NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis recognizes that times are changing, and the visitor centers need to adapt with these changes. More visitors are researching parks online and using mobile devices to enrich and enhance their visits to our national parks. This is the challenge that the parks face: how do they integrate these new technologies and experiences with the history and tradition of the visitor center?

The design competition begins this fall, with teams across the United States developing designs and proposals. Seven national parks will be part of the competition, and the teams will be designing for one out of seven. The parks in the competition were chosen because of the variety of experiences they provide, as well as the diversity of demands from visitors that they have. The seven parks are:

1. Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site, Pennsylvania
2. Civil War Defenses of Washington, D.C.
3. Biscayne National Park, Florida
4. Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Georgia
5. Nicodemus National Historic Site, Kansas
6. Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico
7. San Juan Island Historical Park, Washington

Not only will the students be designing the visitor centers, they will also be tasked with addressing facility management and operations within the visitor center.

The entries will be judged by a national design advisory committee, who will be evaluating the proposals and designs on six categories:

1. A reverence for place
2. Engagement of all people
3. Expansion beyond traditional boundaries
4. Sustainability
5. Informed decision-making
6. An integrated research, planning, design, and review process

The committee will narrow down the entries in December to seven teams, who will then continue to work on their designs, with a winner chosen next summer. The winning team’s design will be shared online. No word yet if the winning design will be built, but it’s an exciting challenge for the next generation of architects.

Via Gadling

In this year’s review, the findings are pretty dismal. Ratings for natural resources range from “excellent,” “good,” or “fair,” to “poor” or “critical.” Sixty-six percent of parks studied fell into the “fair” category. Cultural resources ratings were even more disappointing–91% of parks included in the survey were in “fair” or “poor” categories. Out of the entire group of parks, not a single park earned an “excellent” rating in the cultural resources category. As for plant and animal life, 95% of parks included in the survey have reported the loss of a plant or animal species. Invasive plants and animals are the most common cause in that situation.

How were these ratings determined? The CPR used four criteria:

1. Extent and function of park ecosystems
2. Composition and condition of native plant and animal species
3. Factors affecting the condition of animal and plant populations
4. Environmental factors, particularly air and water quality

One of the largest threats our National Parks face is reduced funding. Operating budgets are being reduced every year due to budget cuts. Almost a third of parks included in the survey reported have maintenance needs in excess of $1 million; Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park has an estimate of $59 million in maintenance and rehabilitation costs that have been deferred. The extent of this problem is not fully known, though, as some parks were not even able to provide a figure to the CPR! According to the NPCA, “As of fiscal year 2010, the National Park Service has an annual operating shortfall of more than $600 million. National parks are also facing a backlog of maintenance projects totaling nearly $11 billion.”

These challenges have led Park Service employees to be innovative and committed to finding ways to overcome obstacles. Creating allies and partnerships with organizations and companies, the Park Service is able to accomplish some pretty cool projects, even in the face of adversity. Whether it’s creating and enforcing a vessel management plan to slow boats in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, or partnering with a local corporation to tap into a large group of volunteers for restoration work in Pea Ridge National Military Park, there is no argument that Park Service employees are dedicated to their jobs, and increasingly finding creative ways to accomplish necessary improvements within their parks.

While the report is not a glowing review of the state of our national parks, there are many things that can be done to improve them for ourselves and future generations. The NPCA provides 10 recommendations for how to address these challenges:

• Reintroduce native wildlife
• Control non-native invasive species
• Enforce air quality laws
• Collect critical water data in national parks
• Monitor and respond to the impacts of climate change
• Improve the condition of cultural resources
• Reduce threats from adjacent lands
• Manage adjoining lands cooperatively
• Expand the National Park System
• Provide sufficient funding and staffing

In a few years, the National Park System will be celebrating it’s centennial. In 1916, Congress created the NPS with the promise to protect the elements of our nation’s heritage for future generations. Unless improvements are made, it’s hard to say whether our parks will survive another century.

Read the press release and summary report online.

• January 15-17: Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday weekend
• April 16-24: National Park Week
• June 21: First day of summer
• September 24: Public Lands Day
• November 11-13: Veterans Day weekend

The fee waiver will include entrance fees, commercial tour fees, and transportation entrance fees but will not cover reservation, camping, concessions, and third-party fees, though many offer discounts and specials during these days. With the full list of dates being released so early in the year, there is still plenty of time to plan a 2011 vacation to a National Park.

Note: Not every park in the national park system requires entrance fees–out of the 394 sites in the system, a little over 100 charge entrance fees. Read more about the fee-free days on NPS.gov.

The updated and extended use agreement between Jackson Hole Airport and Grand Teton National Park urges the airport to protect park resources from the impact of air travel on the natural surroundings. Sound management plans are just one of the many requirements put in place in the new lease.

Jackson Hole Airport is the only airport to operate within a national park’s boundaries. The controversy first began in 1983 when Interior Secretary James Watt ok’d the continued use of jet airplanes within the park. Though the airport will be able to continue to operate, expansion in any form will be required to stay within the current boundaries of the airport. According to the NPCA press release, “efforts to expand the airport’s footprint will likely result in moving the airport out of the park to an alternative site in the region.”

Read the full press release here.

Dave Uberuaga, Mt. Rainier park Superintendent, says the increased climbing permit fee for Rainier is needed to cover the expenses incurred while training climbing rangers on the mountain. He also hinted that this will not be the last price increase; there is a possibility that permit prices will be linked to rises in the US Consumer Price Index.

This news has many in the climbing community up in arms. Among the many groups upset with the increases, the American Alpine Guides Association has spoken up in a letter to say these permit increases are “unnecessary and unfair,” and that climbing these mountains will become “too expensive for many Americans.”

Other complaints the groups had with the increase was the attempt to bypass the public comment period. Uberuaga countered that compaint saying a public comment period will take place once the proposed fee increased has been introduced to the NPS. The last fee increase was in 2003, where public meetings for comments drew a total of only 19 members of the public, a miniscule fraction of the 10,000 people that climb the mountain every year.

-via Seattle PI

Officials have been speculating on the reason for the increased visitors, and a few theories are being thrown around. The state tourism boards in Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho have increased their marketing of the park, and the nation’s economic status might be causing people to take less expensive vacations within the country, rather than to foreign locales.

These visitors are great for continuing to prove the value of the national parks, but they also come with a few nuisances like traffic jams at major viewpoints and lines at the concession stands and gift shops, as well as crowded campgrounds. In fact, on any given day during the summer, park officials are saying that there is a large possibility that there are more people than large mammals within the park’s boundaries. Summer daily visits average between 25,000 and 30,000 people.

-via MSNBC.com

Later, the government returned the land to the tribe, but with a caveat: it would be government-held trust land managed by the NPS, and form part of Badlands National Park. Under the new proposal, the land would become the first tribal-managed national park land in the country.

The proposed tribal national park would require congressional approval and it would take a few years to fully transition the land over to the tribe. The Oglala Sioux Parks and Recreation Authority already has a few projects in the works that would go hand in hand with this conversion, namely the Lakota Heritage and Education Center currently being built by the tribe and a proposed scenic byway to the Crazy Horse Monument being carved.

The proposal is subject to a 60-day comment period, including five public meetings in September and one in Washington DC next month (October). The affected South Unit is the considerably less visited part of Badlands NP, with only a small fraction of the visitors (and operating budget) for the park.

Steve Thede, deputy superintendent of Badlands National Park, says of the proposal, “We can’t change history, but this is an opportunity to revisit the decisions that were made and maybe do a little better this time around.”

-via the Victoria Advocate

Climate change has had a huge impact on Glacier National Park in Montana, where actual glaciers are melting away to never be seen again. The average temperature in the park has risen two degrees since 1979. Invasive species threaten the famous Saguaro cacti in Saguaro National Park in Arizona and pose a serious fire hazard in an arid landscape. Drilling for oil and the mining of minerals and ore have become common on land that skirts the edge of national parks. Insects threaten to destroy the dense cover of hemlocks that help to define the landscape of the Great Smoky Mountains.

David Nimkin, the southwest regional director of the NPCA believes that, “sometimes there is a level of complacency where we tend to think of our national parks as already being protected.” Often, the parks are taken for granted by visitors. The NPS has taken the approach to encourage visitors to take ownership in the parks, but at what cost? Hikers wander off trails, destroying fragile wildlife and causing erosion problems for the future. Jeffrey Olson, a public affairs officer for the NPS spoke of the fine balance between increasing visitors to the parks and keeping the environment intact for the future, saying, “We remind them [the] parks are here for them to enjoy and ask they help make sure they are here for future generations, too.”

However, many of the issues that threaten the national parks have simple solutions. Nimkin suggests a federally-mandated cap on the amount of air tours that criss-cross over the Grand Canyon, and redirectly flight routes to avoid frequent “fly-overs” that plague many national parks. The NPS is increasing shuttle service in the more popular parks to reduce traffic and parking congestion and reduce vehicle emissions. Some regulations have already been put in place. Dan Haynes, owner of Scenic Helicopter Tours in Tennessee, has a annual limit of 1,800 air tours he can provide due to the Air Tour Management Act that was implemented in 2000.

These issues present a unique problem, that requires an even more unique solution. In the last year the NPS has seen record amounts of visitors. The Obama administration has encouraged families to get outside and visit parks. Some suggest a daily cap to visitors to the national parks, but is that really the solution?

Read more on MSNBC.com.

The primary reason for removing the dams is restore the Elwha River ecosystem, once home to many salmon fisheries in the 1800s. The dams have choked off the salmon for almost a century, but don’t expect to see salmon swimming upstream any time soon. The project is expected to take at least three years, with the first pieces of concrete removed next fall, in 2011.

Though Barnard Construction signed the deal for $27 million, the project is expected to cost far more than that, with a total estimate of about $391 million. This total cost includes new flood-protection levees near the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe reservation, salmon hatcheries, and a water system for the city of Port Angeles.

The idea of removing the dams first began in the 1980s when the license for the upper dam went up for renewal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Since then it has been a debated issue, and the ecosystem of the Elwha River has continued to suffer. With the removal of the dams, it is hoped that the chinook salmon will return to the Elwha River. In it’s heyday, the salmon caught on the Elwha were huge, some even reaching 100 pounds.

Read more about the dam removal project in the Seattle Times.

Unfortunately the idiots with the buffalo aren’t alone. Park rangers recount stories of people calling rangers for such things as hot chocolate. Another group in Grand Canyon National Park pressed the emergency button on their sat phone because their water tasted salty. Stories like this are so common the National Park Service has recently added “darkness” and “inattention to surroundings” to their list of causes for rescue operations.

So, take this as a friendly reminder. The Park Service isn’t there to bring you hot chocolate. Just because your cell phone may work in one of the parks, it doesn’t mean that someone will show up if you didn’t plan properly and it’s getting dark on a day hike.

You should only call the rangers if you are in actual danger. If you do call because you’re out past dark, at best you’ll annoy a ranger. At worst, you may take resources away from an actual emergency.

If you’re bringing a GPS with you, be sure to know how to use it. Don’t forget to bring a backup navigation aid too. According to Kyle Patterson of Rocky Mountain National Park “We have seen people who have solely relied on GPS technology but were not using common sense or maps and compasses, and it leads them astray.’’

via Boston.com