I get a real sense of accomplishment when the Park Service takes action on an issue we’ve been pushing for years. In early April, the agency renewed temporary regulations to keep hunters from killing black bear cubs and sows with cubs with spotlights at their den sites in Gates of the Arctic and Denali National Preserves.  And new temporary regulations were adopted to disallow using bait to hunt brown bears at Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Yukon-Charley National Preserves in Alaska. This is great news for bears in our northernmost national preserves.

For those less familiar with bear hunting, “spotlighting” is a controversial practice that involves crawling into a bear’s den while it is hibernating, waking it by shining a light in its eyes, and shooting it. That is hardly sportsmanlike, and it’s not “hunting.” That’s killing.

Why, do you ask, does the Park Service have to take this action to renew its bans on these practices each year? Because Alaska allows spotlighting, baiting, and other objectionable hunting methods throughout the state. The Alaska Board of Game makes the rules for managing wildlife, and its main goal is to ensure that there are more than enough animals for human consumption—quite a different approach to managing wildlife populations than the Park Service takes. In order to ensure there is plenty of moose and caribou for hunters to kill, the state has a very active Intensive Management program aimed at reducing populations of wolves and bears. To increase the number of wolves and bears hunters are permitted to kill, the Alaska Board of Game has increasingly liberalized hunting methods to include baiting and spotlighting.

This treatment of bears—which serve an important ecological role at the top of the food chain—is in stark contrast to how Congress directs the Park Service to manage wildlife. The Park Service must specifically maintain natural and healthy populations, in Alaska and throughout the nation, and Park Service management policies make it explicitly clear that manipulating any wildlife population (like wolves and bears) to benefit a hunted species (like moose or caribou) is not allowed. Period. No exceptions.

From the perspective of the state of Alaska, this is simply a state’s rights issue. Officials here have argued long and hard that the Park Service has no authority to reject these hunting rules adopted by the Board of Game. NPCA and the Park Service have a very different opinion. The Park Service has all the authority in the world to reject state hunting rules that conflict with Park Service regulations and management objectives. It has been successfully tested in states all across the country.

As I’ve said before, the issue is not if sport hunting is allowed on national preserve lands—it is. The issue is how you hunt.

Now that the Park Service has again exercised its right to push back on the Board of Game’s hunting regulations, we are highly supportive of taking the all-important next step of making the Park Service position a permanent regulation so the agency doesn’t have to renew these rules every year. We’re hoping that’ll happen this spring—and based on our past advocacy on this issue, we know we have thousands of NPCA supporters around the country behind us as we urge the Park Service to do the right thing to protect these important and iconic animals.

If you liked this story, you might also like

• NPS Should Not Be Forced to Support Alaska’s War on Bears (February 1, 2012)
• Getting Close to Katmai’s Bears in the Hopes of Protecting Them (July 31, 2012)
• Death of Alpha Wolf Sparks Renewed Concern over Hunting near Yellowstone (December 27, 2012)

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.

Kevin was familiar enough with the wide-open skies of the Petrified Forest and the breathtaking views of its Painted Desert—how the captivating pinks and purples and all manner of blues, greens, and grays, seem to shift and brighten with every subtle change of sunlight. He was struck by the size of the ranch, though he wasn’t shocked; forage is so sparse in the desert, any cowhand needs a lot of land to graze just one or two steer.

What Kevin wasn’t expecting to see came at the end of the tour, when the group gathered in the waning daylight under a group of cottonwood trees. There, he spotted what at first glance appeared to be a large bird hunched quietly in a high branch. Kevin did a double-take as the lithe creature slowly uncurled and looked down at the group below. It was the first time he had ever seen a porcupine in the wild—a magical moment. The glimpse of a desert animal coming into view after a hot, dusty day is just one of those little surprises that makes this part of the country so special.

Fortunately, after years of private ownership, more people will soon be able to experience the McCauley Ranch. Shortly, the property will officially become part of Petrified National Park, thanks to an elaborate deal brokered between the family who owned the land, The Conservation Fund (an essential partner that now temporarily owns the ranch), and a generous anonymous donor. Oh, and Kevin, of course, who was there throughout the process as negotiations went back and forth, and back and forth again, over the value of this irreplaceable and mineral-rich slice of desert.

The Park Service has been waiting nearly nine years for the opportunity to acquire privately held pieces of land like the McCauley Ranch that are surrounded by the national park boundary, to fully incorporate them into the park. NPCA sometimes refers to these pockets of private land as “inholdings.” Inholdings often become sites for trophy homes and other incompatible development that can change the whole character of the surrounding parkland. In 2004, Congress voted to expand the boundaries of Petrified Forest National Park, but didn’t put any funding behind the expansion. As a result, some landowners have given up on future government funding, and have hitched their hopes for sale or lease to potash mining companies and other mineral development operations.

In this context, the effort to save the McCauley Ranch is a major victory. “The work I do is often about fighting battles that seem to never end, and even hard-earned victories can prove to be temporary,” Kevin told me. “It is just so satisfying to know we could come up with an agreement that worked for everyone, so that this land will be added to the park system forever.”

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

Late last month, NPCA helped secure a significant down-to-the-wire victory for Grand Teton National Park. After years of pressure from NPCA, the federal government allotted $8 million toward a total of $16 million to purchase 86 acres along the Snake River from the state of Wyoming and incorporate these lands into the national park. The measure passed just in the nick of time, a few days before the congressional term ended. This land had been particularly attractive to developers; now, instead of becoming a building site for trophy homes or luxury hotels, it will be preserved for wildlife and the public.

The Snake is a major river in the Pacific Northwest, flowing for more than a thousand miles from its headwaters in the wilderness near Yellowstone National Park westward through the Teton Range into Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Native American tribes lived and fished for salmon along its banks more than 11,000 years ago; today, visitors still float, fish, hike, and view wildlife along the river, savoring its stunning scenery. These lands and waters of Grand Teton are critical to preserving important wildlife and fish habitat, and the integrity of the park’s natural resources.

This victory is particularly sweet given the contentious fiscal and political climate in Washington, D.C. Most of the money for the purchase came from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a federal program specifically designed by Congress in 1965 for public land purchases.

A total of $900 million in funding is set aside for LWCF each year from offshore oil and gas drilling revenues—a fraction of the royalties collected—to invest in land and water conservation. Unfortunately, in recent years Congress has frequently diverted LWCF funds for other uses, shortchanging preservation efforts at national parks. In this case, the fund was used exactly as it was intended, to protect threatened land from development. (Another recent example was the purchase of the Doody Ranch, a historic building with a colorful history in Glacier National Park.)

This purchase represents an enduring gift to the American people who cherish Grand Teton’s scenic beauty and wildlife—but there is more to be done. This money will protect the first of three state-owned parcels within the park. The remaining 1,320 acres will require a significant appropriation of money prior to upcoming deadlines in 2014 and 2015.  NPCA and the National Park Service are committed to protecting all the threatened state lands within the park, and are working collaboratively to find creative and innovative funding and legislative solutions that will permanently protect these lands that should rightfully be part of Grand Teton.

NPCA is proud to have played a major role in rallying grassroots support and media attention around this issue and urging lawmakers for three years to allocate the necessary funding to expand protections at this iconic park. This great victory would also not have been possible without the vision and leadership of the Obama Administration, the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Wyoming congressional delegation, the Wyoming Governor’s Office and State Land Board, Teton County state legislators, and the Teton County Commission.

Americans are captivated by wilderness; it comes in all shapes and sizes, from the forested Olympic National Park to the river of grass in the Everglades. Thanks to U.S. Secretary Ken Salazar, Americans can now experience the majestic beauty of the first marine wilderness area on the West Coast: Drakes Estero, in Point Reyes National Seashore.

The decision to protect Drakes Bay as wilderness was nearly 40 years in the making. In 1976, Congress passed a law that included designating the estuary within Point Reyes National Seashore as the first marine wilderness area on the West Coast. However, this ruling came with one caveat–a commercial oyster company using motorboats and raising non-native oysters could continue operating, but its permit would expire on November 30, 2012. Once the commercial operation ended, nature would take over, and the estuary would return to its natural state. After all, taxpayers purchased this property with the goal to have it be fully protected and accessible as part of this national park.

A promise made should be a promise kept, right? Unfortunately, when the ownership of the oyster company changed hands in 2005, the new operator chose not to honor the contract, and instead fought to stay.

Secretary Salazar’s decision to protect this five bay estuary demonstrated his deep understanding and commitment to protecting America’s greatest wilderness areas. Over the last several years, NPCA has worked tirelessly with the secretary, the Park Service, Congress, and President Obama to protect not only this area but other pristine wilderness areas across the country, including the Rocky Mountains, Zion, Joshua Tree, and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, as intended by their designation as national parks sites.

As our members and supporters know, NPCA is not one to back down from a fight–especially when something as rare and precious as marine wilderness is at stake. Our work began once we learned of the oyster company’s efforts to seek a lease extension. Over the years, we have conducted extensive legal and policy research on this issue; rallied local and national supporters; educated elected officials; and participated in scientific study processes to protect the long-standing plan to attain a fully-protected wilderness at Drakes Estero. Our work demonstrates that advocacy is consistently needed if we want our national parks to be unimpaired for future generations.

We value wilderness areas in national parks for the clean air and water, scenery, and wildlife they provide. And wilderness is not found everywhere. If anything, wilderness can be likened to an endangered species in the continental United States–and marine wilderness is even less common. What was once acre upon acre of vast open lands, especially in the West, is becoming developed at an alarming pace. When President Obama announced his America’s Great Outdoors initiative, he talked about this very issue: “Over the last century, our population grew from about 90 million to 300 million people, and as it did, we lost more and more of our natural landscape to development. Meanwhile, a host of other factors–from a changing climate to new sources of pollution–have put a growing strain on our wildlife and our waters and our lands.”

We agree, wholeheartedly.

Secretary Salazar’s decision to provide full wilderness designation to Drakes Bay–as planned and paid for by the American public–will enhance opportunities for public access to a remarkable protected marine environment near the major urban hub of San Francisco and the nine Bay Area counties, home to more than 9 million people. Far more than just a beautiful view, Drakes Estero serves as a stopover for thousands of sensitive and migratory birds and a habitat for seals. It also accounts for at least 7 percent of California’s eelgrass habitat, which helps maintain a healthy marine ecosystem. Without the bustle of business and a noticeable commercial footprint in the middle of Drakes Estero, all who visit Point Reyes National Seashore can enjoy enhanced opportunities for recreation, wildlife viewing, and the much-revered quality of solitude. Such an experience simply cannot be replicated.

Our work to protect Drakes Estero is not over. On December 4, the oyster company filed a lawsuit to fight Secretary Salazar’s landmark decision. Meanwhile, Salazar’s opponents have criticized him sharply in the media, pointing out that 30 oyster farmers are now out of a job. We firmly believe that the national parks belong to everyone and should not support commercial enterprises that benefit a chosen few—something Congress recognized 40 years ago when it chose to let the company’s permit expire. We will remain vigilant in our efforts to safeguard the secretary’s decision and protect the future of the West Coast’s first marine wilderness area, and we will keep you apprised of our efforts and how you can help. We also ask you to join us in thanking Secretary Salazar for his monumental decision, which will be long felt by our generation, our children, grandchildren, and all who explore this wonderful, natural gem.

Learn more

Listen to NPCA’s Pacific Region Associate Director Neal Desai in a forum with Kevin Lunny, the owner of the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm, on a recent KQED radio program:

Also, see a slideshow with images from Drakes Estero, including the oyster farm:

By Sharon Mader, Senior Program Manager, Grand Teton

Just south of Grand Teton National Park, a Houston-based company had proposed to develop 136 natural gas wells on U.S. Forest Service lands that would surely have destroyed the Hoback Basin, an area cherished by Wyomingites for its spectacular scenery, recreational opportunities, and wildlife. Thanks to the work of Wyoming communities, conservation groups, and concerned citizens, these 58,000 acres will now be protected in perpetuity. 

The Hoback Basin is just 30 miles south of Grand Teton National Park and home to elk, moose, deer, pronghorn antelope, native trout, Canada Lynx, and the headwaters of the wild and scenic Hoback River. The energy development corporation, Plains Exploration and Production Corporation (PXP), could have significantly impacted the park’s blue skies and pristine air quality with its development leases. The people of Wyoming made their voices heard and the mantra was that this area was “too special to drill.” This message resonated loud and clear and resulted in overwhelming support for a buyout of the company’s leases; and the company finally agreed. In October, PXP opted to sell their leases based on a provision in the 2009 Wyoming Range Legacy Act that allows leases to be sold and retired given a willing seller and willing conservation buyer.

Our colleagues at The Trust for Public Land played a significant role negotiating the $8.75 million buyout. To date, $4.5 million has been raised towards the completion of the sale. Kudos to PXP for their decision to sell their leases, preserving this special area. 

Wyomingites understand the need for natural gas and energy production, but they also understand that some places aren’t appropriate for industrial development. This outcome is truly a win-win for both PXP and the people of Wyoming. The efforts and persistence of local citizens, including park advocates, hunters, anglers, river users, and conservationists, were instrumental in making this agreement a reality. Several times over the past year, we asked our members locally and across the country to weigh in to oppose development of this area and thousands responded. NPCA members joined forces with state and local conservation organizations and sportsmen’s groups to ask the Forest Service to consider stricter environmental regulations in this sensitive area and urged PXP to step back from their development plans. These comments made a tremendous difference in protecting the Hoback and Grand Teton National Park.

This Wyoming-based solution demonstrates how people from all walks of life can work together for a common vision to achieve one of the most significant oil and gas lease buyouts in American history. Examples such as this are an inspiration for the future and pave the road for community involvement and responsible corporate decision-making that respects the values and traditions of local communities and preserves irreplaceable natural assets. 

Thank you to NPCA members and activists whose concern and outreach on behalf of the Hoback Range has saved this amazing piece of the Wyoming landscape.

A sea of more than 6,000 school children, politicians, farm workers, National Park Service rangers, community members, journalists, and celebrities flooded the National Chávez Center at Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz, or “La Paz,” on Monday, October 8. My NPCA colleagues and I had also traveled to the Central Valley site for a moment we had been waiting for and working toward for more than a decade: a celebration to dedicate the site as the César E. Chávez National Monument, the 398^th addition to our National Park System.

When President Obama walked up to the podium at La Paz, I thought about the arc of my own involvement and the significant impact that Chávez had on my life and the lives of millions of other young people back in the 1960s and 1970s. I also thought about my personal interaction with César Chávez in the 1980s, and my most recent involvement, advocating for the new national park site.

In the late 1960s I was still in high school, but I became involved with the grape boycott campaign designed to force grape growers to sign contracts with the United Farmworkers. Heck, I was still a pimply kid, but I recall standing out in front of a grocery store in Fredrick, Maryland, gathering commitment signatures from shoppers who said they would boycott grapes. It was the first time that I became involved in a national social justice issue. It is amazing how many people of my generation have told me how they, too, were involved in this boycott effort. It is no wonder why César Chávez and his co-leaders, like Dolores Huerta, were so successful. They were able to create a huge movement in spite of the fact that they had little means. This was, and is, a quintessential American story of how ordinary people can accomplish great things.

In the 1980s, I worked for the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Campaign for Human Development, a program that provides grants and loans to projects in impoverished communities across the country. One day, I received a call from the United Farm Workers. Then César Chávez himself came on the phone. He requested a grant to help establish a better telecommunications system for the union. I remember thinking then, one of my greatest heroes, César Chávez, is calling me? I was honored to get that call and assist him in his efforts.

Over the years, Chávez rallied countless other partners and activists to help in his mission to improve the lives of farmworkers, and his legacy of nonviolent action resulted in more money, better benefits, safer working conditions, and legal protections for thousands of people. He’s not just my hero: Chávez is now recognized as one of the most important labor leaders of the 20^th century.

Fast-forward about 25 years, when I came to work for NPCA as the Pacific Regional Director. One of the first conversations I had was with Jon Jarvis, then the Pacific West Regional Director for the National Park Service. We spoke about the possibility of the Park Service eventually establishing a site to honor Chávez and tell the historically significant story of farmworker union organizing. Seeing that there was support for this idea in the Park Service, I then worked to support the legislative effort that eventually led to the special resources study, which concluded there were five sites, including “La Paz,” that were indeed important and appropriate inclusions to the National Park System.

As I stood there at La Paz last Monday, with President Barack Obama in front of me announcing that he would use his power under the Antiquities Act to create the César E. Chávez National Monument, tears of joy welled up in me. Things had come full circle, I thought. César E. Chávez, my childhood hero and an iconic American historic figure, is finally getting the recognition that he and his fellow farm workers deserve.

The United Farm Workers of America motto, “Sí, se puede,” is certainly echoing in many homes this week. It roughly translates into, “Yes, it can be done.” Now, people throughout our great country can say, “Sí lo hicimos,” or, “Yes, we did it!”

If you liked this story, you might also like:

• César E. Chávez National Monument an Excellent First Step Toward Honoring the Influential Labor Leader (October 3, 2012)
• If You Want Jobs and Justice, Keep Our National Parks Open (October 1, 2012)
• Now Is the Time to  Honor the Legacy of César Chávez (March 30, 2012)

By Ron Sundergill, Senior Director of NPCA’s Pacific Regional Office

NPCA commends President Barack Obama for announcing on Monday that he will designate a César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, California, as the 398^th site in the National Park System—the first national park unit to recognize the work of a contemporary Latino American. This designation is an excellent first step toward honoring Chávez and a fitting way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.

NPCA has long supported the addition of a Chávez-themed site to the National Park System. That work began more than a decade ago when our Pacific Regional Office and Government Affairs department began lobbying Congress for passage of the César Estrada Chávez Study Act, first introduced by Congresswoman Hilda Solis and Senator John McCain. NPCA’s outreach included a unique partnership with the César Chávez School for Public Policy in Washington, DC, whose students accompanied NPCA staff on multiple visits to congressional offices to lobby on behalf of the bill. NPCA has also supported outreach “on the ground” with our Central Valley and Pacific Region offices, where we have been involved in organizing local community support and working closely with partners such as the César Chávez Foundation on this effort. The bill passed by bipartisan voice vote in 2007, and the National Park Service released its draft study in 2011.

Chávez is recognized as one of the most important labor and human rights leaders in the United States during the twentieth century because of his leadership of the farmworkers movement in the 1960s. In alliance with thousands of farmworkers and their supporters, Chávez and Dolores Huerta co-founded the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) in 1962, the first agricultural labor union in the nation. As president of the UFW, Chávez steered the union through a series of unprecedented victories, including contracts that covered more than 100,000 farmworkers; raised wages and funded health care and pension plans; mandated the provision of drinking water and restroom facilities in the fields; regulated the use of pesticides in the fields; and established a fund for community service projects. Chávez’s non-violent advocacy helped secure the passage of the first law in the United States that specifically recognized farmworkers’ rights to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining.

The work that Chávez and his allies led inspired generations of Americans and is recognized as one of most successful grassroots movements in our nation. In 2011, the National Park Service found that there was a need for a national park site dedicated to César Chávez and determined that five locations around the country were of national significance, including the site of the new national monument, the National Chávez Center at Nuestra Señora Reina de la Paz. (The name translates to “Our Lady, Queen of Peace” in English, and is commonly referred to as “La Paz.”)

Chávez established the headquarters of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW) at La Paz in 1972. La Paz now has great historic significance for its role in the 20th century labor, civil rights, Chicano, and environmental movements, and for its association with Chávez. The site contains 26 historic buildings and structures that include a visitor center with Chávez’s preserved office and library, as well as a memorial garden and Chávez’s burial site.

NPCA hopes the designation of La Paz as a national monument will serve as a first step toward preserving all five sites that the National Park Service found to be nationally significant, including a historic 1966 march route from Delano to Sacramento; the hall in Phoenix, Arizona, where Chávez fasted for 24 days; and the former site of the UFW headquarters in Delano, California, known as 40 Acres.

Read NPCA’s press release celebrating this historic designation and learn more about the work of NPCA’s Pacific Regional Office.

We did it! NPCA supporters and thousands of others convinced Old Dominion Electric Company (ODEC) to suspend their plans to build a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Surry County, Virginia! NPCA has been fighting this plant for several years. As designed, the Cypress Creek power plant would have been three times larger than the average coal-fired power plant currently in operation. Its pollution would have increased asthma and heart-related illness in Virginia while contributing to hazy skies over our national parks and mercury in park headwaters. Throughout the process, ODEC could not show that demand even existed in Virginia for a coal plant of this magnitude.

More than 9,000 comments were submitted against the plant and many town and city councils passed resolutions against it. In August 2012, ODEC asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cease the permitting process necessary for the proposed Cypress Creek plant to proceed. NPCA is heartened by this news but will remain vigilant, as ODEC still owns the land and could decide to revive this plant in the future. Thank you for working alongside us to protect clean air, pristine water, and all the treasures of our national parks for our children and grandchildren.

Why is protecting air quality in Virginia’s national parks important?

The pollution from this plant would have threatened protected historic sites such as Petersburg and Richmond National Battlefields, and contributed to unhealthy air many days of the year at Colonial National Historical Park, each established to honor and remember our nation’s heritage. Air pollution harms local streams and the Chesapeake Bay. The pollutants have significant impacts locally, and also can travel on the wind for many miles, thereby affecting a large ecological area. Power plant pollution contributes to smoggy haze that reduces scenic views, and the enjoyment of hikers or anyone active outdoors, as well as threatening human health, plants, and animals. Virginia’s tourism and agricultural economies depend on clean air.

What was the threat?

According to ODEC’s own air pollution control permit application, by stopping this plant in its tracks, we’ve stopped these estimated emissions from entering the atmosphere each year:

• 3,000 tons of nitrogen oxides
• 2,100+ tons of particulate matter
• 3,600+ tons of sulfur dioxide
• 44 pounds of mercury
• 1,000 pounds of lead
• 12 million tons of carbon dioxide

Learn more

You can learn more about NPCA’s Clean Air work on our website, and more about the ODEC plant in this recent story by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation: “A Coal Plant’s Drain on Health and Wealth.” Be sure to sign up for NPCA’s email list for more opportunities to take action on issues affecting national parks.

He was a park ranger, a prospector, and a poacher–though not necessarily in that order.

She was a wanted woman, a wife, and a whiskey runner.

Now, thanks to a recent purchase by the National Park Service, their colorful story belongs to all of us.

Theirs is a yarn that begins way back in 1890–a full 20 years before Glacier National Park was a park–at a wild-West watering hole in McCarthyville, Montana, known as Slippery Bill’s Saloon. That’s where fur trapper Dan Doody met the famous Josephine.

Word was she’d shot a man down in Colorado (in self defense?) and had washed up on the shores of Montana’s wild and scenic Middle Fork Flathead River. In those days, a string of seedy railroad towns was sprouting up and down the line, and McCarthyville was among the most notorious. Slippery Bill’s was one of 32 saloons in a town without a doctor. Historians like to say you never knew how many had died in a McCarthyville winter until the snows melted out in the spring.

Dan spotted his dance-hall girl not long after she arrived in town, fell straight-away in love, and hauled her to his homestead. The spread covered 160 acres on the northern banks of the Middle Fork, smack-dab in what would soon be known as Glacier Park.

It was a fabulous spot, tucked into the confluence where Harrison Creek spills cold and clear into the whitewater churn of the Middle Fork Flathead River. The property was a refuge for Josephine, and also for the vast elk herds that tracked it seasonally from the river bottom to their high, south-facing winter range. The Doody place was a critical crossroads along an age-old corridor of predator and prey.

In 1910, when Glacier was established, Dan Doody was among the first rangers hired to patrol the park and its timeless flow of wildlife. But just as his property remained a private inholding, Dan remained something of a privateer himself, poaching from the park he was sworn to protect.

Josephine, meanwhile, fired up a still and began brewing the hooch that earned her a dubious distinction as the “bootleg lady of Glacier Park.” Railroaders with the Great Northern provided a steady stream of customers, blowing their whistles from across the river to signal the number of quarts they wanted delivered.

Dan, predictably, lost his post in the park within the year, fired for “excessive poaching.” He died in 1921, but Josephine stayed on at her beloved Glacier Park home. As decades passed–and her famous gold-nugget earrings stretched her ears into long, banana-shaped lobes–she insisted on firing the stills herself, with wood poached unapologetically from “her” park. Josephine died of pneumonia in 1936, at age 82.

The Doody Homestead has since passed through several hands, with the Park Service buying up bits and pieces along the way. But 120 acres remained in private ownership until late last week, when the ranch officially became part of the National Park System. Alongside partners such as the Trust for Public Lands, NPCA pressed hard for the $900,000 needed to close the deal. Ultimately, the exchange was made possible through the Land Water and Conservation Fund (LWCF), an account supported by royalties from off-shore drilling contracts.

The purchase of the Doody spread fills in what has long been a missing link in the historical and natural continuity of Glacier Park–reconnecting wildlife to critical habitats, and communities to their unique Western history. Public ownership of this unique property really means shared ownership of our past–and it represents a down payment on our future, as well. And that, of course, is what America’s parks are all about.

I’d like to think Josephine would approve.

Note: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Dan Doody died in 1919. In fact, he died in 1921. Thanks to a helpful reader for pointing out this mistake.

If you liked this story, you might also like:

• Did You Know? Glaciers in Glacier (February 23, 2012)
• Friday Photo: Happy Birthday, Glacier! (May 11, 2012)
• Crown of the Continent Showcases a New Model for Economic Prosperity (July 24, 2012)