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In This Issue
Connecting Communities + Parks
Continuity of Experience
A Tip of the Hat...
Video of Success
Keep Connected
Get Involved
Events

Let's Work Together
Links

Sidebar-1Connection looks like this: Video of new trail Connecting to Pipestone National Monument (MN)
Sidebar-2Keep Connected
See what new projects are happening near you among our  260 RTCA projects in 2010

Sidebar-GetInvolvedGet Involved
Find something to do near you (hint: search "parks", "rivers," "trails") on the MLK Day of Service  Jan. 18

Could you be a better advocate?
NRPA's Park Advocate Handbook (PDF 1.3 mb)

EventsEvents
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Meet new partners + learn new tools
Conservation + Recreation: January 2010
Connections
Rick Potts, Chief, Outdoor Recreation and ConservationRick Potts, Chief, NPS Conservation & Outdoor Recreation Division

You cannot love a park to death.

When a special place has a constituency
of people who personally know and experience it, their love of that place rises up to protect it when it is threatened.  When people know and love a place, they protect it.
  For all their importance, physical connections between parks and the land or communities near them are not enough to protect the parks.  Parks also need deep connections with the hearts of people all around them.

Although love cannot kill a wild area, apathy and irrelevance surely can.  Advocates for natural places in the 21st Century need to develop and employ new skills to reach and engage new generations of culturally and ethnically diverse Americans, many of whom have never had that all-important first outdoor adventure.  Read more here.
FeatureArticleConnecting Communities and Parks
Partnerships are the organizational connections that let physical connections grow.  NPS Director Jon Jarvis says, "Gateway communities and parks have an important relationship that needs to be grown through mutual respect and cooperation, particularly when tourism is an essential part of the economy.  We need to help these communities, and all Americans, discover a unique and personal connection to their national parks."
One way to do that is a physical connection, such as trails and pathways through neighboring communities.  Like the new trail completed last summer, connecting Moose to the Jenny Lake visitor's center in Grand Teton National Park.
 
bikes on Teton PathwayCheck out fun video of life around and on the new trail.(Pathway appears one minute in, after a look at the dog and the chicken coop.)
Courtesy of Wade McKoy, Focus Productions

"It was an instant success," says Friends of Pathways Executive Director Tim Young. "Over 200 people use it every day.  It's more than just active cyclists.  We're seeing people who were probably afraid of getting out there before -- recreational cyclists in jeans, people with disabilities, multiple generations."

It took many close partnerships: the towns of Jackson and Teton Village, Senators Craig Thomas and John Barasso, NPS, and Friends of Pathways.  Two tragic cyclist deaths focused attention on the goal of a safe, inviting route for bicyclists and pedestrians off the main road.  Now a quiet, non-motorized path is leading to a closer experience for park visitors and also enhancing the community's connection to the park.

Ultimately, the valley may have a 100-mile system of connected trails and pathways, helping people get safety to and from where they want to be.  Another seven miles of trail are in development now.  And within a few years, there should be a continuous path from the town of Jackson to Jenny Lake, interconnecting with other paths and becoming a full-fledged system throughout the valley.  As park superintendent Mary Gibson Scott points out, the new trails "set the stage for people to make a personal connection to the natural world."  Read more about it here.
ArticleAContinuity of Experience 

Another way to
foster personal and relevant connections to our national parks is the concept as the park as a tourist destination.  Potomac bridge in winterThe first two strategies in the
NPS Tourism Strategic Plan are
1) Engage community partners, by co
nnecting communities, parks, and tourism partners, and
2) Improve communications and marketing capacity, by establishing and maintaining an exchange with tourism community partners, NPS, and park visitors.  The Potomac Heritage National Sceni
c Trail network is doing just these two things.
 
Diverse agencies, nonprofit, and for-profit partners are developing network of locally managed trails, relying extensively on coordination among the partners.  In the past few years, the need to create continuity of experience throughout the network has become paramount.  Conventional means -- trailhead orientation exhibits, route marking, and publications -- address the need to some extent, but not completely.  A recent
Balancing Nature and Commerce workshop at the National Conservation Training Center served as the foundation for a new form of coordination and cross-promotion, resulting in organization of the ad hoc Potomac & Allegheny Alliance and a web site to promote a suite of related travel itineraries.

Partners in this effort include state tourism offices, local and regional visitors' bureaus, destination marketing organizations in each region of the trail corridor, regional planning agencies, the Trail Town Program of The Progress Fund, and the C & O Canal Trust.  NPS has supported the effort with staff time and funding through the Challenge Cost-Share Program.
ArticleBA Tip of the Hat to... Concrete Plant Park--After
Sandra Jerabek and
Susan Calla

 
The Tolowa Dunes Stewards is a project of the Smith River Alliance with a mission to enhance, restore, and conserve the natural and cultural resources in Tolowa Dunes State Park, the Lake Earl Wildlife Area, and Point Saint George Heritage Area -- in far northwest California, Del Norte County, ancestral lands of the Tolowa Indians.
 

NPS planner Linda Stonierhas really appreciated the chance to work with the Dunes Stewards.  "Sandra Jerabek and Susan Calla are devoted and resourceful conservationists working with their non-profit, public agency, Native American and volunteer partners to protect and restore a magnificent dune and wetland landscape at the mouth of the Smith River," says Linda.  The Stewards are collaborating with the land managers, Tribal Councils, and others to produce a brand new map and guide encouraging people to explore the 11,000 acres of publicly owned estuary, dunes, forest, ponds, meadow, and beaches, with 40 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails, and places for hunting, fishing, and helping with restoration work.  Learn more about the Tolowa Dunes Stewards, or visit next time you're way up in Northern California!
LetsWorkLet's Work Together
Could your project benefit from collaboration with a National Park Service specialist?
 
If you're restoring a river, building a community trail, or making an urban park flourish, we'd love to talk with you about ways we could work together.
 
Call or email your regional representative today.
Like what you read?  Please copy or forward this newsletter.
Have a story idea?  We're happy to consider story ideas or news items for future publication.
Want to use a story for your own publication?  We would be pleased to help you. To submit an idea or request information about adapting a story, please contact Alan Turnbull: 202-354-6930 or [email protected]

Conservation + Recreation
is written to support and inform our organizational partners, friends of the program, potential partners, and Department of the Interior staff. It's our chance to share activities and successes and those of our partners. For details on specific projects, please contact the staff person involved with each project.

Images courtesy National Park Service