bridging Tamiami Trail will increase the capacity to move more water from Lake Okeechobee through the central Everglades, thus reducing the devastating water flows that are killing coastal estuaries, fueling red tides, and wasting billions of gallons of freshwater. People have benefitted directly from the project, too. The bridge construction already has brought much needed jobs to South Florida—from 2010 to 2012 alone, 1,212 jobs were created.

While park wildlife will feel the real, positive impact of some of these benefits in the near future, the one-mile bridge alone will not achieve the water flows necessary to restore the Everglades and truly reconnect the divided parts of the ecosystem. We must move forward with the additional bridging of Tamiami Trail.

According to the National Research Council’s “Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Third Biennial Review,” additional bridging of Tamiami Trail is required to achieve significant ecological benefits. NPS recognizes this and has already recommended an additional 5.5 miles of bridging, which Congress authorized in 2012. The planning and design phase is underway right now at NPS’ Denver Service Center. The next critical step is securing funding for the project. 

Everglades was the first national park dedicated for its biological diversity as opposed to its scenic vistas. However, as each year passes, its biological integrity is increasingly jeopardized by altered water flows. Each year we are losing critical habitat and endangered species. 

Bridging Tamiami Trail is the highest priority project restoring an ecosystem in a national park. Now that the first mile is complete, we look to continuing this work with our partners, in the spirit of World Water Day’s theme of water cooperation, to build on this momentum and make a real difference for America’s Everglades. 

For more information, see our recent press statement on the Tamiami Trail bridging and learn more about NPCA’s Great Waters program.