Known for its nightlife, delicious food, and incredible beaches, Miami-Dade County is home to more than 2.5 million people. One of the area’s defining features is the fact that it is bound by two national parks, Biscayne to the east and the Everglades to the west.

Even though these amazing, biodiverse natural areas sit only a few miles from Miami, the sad truth is that many local youth do not get the chance to experience the rich history and recreational opportunities in these parks. They are often trapped in a concrete jungle while tourists from all over the world enjoy the wonders in their own backyard.

This spring, NPCA partnered with the Batchelor Foundation and the Mahogany Youth Corporation to change that for 25 young African Americans from urban Miami. The inspiration for the trip was a new holiday celebrating one of these parks. Last year, NPCA worked hard to urge the Florida legislature to designate April 7 as Everglades Day throughout the state. What better way to kick off the first-ever Everglades Day than by bringing an eager group of students out to this world-class park and encouraging a new generation of budding park advocates?

We often talk about “connecting with nature” and how important it is for urban residents to have access to green space. It improves our physical health, reduces our stress, and even improves our mood to have a world-class park near home.

Chicago is lucky to have a spectacular urban oasis in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. I know because I recently returned to the Chicago area, as the wife of the new president of the Field Museum, and I was delighted to experience this wonderful national park so near the city on a recent trip with NPCA and museum staff. Our two organizations have formed a vibrant partnership to support the lakeshore as one of the most important natural areas in the Chicago metro area.

What’s so special about this place? We saw so much to marvel at.

We walked the trail at Miller Woods, through “dune and swale” communities dominated by black oaks. What an amazing topography only found around the Great Lakes, supporting very special native flora and fauna. We saw the rare native Lupine nearly in bloom. This is a plant that the endangered Karner Blue butterfly needs to reproduce and thrive. And, of course, blueberry bushes were all about. We also saw over 50 species of birds, including seven different kinds of warblers, though our late spring affected their migration through the park. My favorite sighting was three red-headed woodpeckers bickering over a prime nesting hole in one of the black oaks.

A couple of years ago, NPCA and the Field Museum teamed up to develop a strategic vision for the park, and now we are working to implement the recommendations of that plan by letting more Chicagoans know this amazing resource is right in their back yards. We also work to promote science and research at the park, ecological restoration, and responsible management of the park’s natural communities, especially to help mitigate the effects of climate change in our region.

Many, many more people need to enjoy the trails at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It is a magical place that beckons all to reconnect with the natural world and is truly Chicago’s neighborhood national park.

Read the Indiana Dunes strategic vision: http://www.npca.org/about-us/regional-offices/midwest/About-Indiana-Dunes-Report.html

Plan your own trip to Indiana Dunes: www.nps.gov/indu/

Chicago’s south side is home to some of America’s most fascinating and important stories. The Pullman Historic District is where, in 1880, George M. Pullman built the country’s first planned model industrial town. It was also home to the nation’s first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the pivotal “Pullman Strike” of 1894. These important “firsts” speak to Pullman’s national significance and why so many Chicago leaders have come together to work to establish it as the city’s first national park.

Last week, NPCA led a group of Chicagoans to Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts to see some of the possibilities for Pullman.

For more than 30 years, the people of Lowell have worked to preserve and interpret the history of this New England mill town, once known for its “mill girls” and immigrant laborers. The sights and sounds of Lowell would lead you to believe that you’ve set foot in the mid-19th century. The old brick mill buildings, the flowing waters of the Merrimack Canal, and the humming of century-old looms make Lowell a living exhibit telling the stories of what was once America’s booming textile industry. Riding the trolley through downtown Lowell and speaking with business and community groups about the spirit of cooperation provided the Pullman group with the ability to see what we are working toward together.

Imagine the possibility to breathe life into Pullman’s large factory shops, to hear the tick-tock of the administration building’s large clock tower, and to pave the way for hundreds of thousands of visitors to come each year and experience the history of labor and industry. Pullman shares an important piece of American history and establishing a national park there will ensure these many stories are told for years to come.

We gained a ton of knowledge from our visit to Lowell and can better envision a national park at Pullman. Now the real work begins.

Related posts

• “Chicago’s Pullman Partners See Possibilities for Pullman’s Future at Lowell Massachusetts Historical National Park,” PR Web, May 6, 2013.
• “Can Pullman’s Planned Community Become Chicago’s First National Park?” Park Advocate, February 8, 2012

Fort McHenry is a source of fierce pride for the residents of Baltimore. It is here that our citizens stopped the British Navy from attacking the city during the Battle of Baltimore in September of 1814. The flag that flew over the fort the morning after the battle not only signaled a defensive victory, but inspired a young lawyer, watching from a nearby ship, to compose a poem that would eventually become our national anthem. I visited that exact same flag this past weekend. It’s currently on display at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. I grew up in this area and have taken many trips to the museums in Washington throughout my life. I’ve seen this flag several times. This one object, more than any other, inspires a personal sense of patriotism and continues to make me reflect on the events that happened at Fort McHenry in Baltimore almost 200 years ago. 

Now, I get to visit Fort McHenry several times a month. It is the location of the National Aquarium’s urban field station. Adjacent to the fort is a ten-acre wetland created by the Maryland Department of Transportation as mitigation for constructing the I-95 tunnel that runs just offshore of the park. After years of inattention, the National Aquarium took over stewardship of the wetland in 1998 for use as an urban outdoor classroom and site for community-based stewardship activities and citizen science. We’ve hosted thousands of local students at the wetland site. Sometimes, it is the first time Baltimore City students get a chance to make a meaningful connection to the natural world. Students may have a chance to seine for fish (up to 20 species have been identified using the wetlands), bird watch (more than 250 species have been documented at the fort), plant native plants in the wetland or demonstration rain garden, or study wetland ecology. They may also have a chance to observe any of the large variety of animals that use the marsh for food or shelter. The list includes river otter, muskrat, deer, fox, and many species of turtle and snake. 

Every spring, the National Aquarium partners with the National Park Service, NPCA, and others to recruit volunteers to restore this vital habitat. Volunteers represent the diversity of the Baltimore community and come from local community associations, corporations, schools, churches, civic groups, social clubs, and other venues. Like us, our volunteers see real value in creating a healthy habitat for local wildlife and a much-needed outdoor classroom space for students. Since volunteer efforts began, citizens have helped plant native trees and marsh grasses, install bird boxes, and collect nearly 600,000 pieces of debris from this urban wetland. This work all adds up to create a valuable green space in the heart of Baltimore City.

Our next event will be held April 27, 2013, in celebration of Earth Day and Arbor Day. If you would like to help support our restoration and environmental education efforts at the fort, check out our ioby project page. If you are interested in joining us as a volunteer, please register here.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• “A Gift of the Whole People”: How Crowdfunding Can Help Revitalize National Parks (February 25, 2013)
• Want to Feel Happy and Appreciated? Help Out at a National Park (November 30, 2012)
• O Say, Can You See the Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail? (August 7, 2012)

On a bus in Montgomery, a lone woman refused to be sent to the rear. In the dry desert east of Yosemite lie the foundations of an internment camp where thousands of Americans were imprisoned simply because of their ancestry. In a small, drab bar on Christopher Street in New York City, a handful of young men refused to be harassed by the police. These sites were all turning points in American history. They may not be as beautiful as the Tetons, or have the cachet of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace, but they are each, in their own way, as important in our nation’s unfolding history. 

Originally built as stables in the 1840s, the small two-story building had multiple lives until it was opened as the Stonewall Inn in 1967. Soon it was the largest gay establishment in New York City, if not the nation. Frequently the target of harassing police raids, patrons erupted in rebellion on a hot June night in 1969. Dozens of gay youths refused to be picked on anymore. Rallying hundreds more, they turned the tables, trapping a handful of police officers inside the bar.

Sadly, not long after the riot, the bar closed, and over the next few decades the building languished in various guises, including a shoe store. But in the ensuing decades, a more enlightened society, growing gay pride, and an increasing appreciation of its iconic value led the bar’s stature as a symbol to grow. In 2000, the building was included with Christopher Street as part of the area’s National Historic Landmark designation. In 2007, the building was renovated again and re-opened with its old name, the Stonewall Inn.

Inside the bar today, a small mahogany countertop extends along the west wall facing just a dozen stools, another half-dozen booths line the opposite wall, and a small mirror-ceilinged gathering room remains in the back. It’s just a quarter the size of Boston’s famous bar from the television show Cheers, and when I last went in, it was still a neighborhood hang-out. At midday, a sole bartender was plying her trade to two locals. Stonewall could not be farther from the grandeur of the Grand Canyon. 

Yet, this unlikely site is more than worthy of being a national park. Stonewall Inn is the iconic anchor of a great arc of history that passes on through Harvey Milk, the proliferation of gay rights marches and parades in 1970s, the Rainbow Coalition, the incredible losses of the AIDS epidemic, and the profound shift toward the acceptance of same-sex marriage today. Like the history behind many sites, from Custer’s Last Stand to Manzanar, you don’t have to agree or disagree to recognize it. 

In this light, I urge you to email your Congressman and Senators (find them on our website) and ask that the Stonewall Inn be incorporated into our National Park System. For as then-Assistant Secretary of the Interior John Berry (now Director of the Office of Personnel Management) said in 2000, ”Let it forever be remembered that here—on this spot—men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose, and love whom our hearts desire.”

This story is reprinted from the most recent Northeast Regional Field Report. Read the rest of the issue on NPCA’s website.

Each month, NPCA puts together a slideshow like the one below exploring one of the 401 amazing places 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

According to the agency’s press release, more than 282 million people visited our national parks last year, the sixth-highest year on record, and an increase of more than three million visitors from 2011.

The first list shows the most-visited places in all 401 units of the park system. The second list shows the most popular sites of only the 59 places officially designated as “national parks” (versus national monuments, national historic sites, national recreation areas, and other designations).

Most Visited Places of the National Park System

Most Visited National Parks

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

The Japanese government gave more than three thousand flowering cherry trees to the people of the United States as a gift of friendship back in 1912, and the annual blossoming of pink petals is one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions. Some 1,800 trees line the Tidal Basin of the Potomac River, with more than a thousand other trees in eleven different varieties standing proudly at the White House and nearby East Potomac Park. The delicate flowers symbolize the transience of life, and area residents come to understand the appeal of this fleeting magic. The trees seem to go from peak bloom to piles of petals on the ground in the blink of an eye, and I know all too well how easy it is to miss the showy display. 

This year, planners project the trees will reach peak bloom next week. To celebrate, a popular local blog, the Capital Weather Gang, recently shared historic photos of these majestic blooms from the Library of Congress, including one of my favorites below, of Peggy Townsend, the Cherry Blossom Queen of 1939.

Don’t try this pose nowadays, though—climbing in the trees could harm them and prevent robust future blooms. If you’re caught in the branches, you could even get a warning from a guy in a beaver costume.

More than a hundred years later, I’m happy to report these blooms are still a stunning part of our park system. Though you may need to fight through a crowd of a million people to get a glimpse of them, it’s worth it for a chance to see the timeless beauty of transience up-close and perfectly pink. For more information, visit http://www.nps.gov/cherry/index.htm.

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

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.

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.