NATIONAL PARKS BLOG

There are so many great ways to visit, share and support America’s iconic, national treasures during the holiday season. Here are a handful of our suggestions:

• Give The Gift Of The Parks - Thanks to the generosity of the National Park Foundation board, all year-end gifts (between now and December 31) will be matched up to $75,000! That means your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar. Pretty incredible, right?! And when you make a donation to NPF, we’ll send you a special printable certificate to include in a stocking or under your Christmas Tree.  I also recommend you check out our gift guide to shop for more gifts that give back to our national parks.

• Holidays In The Parks – From Alaska to Georgia, we pulled together an impressive list of not-to-be-missed holiday celebrations for you to enjoy!  Definitely check them out!

• Hooray For The Holidays! – Now listen up, this is the part where we thank YOU and give back to YOU! From December 19 through December 23, you could win the ultimate national park prize pack including a free annual pass to America’s nearly 400 national parks and roundtrip airfare to any national park destination Southwest Airlines can take you to, outstanding outdoor gear, NPF apparel, and more! Join us at today at www.facebook.com/nationalpark and learn more about Hooray for the Holidays!

• Watch The 2011 National Christmas Tree Lighting From President’s Park On-Demand! Let us bring the spirit of the season to you with the Lighting of the National Christmas Tree at www.thenationaltree.org or by checking local PBS listings for airdates and times. Promise you won’t be disappointed as you watch President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their family, along with a star-studded list of performers including Big Time Rush and Ellie Goulding, OneRepublic, Rodney Atkins, Marsha Ambrosius, Kermit the Frog and host Carson Daly having a wonderful time together at the 89^th National Christmas Tree Lighting!

Working with the National Park Service staff at Gulf Islands National Seashore (GINS) on our latest Electronic Field Trip (EFT), Sea Change, was an extremely educational experience for me personally. The park unit spans the Gulf Coast between the panhandle in Florida all the way over to Mississippi. From natural and human-created events like Hurricane Ivan and the Gulf oil spill, the National Seashore has endured many changes over the past ten years. Throughout this time the park rangers have remained steadfast in their belief that the park remains resilient and will always make a comeback.

That is the primary lesson we were looking to pass on to students across the country during the Electronic Field Trip. After all, change is a constant in all aspects of life and we need to learn how to understand and manage it as best as we can. Of course, the EFT also instructed students on how we should work hard to minimize the impacts our own behavior has on the Gulf of Mexico and all ecosystems.

Before beginning the work on this EFT, I was unaware that two thirds of the United States, between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachians form the watershed that eventually drains into the Gulf and this runoff creates a serious impact. I have learned how important it is to understand our personal impacts on these delicate ecosystems and participate in the science and solutions in our own communities. It’s my hope that, through the latest EFT, the National Park Foundation was able to help spread that vital message in 4th to 8th grade classrooms across the country and around the world.

Program Director, National Park Foundation

I just read an article by Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International, about his recent trip to Yellowstone National Park. Click here to see HuffPo commentary.

Cousteau writes about what he’s observed and learned while in Yellowstone. One sentence, in particular, jumped out at me, “Other challenges are threatening the parks as well. A familiar refrain I heard over and over from guides and rangers alike was the concern over the effects of an increasingly volatile climate.”

I was struck by this sentence because I’m working on NPF’s upcoming Electronic Field Trip (EFT) to North Cascades National Park, which will focus on climate change. NPF picked North Cascades for the EFT because it is home to over 300 glaciers. And many of these glaciers have shrunk dramatically during the last century thanks, in part, to global warming.

The upcoming EFT, which will air on October 13th, will use North Cascades as a medium for explaining climate change and its impacts. I think some of the kids will be surprised to learn that the glaciers are not only wonders of the natural world, but they provide an important source of water for the plants, animal and people that live in the region. As the glaciers shrink, a water supply is diminished.

I hope our EFT is successful in teaching thousands of children about climate change, and motivating them to take action to help mitigate the human-caused impacts on the climate.

To learn more about our upcoming EFT click here!