Thursday, Oct 4, 2007
Amid numerous paparazzi and many good wishes, park managers from Rocky Mountain National Park, Tatra National Park (Poland) and Tatra National Park (Slovakia) signed documents on September 12th establishing a sister park relationship among the three areas.
Over the years, a number of National Park Service sites have established sister park relationships with national parks in other countries. These partnerships increase information sharing and direct park-to-park contacts, primarily through the use of improved telecommunications technologies.
A multidisciplinary team from the park, including superintendent Vaughn Baker, East District supervisory interpreter Kathy Brown, trails supervisor Dave Larsen and chief of planning and compliance Larry Gamble, visited the two Tatra parks to establish this new sister park relationship. The State Department supports this sister park relationship, which were begun through study tours sponsored by the U.S. embassies in Slovakia and Poland.
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe and U. S. Ambassador to Slovakia Rodolphe “Skip” Vallee attended the ceremony held at Tatra National Park offices in Zakopane, Poland.
“We are pleased to be joining a worldwide network of parks who have joined together as sister parks to pursue cooperative projects of mutual benefit,” said Baker at the ceremony.
The name ‘Tatra’ derives from an ancient Slavic root meaning ‘rocky.’ This plus much more is commonly shared among these three parks. Although not triplets, Rocky Mountain and the two Tatras parks share enough to be biological "sisters." The two Tatras have shared a sister park relationship for some time, as the border between Slovakia and Poland unites the parks.
Rocky Mountain is located high along the Continental Divide in Colorado, where 114 named peaks ranging from 10,000 to over 14,000 feet rise above lakes and glacially-carved valleys. The Tatra Mountains are the highest part of the Carpathians, one of the biggest mountain ranges in Europe, stretching in a large bow shape from the Czech Republic in the west to Romania in the southeast. The geologic histories of the three parks are similar, as all are dominated by mountains with ecosystems ranging from montane to alpine tundra intermixed with riparian areas. Some of the same circum-boreal families and species of animals, birds and plants are found in the Tatras and Rocky Mountain. Visitation numbers and their impacts on the parks are a common issue. All three parks share close proximities to regional population centers. The outstanding natural resources of all three parks face many common threats, including mountain pine beetle, air and water quality impacts, ecosystem management, and illegal human activities. Other shared park management issues include fee management, shuttle bus systems, concessions, frontcountry and backcountry management, volunteer programs, partnerships, and environmental education.
The employees of these three parks share the common ideals of stewardship and preservation of the resources given to their care. Their highest priority goals include restoring altered ecosystems, preserving and increasing natural biodiversity, protecting threatened and endangered species, and supporting research needed to achieve success in these preservation and restoration efforts. These parks are also striving to involve their surrounding communities in the development of compatible services and facilities to foster tourism and economic development. It is hoped that this sister park relationship will enable all three parks to further these goals through international cooperation.
For a comprehensive list of NPS areas with sister parks, click on “More Information” below.
|
