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.

This Saturday, April 20, marks the third anniversary of the oil rig explosion that devastated coastal communities, waters, and lands in the Gulf of Mexico and imposed tragic loss among 11 families.

Nearly three years ago, I flew over the Gulf of Mexico in a small plane, to see firsthand the devastating impacts the 2010 Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill was inflicting on our national parks and the local communities, especially Gulf Islands National Seashore. I met with many workers and toured the National Park Service’s Oil Spill Command Center to discuss clean-up efforts, staff capacity, and the challenges they faced trying to protect park resources and wildlife.

As I walked along the beach of Gulf Islands National Seashore, the wind and rain from Tropical Storm Bonnie was strong. The brown-stained sea foam rolled in and out, leaving behind a thin sheen of oil on the beach. Though officials advised against it, I reached down to pick up some of the brown sand and felt the oil between my fingertips. I was not prepared for the stinging sensation on my fingers—a slight and persistent chemical sting. It was heartbreaking to imagine the oil spreading over the Gulf Islands’ beaches, into its wetlands, and onto its wildlife. The work ahead for the National Park Service was daunting, especially for the more than 600 staff from 120 national parks deployed to assist in the Gulf Coast cleanup efforts, in addition to thousands of others from federal agencies, national and local organizations, and nearby communities.

Recognizing that one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the Gulf Coast in U.S. history could bring about an unprecedented opportunity for recovery and restoration, Congress passed the Resources and Ecosystem Sustainability, Tourism, Opportunities Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (also referred to as the RESTORE Act) last year. This bipartisan legislation ensures that 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalty payments stemming from the BP oil spill would be directed toward environmental restoration and economic development in the Gulf region, including national parks like Gulf Islands National Seashore, Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, and Padre Island National Seashore, where the health of the Gulf is directly linked to the health of the parks.

Today, BP and other responsible parties are on trial in a federal court in Louisiana to determine the extent of their negligence and the financial penalties that will be leveed. In the meantime, there are many projects that could make a tremendous impact on the Gulf through the RESTORE Act.

The entire Gulf is one large ecosystem. Improving the health of places like Florida Bay, the Mississippi Delta, and Galveston Bay will support vibrant fisheries, wildlife habitat, and livelihoods that depend on a healthy Gulf. NPCA supports a variety of restoration projects with a goal of improving the overall health of the Gulf to allow it to be more resilient to future disasters.

At Gulf Islands National Seashore, one potential project would remove asphalt and road-base debris from areas that were once pristine sugar-white sand, but have been damaged by years of storm events. At Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve, a proposed project would restore wetlands damaged by old oil exploration and drilling canals, levees, and platforms in the Barrataria Preserve portion of the park. At Everglades National Park, another proposed project would bridge spans of a major access road known as the Tamiami Trail, allowing water to flow back into the park and out to Florida Bay, a highly productive Gulf estuary that has experienced a decline in fisheries and wading birds due to the lack of fresh water.

With five of America’s Great Waters and eight national parks located in the Gulf Coast region, we must not forget how these cherished places suffered, either by direct impacts from the oil or indirect effects such as lost revenues from spring and summer tourism seasons. These communities have been waiting for funds to begin critical shovel-ready environmental restoration projects that will rebuild the Gulf Coast, making it stronger and more resilient.

We must not forget how we felt when we heard the news three years ago and watched damage spread day after day. The communities, businesses and national parks in the Gulf Coast still need help to recover from it. The federal government must hold the responsible parties accountable and use the financial penalties to jumpstart these restoration projects that, once funded, will help to restore and rebuild the Gulf Coast to make it stronger than ever.

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.

Scientists estimate that rats are responsible for half of bird and reptile extinctions worldwide, and island wildlife populations are particularly vulnerable. The Channel Islands provide critical habitat and nesting grounds for a variety of land and shore birds, including the threatened Scripps’s murrelet. In 2001 and 2002, seven governmental and nonprofit organizations collaborated on an innovative invasive species removal program as part of a larger effort to protect and restore biodiversity on the islands.

A new Park Service video describes some of the efforts conservationists made to remove the rats, and some of the hopeful results, including a four-fold increase in Scripps’s murrelet nests, an increase in the Scripps’s murrelets’ hatching rates from 30 to 85 percent, a wider habitat range for Cassin’s auklets, and strong improvements for other animal populations, including native lizards and mice. The researchers also recorded ashy storm-petrels nesting on the island—for the first time ever.

Park officials and their partners will release a report on their findings later this year, but in the meantime, the video summarizes the good news while capturing some of the scenic vistas that make this part of the world so special.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Learn more

• See more photos of park wildlife and learn more about these stunning islands by watching NPCA’s recent slideshow on this park.
• Read about the recent recovery of the island night lizard at Channel Islands National Park.

When Sandy crashed ashore just a few months ago, it ravaged the cities, towns, and shorelines of New York and New Jersey and caused unprecedented damage to the region’s national parks. At the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and Gateway National Recreation Area buildings were flooded and essential infrastructure destroyed. Electrical, plumbing, and sewer systems were wrecked, while docks, foundations, floors, and walls in many facilities were displaced or destroyed. At larger parks such as Fire Island National Seashore and Gateway, the beaches suffered severe erosion and summer’s sands were swept away. Extensive areas of inland landscapes were horrifically damaged as well.  

Sometimes though, such tragedies have a silver lining. In Sandy’s wake, NPCA’s supporters have helped achieve a triumph for the parks by voicing support for the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, known as the Sandy Supplemental Bill. NPCA worked hard on the bill’s passage. Targeting 170 potential congressional supporters, NPCA staff across the country called each member’s staff to discuss the bill. More than 19,400 NPCA members and supporters told these legislators why it is so important to rebuild the regions devastated by Sandy and to protect communities from future storm damage. Northeast regional staff worked with various agencies to understand the bill’s goals and potential impacts, and NPCA helped influence the content of the legislation as well, promoting interagency cooperation and environmental justice for projects in the New York and New Jersey Harbor.

With the passage of the Sandy Supplemental, billions of dollars will now start flowing to the region for relief and rebuilding. The bill included $398 million for the National Park Service to rebuild parks and historic treasures, $360 million for the Department of Interior to rebuild coastal habitat and infrastructure in national parks and wildlife refuges, and hundreds of millions more for the Army Corps of Engineers to help with flood reduction and coastal restoration projects around Gateway and Fire Island.

It is tragic that the region had to endure a natural disaster, widespread suffering, and costly rebuilding efforts to receive this level of congressional priority, but this bill is wonderful news for the region. It is our hope that restoration work in Sandy’s wake will embrace the vision of a lively urban waterfront, open and accessible to the people, that is economically sustainable as well as environmentally resilient. Sandy funds will now ensure:

• More than $348 million in direct support for national park operations in the region. Already overburdened and struggling with recent cuts, these funds will allow the National Park Service (NPS) to take a fiscally responsible, forward-looking approach to rebuilding in the region. Without these funds, much of the restoration work (such as re-opening the Statue of Liberty) would have come at the expense of national park sites and projects across the nation.
• Billions of dollars for the Army Corps to rebuild open spaces on both sides of the Hudson River and protect urban areas from future flooding, while also providing increased waterfront access to millions and refurbishing the harbor’s ecological fabric. For the past three years, NPCA has co-chaired the Harbor Coalition, a consortium of regional advocacy organizations brought together and supported by the J.M. Kaplan and the Rockefellers Brothers Fund. The coalition has sought to bring federal, state, and local agencies together to better align their New York and New Jersey waterfront restoration plans and significantly increase the financial support for green urban waterfront projects.   
• Help for Gateway to reach its full potential. After advocating for years to re-envision Gateway as an iconic urban national park, we now have the opportunity to actually do it. Simply put, Superstorm Sandy flattened and flooded Gateway, but the supplemental funding allocates several hundred million dollars to repair and rebuild the park.
• Improvement to Fire Island’s beaches. NPCA has sought to achieve a mutual agreement between area residents and NPS on a beach improvement plan as well as additional sensitive issues such as zoning, off-road vehicles, and the management of invasive species. With flood protection now a priority, the Army Corps, NPS, and New York State have dramatically sped up their efforts to improve Fire Island’s beaches, creating a huge opportunity to address the other issues as well.   

Thanks to voices like yours, the Sandy Supplemental far outpaced our expectations in drawing attention to some crucial issues and providing funds to the national parks in the region. Now we have even more work cut out for us to ensure the newly appropriated funds are strategically spent, cost-effectively applied, and focused on key projects that will help elevate New York and New Jersey parks to an iconic status.   

Learn more about the Sandy Supplemental and NPCA’s Northeast Regional Office.

The nonprofit organizing the effort, Wounded Nature – Working Veterans, based in Charleston, South Carolina, is recruiting veterans and volunteers from across the country to join them from Wednesday, March 20 through Friday, March 22. The group will remove storm debris from the Jamaica Bay area from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day, then give volunteers the rest of the afternoon and evening off to enjoy the local attractions in the New York City area.

Want to help? You don’t need to be a veteran to join.

“We welcome any and all non-veterans who have a love for nature and the environment to join us in this vital restoration work,” said the group’s CEO, Rudy Socha. ”If someone cannot make it to assist on this project, they can support us by donating to help cover our ongoing expenses.”

 Learn more on the organization’s website, woundednature.org.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

NPCA recently forged a new partnership with the organization I helped found, ioby, as a way to provide a platform for local groups to crowdfund projects in our country’s beloved national parks. It sounds like a cutting-edge idea, and it is—though another cause beat us to the punch by more than a hundred years.

In the late 19th century, French writer and political figure Edouard de Laboulaye came up with the idea for France to give to the United States a symbol of liberty, 100 years after Bastille Day and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The Statue of Liberty was built in two parts. French cities, towns, and individuals contributed two million francs, securing all the necessary funding for the statue’s steel and copper by 1880. But, years later, the United States, still embroiled in a rivalry of which city—Philadelphia, Boston, or New York City—would be the statue’s home state, was unable to come up with the money to build the pedestal upon which Lady Liberty would stand.

Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer had recently purchased the New York City daily, The World. He decided to take up the cause for New York City and inadvertently launched the first American crowdfunding campaign. On March 16, 1885, The World ran this plea:

We must raise the money! The World is the people’s paper, and now it appeals to the people to come forward and raise the money. The $250,000 that the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people—by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans—by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.

By August 11, 1885, the campaign brought in 125,000 donations totaling $100,000, many people donating less than a dollar each to create the foundation for this great symbol of liberty, now managed by the National Park Service.

Today, NPCA and ioby join together to provide an environmental crowdfunding tool (ioby.org/NPCA) that will allow local leaders to continue this great legacy of using citizen philanthropy to support more of our urban national treasures.

ioby is a Brooklyn-based web crowd-resourcing platform. ioby’s name stands for “in our back yards”—the opposite of NIMBY. We’ve designed this platform for all people who say, “Yes, I want positive change in my community!” On ioby, anyone with a great idea to make her neighborhood stronger and more sustainable can raise tax-deductible donations, recruit local volunteers, and share ideas in a like-minded community.

ioby began as a pilot program in New York City and has a special interest in supporting projects in dense urban centers, which is why we are so excited to be working on this partnership with NPCA and their community partners, National Aquarium (Baltimore, Maryland), Tropical Audubon Society (Miami, Florida), and Roots and Wings (Los Angeles, California), who are dedicated to connecting city dwellers to the great outdoors.

We launch the pilot today with three great campaigns. In Baltimore, the National Aquarium and National Park Service will recruit volunteers to clear and maintain trails at the wetland adjacent to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. Tropical Audubon Society will lead kayaking trips in Biscayne Bay in Miami. In Los Angeles, the Roots and Wings Program will bring high school students on outdoor adventures into five different urban national parks.

These crowdfunding campaigns are not so different from the campaign to fund the Statue of Liberty. Sure, we have some advantages. Web tools make collecting donations easier and social channels like Facebook and Twitter help us amplify these stories and visions.

But the premise is not unlike what Mr. Pulitzer posed in 1885. Combined with thousands of other small donations, a single dollar gains power. With others, the voice of a lone micro-donor grows louder, and says, “Yes, I want healthy wetlands in Baltimore!” and, “Yes, I support kayaking trips in Biscayne Bay!” and “Yes, I want Los Angeles youth to visit more national parks!”

Learn more about easy ways you can contribute a dollar (or more) to support these urban national park projects and other important causes at ioby.org/NPCA.

UPDATE, March 14, 2012: Thanks to generous community support, one of the three NPCA-supported projects, the Roots and Wings Program, has met its fundraising goal, enabling organizers to bring Los Angeles high school students to national parks this spring. To volunteer for this project, or to support the other two active urban national park projects, visit the ioby website at ioby.org/NPCA.

Now, Audrey’s new book, Our True Nature, takes readers on a different kind of journey through a rich cross-section of the park system, with stories, photos, and enthusiasm for 57 of the country’s greatest places. We asked Audrey, a past recipient of NPCA’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award and four-term NPCA board member, to share some of her inspirations and insights with us.

 —

Q: Our True Nature feels very different from Legacy on the Land—more general in its subject matter, like a travel guide that anyone could pick up to learn more about the parks.

Audrey: That was actually my goal, to make this book issueless—a love letter to the parks.

Legacy on the Land was our journey of discovery. I literally fell into the national park system by accident, and then I couldn’t stay out! When I found that there was so much resistance and misunderstanding [about the relationship between people of color and the parks], Legacy echoed our challenges and frustrations. But with this book, I just decided to pour my heart out with love. People are so overwhelmed with issues. I really just wanted to use the power of love and beauty to inspire people.

Q: Of course, you explore themes of diversity, but not on every page. It really is a mix of different places throughout the country.

Audrey: That’s what the park system is all about! It’s got our collective history and all of the beauty and splendor of the natural world, and it tells the story of how we got here together.

Q: How did you narrow the book down to 57 parks? That must have been a difficult process.

Having the imprint of such monumental natural wonders on my spirit gives me perspective on how infinitesimal I am in the world, and yet how important. … My demeanor is always centered in the knowledge that there’s something so much bigger than myself. – Audrey Peterman
Audrey: It actually wasn’t. I didn’t focus as much on the ones that were in Legacy. For example, Mammoth Cave, which gets a lot of ink in Legacy, doesn’t appear in this book at all.

Q: But Badlands does.

Audrey: Badlands does, but it’s a new story. It’s a story about how the parks don’t just protect the natural resources that are terrestrial, but also the ones that are extraterrestrial! I didn’t even know there were parks protecting our dark skies. That made such an impact on me, seeing the Milky Way from horizon to horizon. We all live under the same sky, in such a small fraction of the universe.

Q: I know one of your goals is convincing new people to explore the parks. How do you do it?

Audrey: If you know my personality, it’s big on parks. If I’m in the supermarket or the gas station, the Grand Canyon and the Everglades are always working their way into my conversations. I talk to everybody, because that’s the kind of person I am.

It’s amazing to know that when people think about these places, they think about them as being far away. And I’m saying, are you kidding me? Wherever you are, there’s a park unit nearby. [Or people] might say that it’s going to be expensive, and I tell them that for eight dollars their whole car can get in, and some parks don’t even have an entrance fee. If they’re 62 or older they can get a park pass for ten dollars that’s good for the rest of their lives. That blows people’s minds!

It’s just providing information and leadership—and saying what the benefits are. They’re astronomical!

Q: What have some of those benefits been for you?

Audrey: When we were at Yellowstone, we were looking at a burned part of a mountain and Frank said, “Oh, that must have burned in the fire of ’88.” The white man standing next to us said, “Yes.” He pointed and said, “When my father brought me as a child, they were building over there. When I brought my son, they were building over there.” Now, he had retired and was back for his third time. I saw a shadow pass across Frank’s face. Later, when I asked him, he said, “I don’t live my life with any regrets, but as that man was talking, I realized that I had really shortchanged myself and my children because I had not taken them to see these places. He and his family know this country. They have a sense of ownership. We don’t.” So I said, “We’ll take our children and our grandchildren now.” To extrapolate from that, I’ve been trying to take the whole country!

My girlfriend came to visit and we decided to take a trip down to Everglades one Sunday. I’ve been to the Everglades five hundred million thousand times, and yet on this trip, there were places I’d never been before. At the end of the day, she said, you know, I want to put this park in my estate plan, and I want to volunteer here. That’s the kind of response that the parks evoke in people. You know how she described it? She said, “It feels like I’ve had a forest bath.” I thought that was such an unusual way of putting it. What she was saying is that she felt she had just been washed clean.

Q: I get a sense you have a real spiritual connection with nature.

Audrey: Having the imprint of such monumental natural wonders on my spirit gives me perspective on how infinitesimal I am in the world, and yet, how important. I am part of everything. Though a small part, I am connected to everything. It allows me to take a step back from whatever challenges I’m experiencing. My demeanor is always centered in the knowledge that there’s something so much bigger than myself.

Q: Do you think the parks have become more diverse since you started exploring them in 1995?

Traveling through the park system, I get a bigger picture of what America really is. It is so much more inclusive of all the races. Everybody has contributed to the greatness of this country. – Audrey Peterman
Audrey: Exponentially. In the early days, when I saw black people in the parks, I would run up to them and would have to find out all about them, because I was just so excited. But now, if I were to do that, I’d be running up to people all the time!

Now there are so many groups that have arisen around the country. Rue Mapp and Outdoor Afro are continuously introducing people to the parks in the California area. Dudley Edmondson, the noted wildlife photographer and birder wrote the first book about people of color in the park system and the environmental movement. The most exciting of all is Juan Martinez. Juan is a young Latino man who grew up in a rough part of L.A. He got in trouble in school and had a choice between failing a class or going to Eco Club; he chose the Eco Club. [Later,] he got a chance to go to Grand Teton National Park, where he saw the stars for the first time. The impact that it had on his life was so transformative that he has devoted himself to conservation and getting other young people in nature and the parks. And you know what he was named last year? National Geographic Emerging Explorer.

Q: That must feel really hopeful, looking forward to the next generation of leaders.

Audrey: Hopeful? It’s not hopeful. It’s affirmative! Give people the exposure and the opportunities, and we’re there.

Q: What about environmental institutions that have traditionally disregarded diverse voices? Do you think things are getting better?

Audrey: Well, there are individuals who care very passionately. [But] people live by certain prevailing myths. A myth has grown up in America around the enjoyment and protection of natural resources and our public land system. That myth says that people of color are not interested, not suitable—just not. It doesn’t matter how much you demonstrate that isn’t true. The power of the myth is so deep that it overrides facts and intelligence. That is the myth that is holding us up. It’s holding us back.

In this increasingly multicultural society, I keep hearing people who call themselves environmental leaders say, “We’ve tried so hard [to get people of color involved], and it’s just not happening.” Look at all the people across the country who are really, vigorously doing this work. But the myth overrides the reality.

So many business leaders serve on boards in the environmental sector, and I wonder, if they saw that the fastest-growing demographic group was not using their product or service, what would they do? Do you think they would sit around and say, “Well, we tried to reach them one time in 1978 for a couple of months and that didn’t work”?

What I am saying now to environmental organizations is this. By 2042, people of color will be 50 percent of the population. Even if every white person in the country was dedicating themselves full-time to the environment, if the other 50 percent doesn’t know or care, how are our issues going to survive?

Q: Do you think there’s a positive trend?

Audrey: My ambition is to see the day when all Americans love our national treasures the way I do. It makes us feel a little more loving of ourselves, a little more accepting of ourselves and others, to realize we are part of something so glorious. The park system did that for me, so I know it can do it for other people.

I really think a lot of the friction in the country comes from the fact everybody thinks that they know what America is [but they only see part of it]. Traveling through the park system, I get a bigger picture of what America really is. It is so much more inclusive of all the races. Everybody has contributed to the greatness of this country.

I’m ready for things to change. Seventeen years later, I do see signs of change, but I’m hearing some similar attitudes in places of leadership, which is very disconcerting.

I’m not trying to belittle anything that anyone else is doing or any organization is doing. NPCA is trying. The Nature Conservancy is trying. The Sierra Club is trying. The Park Service is trying. But I see the effort as very small compared to the effort that is needed.

If it’s imperative, you have to find ways to do it. If you haven’t made strides in capturing the loyalty of another 50 percent of the population, then how are you going to survive? Some things cannot wait. That’s what leadership means, right?

Learn more about Our True Nature on Audrey and Frank’s website, www.legacyontheland.com.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Everglades champions and advocates convened earlier this month in Coral Gables, Florida, for the 28^th annual Everglades Coalition Conference–an event that unites hundreds of people who are working to restore America’s Everglades. Looking back over recent years and at the opportunities that lie ahead, there is a lot to celebrate.

Under the leadership of NPCA’s Dawn Shirreffs, the Everglades Coalition organized a well-attended event with more than 300 participants, none of whom complained about traveling to sunny South Florida in January. State and federal officials were there to highlight the restoration efforts underway and outline the exciting opportunities ahead.

During the week leading up to the conference, two congressional Everglades champions, Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Representative Alcee Hastings (D-FL), joined together in a strong display of bipartisan support by reinstating the Everglades Congressional Caucus, a group of members of Congress who have a special interest in protecting and restoring the Everglades for its environmental and economic benefits. In recent years, something as vital as restoring America’s Everglades unfortunately fell into the pit of partisanship. However, with the announcement from Representatives Diaz-Balart and Hastings, the Everglades Caucus is back in business. And it is growing in members very quickly, with three of Florida’s newest members of Congress–Representatives Lois Frankel (D-FL), Patrick Murphy (D-FL), and Joe Garcia (D-FL)–committing to joining the caucus in their remarks to conference participants, who responded with much applause.   

NPCA hosted Friday night’s dinner where NPCA Vice President Theresa Pierno emceed the evening, which included speeches from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Darden Restaurants CEO Clarence Otis, Jr. In his keynote address, Secretary Salazar highlighted the need to move forward on the additional 5.5 miles of bridging along Tamiami Trail as part of the National Parks Centennial in 2016.

Representatives Diaz-Balart and Debbie Wasserman Schultz spoke at Saturday night’s dinner about their continued commitment to Everglades restoration. Both members noted the opportunities to find common ground and advance much-needed funding, even during a time when the budget is tight. This is particularly significant coming from two members from Florida who sit on the House Appropriations Committee. 

Participants emphasized several priorities repeatedly during the conference:

• Move forward with additional bridging on Tamiami Trail to restore water flow south to Everglades National Park.
• Encourage President Obama, Congress, Governor Scott, and the Florida General Assembly to commit the funding necessary for Everglades projects to advance.
• Encourage Congress to pass a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) to authorize construction on five restoration projects to move forward. Currently all authorized projects are underway and progress will stall unless Congress acts.
• Leverage penalties from the BP Gulf oil spill for projects that restore the Southern Gulf of Mexico, which include certain Everglades projects.

During the conference, we celebrated the completion of a major restoration achievement: phase one of the C-111 spreader canal, a project that is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The C-111 is one of the largest canals in South Florida; over time, its use has altered the water flow out of Everglades, draining fresh water from the park’s adjacent wetlands. The newly constructed spreader will prevent the water table from getting too low at the park by increasing the amount of fresh water entering through Taylor Slough. This move will revitalize Florida Bay where unusually high concentrations of salt water have threatened wildlife and habitat. To move forward with construction on phase two, Congress must pass WRDA to authorize the project. 

Fortunately, we will celebrate another major milestone next month. The federal government will complete construction on the one-mile bridge on Tamiami Trail–an essential step to restore critical water flow south to Everglades National Park. Stay tuned for more details on the additional work that lies ahead. 

Learn more about NPCA’s Great Waters program and our work to fund Everglades restoration.

The expansive views of the Southern Appalachian Mountains from the summit of Hemphill Bald are enough to make anyone want to plop down in the tall grass and spend the day watching the shadows of clouds flow across the landscape. On a sunny Saturday this past summer, however, I found myself joining 30 other volunteers, picks and shovels in hand, to put a little sweat equity back into a landscape that has served my life as both a foundation and a refuge.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park lies like a pearl on the string of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the thread running down the spine of some of the world’s oldest mountains. The rich biodiversity, scenery, and recreation of the region draw more visitors to the Smokies than to any other National Park—more than 9.6 million in 2012. Hemphill Bald lies directly on the park’s boundary and crowns the shared mountainside between the park and the adjacent Cataloochee Ranch. The ranch is privately managed and its owners have granted conservation easements on much of the area to the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), our partners in a project to restore and enhance the critical boundary with the park. SAHC is not only a first-rate land trust, they knowledgably take care of the areas they have worked to preserve.

With the generous and thoughtful support of Nature Valley’s Preserve the Parks program, our volunteers divided into two groups to work on separate projects. One group spent the day selectively clearing brush and trimming vegetation to “feather” the edges between the mountain forests and the adjacent open areas. This edge habitat is critically important to numerous migratory birds and will help the park—which maintains few open areas—to serve as a living link in the chain of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

I went with the second group to repair a 50-yard-long section of trail adjacent to the park that was suffering severe erosion. As an avid hiker, I gained a renewed appreciation for the incredible amount of human energy that goes into maintaining such trails in steep terrain. While digging up, re-grading and “out-sloping” (reshaping) the trail was pretty intense, I thoroughly enjoyed exchanging stories with the other volunteers and learning about their connections to the land and the reasons that each of them were there that day.

As we were taking a mid-morning break, an unexpected form of “wildlife” visited us—an emaciated hunting hound that had obviously been lost in the park for some time. The poor animal was so weak that she simply lay down on the side of the trail, unresponsive to our attempts to give water and some of our trail snacks to her—that is, until someone decided to offer her one of the Nature Valley granola bars the company had provided to our crew. She ate two of them right away and then began to take water out of a hard hat—so we nicknamed her “Nola,” short for granola. By the end of the day, Nola was regaining her strength and the folks at Cataloochee Ranch had located her owner in nearby Cherokee, North Carolina, where she made it safely back home. I think it’s safe to say that, to the kind folks at Nature Valley, Nola adds her thanks to ours.

Our full volunteer group gathered on Hemphill Bald for lunch to swap stories, hear from the Ranch folks about their commitment to preserving this magnificent landscape, and absorb the awe-inspiring view. This day’s work renewed my gratitude for all of the visionaries from the past who worked to set aside these invaluable resources, for the many hands and hearts who have labored to build and maintain the trails I have walked, and how much of each has gone into every step I’ve taken.