Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
VOLUNTEERS-IN-PARKS
help out at a national park
AT A NATIONAL PARK NEAR (OR FAR FROM) YOU
People ask all the time how many more years we'll keep returning to Gla-
cier…. I like to say, “Until we die, until we die!”
—Mary and Joe McGeehan,
summer campground hosts at Glacier National Park
43 |
They're not exactly on the endangered species list yet, but America's national parks are
getting sucker punched by budget cuts. With so much of our national budget going to the mil-
itary, visitor centers at national parks are being forced to cut back hours, retiring rangers are
not being replaced, roads that were once open to the public are now restricted, and trail main-
tenance is being neglected.
Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Pennsylvania, for example, has cut back on grass-
cutting in the 900-acre park from once every two weeks to once a month. Olympic National
Park in Washington has been forced to close its main visitor center two days a week.
In fact, the national parks are taking such a beating that, in the northwest United States,
volunteers are giving talks about threats to the National Park System along with talks about
shrinking salmon habitats.
So, you can write your representatives in Congress, but if you
really
want to help, spend
a week or a month or a whole summer volunteering in one of America's nearly 400 nation-
al parks. Earthwatch (see pp. 93-94 and 122-124), Wilderness Volunteers (see pp. 114-116),
and other outfits offer volunteer vacations in national parks, but you can also go straight to
the source and become a VIP—which, while it certainly qualifies you as a “very important
person,” in this case stands for Volunteers in Parks. The VIP program deploys volunteers in
virtually every one of our national parks.
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