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?

Best of the ’Net is NPCA’s weekly roundup of fun park-related stuff online.

Find something fun about national parks on the ’net? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

I love spring! You see more and more people getting outside enjoying our parks. I have a few things to help get you outdoors this week, including tips for your next trip to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, an excuse to take the kids out, and a new perspective of some of the trails in Sequoia National Park.

1. Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park has a new FREE audio tour app! This app is a self-guided walking tour that is intended to educate visitors of the history, geology, and social and cultural importance of this park. Did you know the Great Falls pours roughly two billion gallons of water into the canyon each day?
2. What animal do you think you’ll cross paths with when hiking the trails of our national parks? Bison? Elk? Fox? Birds? Alligators? Everglades National Park offers a unique wildlife experience where this is just an everyday occurrence. Photo courtesy of Everglades National Park Facebook page.
   
   
3. Our national parks are starting to bloom. It is National Wildflower Week and beautiful images of our national parks’ flowers are popping up on Pinterest. Here is a beautiful image of Desert Tissue Spring Flowers found in Joshua Tree National Park, CA. What park is your favorite to watch bloom?
4. The granola gurus at Nature Valley have shown their commitment to our parks  over the last four years by funding exciting projects with their Preserve the Parks campaign (including numerous restoration work days around the country in partnership with NPCA). A really innovative extension of this campaign is “Nature Valley Trail View” where their staff have set out to create a 360-degree “street view” of some of our national park trails. The newest addition are trails from Sequoia National Park. Check it out!
5. May 18th is National Kids to Parks Day, organized by National Park Trust. More than 100,000 people have already pledged to take kids to a park. Make your pledge today! This campaign’s mascot is “Buddy Bison” and we love his quote: “Explore outdoors, the parks are yours!” So get outside and enjoy our national parks!

Find something fun about national parks on the ’net? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

It’s here! As National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said earlier this week, “National Park Week provides an opportunity to appreciate the landmarks, monuments and historical landscapes that define our national identity.” There are a few days remaining in National Park Week 2013, which means if you haven’t yet visited one of the 401 national park units–you still have time.

1. Today is National Arbor Day. Huffington Post put together this great slideshow of some of the famous trees around the world, and you can be certain America’s Sequoia trees are among them.
2. Park Service Director Jon Jarvis wrote this story about National Park Week on the White House blog reminding us that our national parks (natural, historical, and cultural) are great places for recreation, learning, volunteering, and exploring.
3. This Kickstarter project asks a tough question: “What will happen to the public lands in this country when the majority of Americans don’t feel a personal connection to the outdoors?” This project’s end goal is to produce a feature-length documentary of the first African-American expedition to summit North America’s highest peak, Denali’s Mt. McKinley. The expedition takes place this summer.
4. The earthquake that rumbled the DC area two years ago left the Washington Monument in need of repair. Over the last month, DC residents have watched the scaffolding slowly build to the top of the monument. Check out these FAQs (and cool photo) from the National Park Service about the scaffolding and projected timeline of completion.
5. April 21 was John Muir’s 175th birthday. Sierra Club has a great online John Muir exhibit celebrating Muir and the important work he did protecting our most unique of landscapes.

Did you explore a national park unit this week? Tell us about it—or take our poll!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

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)

This annual Earth Week celebration serves as a kind of “open house” for all 84 million acres of the National Park System, encouraging visitors to get out and explore them. Many individual parks are hosting special events—including everything from a spring planting festival at Big South Fork to birding tours at Padre Island to history walks along the Mississippi River at Jean Lafitte. Some sites also have special junior ranger events this week, so if you have young nature lovers in your life, be on the lookout for some of these excellent programs near you.

Of course, a national park trip is not just a classic way to get a great vacation for less money. It’s also a chance to enrich ourselves as human beings. Environmental enthusiast and NPCA Board Member Audrey Peterman describes it this way:

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.

How are you enjoying the parks this week? Take our poll or share your plans with us below! Still planning your next adventure? According to the National Park Service, every American is less than 100 miles from a national park site. Find a park near you using the handy map on NPCA’s website. See the official National Park Week website for more information—and check out this cool infographic from the National Park Foundation for some interesting facts and figures about the parks, too.

Safe travels!

-Jennifer Errick, Editor, Online Communications

1. National parks are amazing destinations to pack up the car and kids and make memories that last a lifetime. Family Vacation Critic is published by online travel specialist The Independent Traveler, Inc. Looking to create lasting memories with your family? Check out the 10 Best National Parks for Families.
2. Our country’s national parks are quite unique. This week CNN created their own top ten list of Natural Wonders, and not surprisingly, four are America’s national parks!
3. In the spirit of getting kids outside and into our national parks, Saturday, April 20 is National Junior Ranger Day! Check out if there is a program near you!
4. Today kicks off NPCA’s National Park Week Challenge in partnership with myActions.org. Join other national park supporters during this fun challenge to take ten green actions in ten days and see how they add up with others’!
5. Are you a Civil War buff? Follow the fictional Beglan O’Brien, independent newspaper correspondent, on Facebook. O’Brien’s character is not real, but his posts are based on actual events and passages from Civil War correspondents, giving insight into this period in history.

Have you seen a fun story or tidbit online as you make your National Park Week plans? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

1. I’d like to say we have all been there—setting the story straight about what it is that we do for work. Here is a fun meme about park interpreters and the various perspectives on what it is they do:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=432122843492538&set=a.430438936994262.90465.210845942286897&type=1&theater

2. The outdoors provides us with amazing experiences, especially in our national parks, but finding opportunities to get outside can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are many organizations and programs that can help. Check out how four youth groups discovered nature and their potential, from Get Inspired Outdoors:
http://www.outdoors.org/getinspiredoutdoors/

3. Sunday March 31’s Google doodle featured César Chávez, the first contemporary Latino American to be honored with a national monument:
http://www.google.com/doodles/cesar-chavezs-86th-birthday

4. Glacier National Park’s Facebook page had some fun on April Fools’ Day–finally capturing a jackalope on camera:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151381855739912&set=a.360427434911.154957.74553624911&type=1&theater

5. Yellowstone National Park Rangers receive all kinds of questions, ranging from “Do you put the animals away at night?” to “How do you turn it [Old Faithful] on?” Here is your dose of Geyser humor:

“Ever wonder why our Old Faithful predictions are so accurate? The whole + or – 10 minutes disclaimer is due to a sticky valve.” – Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park’s Facebook Page.

Have some fun online park stuff to share? Let me know!

-Megan Cantrell, Senior Coordinator of Member Engagement

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.

The Santa Monica Mountains are L.A.’s backyard, but for children of color living in poverty with no access to a car, they may as well be worlds away. Expanding the largest urban national park in the country and creating adequate public transportation to the park will bring this resource to all our children.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (NRA), with 150,000 acres of mountains and coastline, provides a seamless network of federal, state, and local park lands, with places for physical activity and habitat for people, 450 animal species, and 26 plant communities. If the National Park Service (NPS) expands the boundaries under its Rim of the Valley study, the NRA could have over four times more green space—going a long way toward ensuring access for park-poor, income-poor communities where children of color disproportionately live.

A remarkably diverse and growing alliance of advocates for equal justice, public health, and green space have submitted comments to NPS to diversify access to and support for the expanded NRA.

According to NPS, the expanded NRA would “provide more recreation opportunities and ecological connections with an emphasis on creating better connections for a broad range of urban audiences including many who are under-represented in national parks and underserved by state and local parks.” We applaud NPS for this approach.

People of color visit national park land at disproportionately low rates—but not because they do not value the environment and outdoor recreation. People of color care deeply about the natural environment, as shown by election results, polls, and surveys. People of color vote, and they have made the difference in passing park and environmental measures. They are entitled to their fair share of the benefits of environmental projects like this.

The expanded NRA can help get people back to work and strengthen the economy in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Latinos and African Americans have been worst hit by joblessness and drops in wealth. Communities face unemployment levels of over 13 percent. Local green jobs through diverse training, apprenticeship, and stewardship programs, and partnerships with non-profit advocacy organizations, can help. The boom, not the present slump, is the time for austerity. If you want parks, work for jobs–and justice.

Children of color suffer disproportionately from obesity and diabetes, and are the most at risk for antisocial behavior including gangs, crime, drugs, and violence. “Access to safe, healthy environments for exercise and recreation are crucial for all communities,” according to Scott Chan of the Asian and Pacific Islander Obesity Prevention Alliance. “Seven out of ten Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders are overweight or obese in California (highest of all racial and ethnic groups), followed by nearly five out of ten Philipinos. Asian and Pacific Islanders had the highest increase in Type 2 diabetes—a 68 percent increase from 1997-2011. Given these grim statistics, we should be further motivated to increase access to healthy spaces and healthy opportunities whenever and wherever possible.”

Park and health disparities are exacerbated by a lack of transportation. There is no good way to reach the mountains and forests in the Los Angeles region using transit. An expanded recreation area could meet these diverse needs through a fully funded, balanced expansion that includes Transit to Trails, hiking, biking, and camping, as well as active recreation including soccer, baseball and other sports fields, complete green streets with biking trails and safe routes to school, and joint use of parks, schools and pools.

NPCA urges NPS to “create new and enhanced education, interpretation and collaborative programs that engage Los Angeles’ diverse cultures and unique natural environment,” according to California Desert Field Representative Seth Shteir. NPS should also ”expand Transit to Trails and similar community engagement programs to take inner city youth and their families and friends on fun, educational and healthy hiking, biking and camping trips to mountains, rivers, and other natural green spaces for no or low cost.” 

NPS needs to work with agencies within the NRA so those agencies know their obligations under equal justice laws and principles, and the public receives the benefits to which they are entitled. For example, the California Department of Parks and Recreation consistently refuses to acknowledge that equal protection laws apply to all its programs and projects, maintaining incorrectly that if the specific project is not federally funded, the laws do not apply. And Malibu has long been a hot bed of activism to privatize public beaches and lands. Beaches and the coastal zone must remain public for all.

Celebrating diverse cultural, art, and heritage sites and Native American sites would benefit all people. According to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, “Less than 3 percent of all the national landmarks . . . are designated for women, Latinos, African Americans or other members of minority groups.” NPS should conduct a thorough survey of relevant places in and around the expanded NRA to designate monuments that celebrate diversity, democracy, and freedom.

President Obama has designated the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers as national priorities as part of the America’s Great Outdoors or urban waters initiatives. The expanded NRA can serve those priorities and the needs of the people by linking green space and cultural sites from the Santa Monica Mountains on the west side to the Angeles Forest on the east. Linking an expanded Santa Monica Mountains NRA and the proposed San Gabriel Mountains and River NRA would help make the classic Olmstedian vision for Parks, Playgrounds and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region.

The people of Los Angeles have the opportunity to work with NPS to expand the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to make this dream of green justice come true for all our children.

Ramya Sivasubramanian is Assistant Director and Counsel with The City Project, a nonprofit legal and policy advocacy team based in Los Angeles that seeks equal justice, democracy, and livability for all. She works to ensure that her daughter and all children, including children of color and low income children, can enjoy the simple joys of playing in the park. This story originally appeared on KCET.org.