Commission Reports On Its Second Meeting

The National Parks 2nd Century Commission held its second meeting at Lowell NHP in late October and has issued a brief summary report on its session there.

Attending were Jonathan B. Jarvis, Regional Director, PWR; Dennis Reidenbach Regional Director, NER; Rolf Diamant, Superintendent, MABI; Michael Creasey, Superintendent, LOWE; and Patti Trap, Superintendent, SAMA.

Background

The National Parks 2nd Century Commission is being funded through a grant to the National Parks Conservation Association and is co-chaired by former members of Congress Bennett Johnston and Howard Baker and is staffed by retired NPS Chief of Policy Loran Fraser.  The goals are to produce a report offering a vision of the future parks, the National Park Service and paths to achieve them, and to shape the agenda of the next Administration and Congress.  There are five Commission meetings planned, each highlighting challenges and opportunities specific to the parks visited and common to parks across the system. Throughout, presentations and discussions focus on the values and meaning of parks today. It is anticipated that these field visits provide an unusual opportunity for dialogue among Commissioners and with national park and program staff, topical experts, park constituencies and the public. The report is expected to be completed by fall of 2009.

Park Visits

The specific venues for the meetings and the order in which they occur have been designed to demonstrate the range of challenges and opportunities found within National Park System as we face a new century of public enjoyment and stewardship.  Santa Monica Mountains NRA (SAMO) demonstrated that even though the NPS manages less than 15% of the land base of the NRA, through excellent partnerships, they have been able to connect successfully to a wide range of communities, contribute to ecosystem restoration, and become a significant factor in the education system within the Los Angeles Unified School District.  The NPS at SAMO has been a significant factor in creating a seamless system of private, local, state, and national parks capable of programmatically and physically linking urban communities to park system values.  The tour also emphasized core work around outreach and curriculum-based education, recreation and health, and natural and cultural resource stewardship at the wildland-urban interface.

At Lowell NHP, the commission learned how the investment of the NPS into the restoration of a decaying mill town and the telling of local history within a national context led to a revitalization of the city.  Presentations before the commissioners from city leaders and private developers all attributed the NPS with restoring pride in the city and being a key factor in the city’s success. Presenters emphasized the establishment of the park was conceived as critical step not only in the environmental, social and economic renaissance of Lowell but also in the creation of a “educative city” where the park embedded in the fabric of the city would represent more than the preservation of place – it would represent the preservation of “new thinking and ideas” about the future.

The commission spent a day within the Essex National Heritage Area learning both the history of this congressionally designated area and the growth of heritage areas within the last 20 years, noting there are now 40 and growing.  Speakers suggested that if underserved populations of young people are not connecting to places like heritage areas near where they live, they may never make a connection to more distant units of the larger national park system. In addition, national heritage areas, by furthering greenways, long distance trails and linked corridors, can play a critical role in preserving un-fragmented habitat and biodiversity. The commission appeared to agree that heritage areas such as Essex should be recognized as long-term assets to the national park system and urged that a comprehensive evaluation program be put in place to address issues of continuity, sustainable funding and program support.

A common element of success in all three of these areas visited by the commission is that the NPS has to be flexible, innovative and cooperative. 

Commission Discussions

Like the meeting at SAMO, the commissioners attempted to balance the site visit logistics, presentations by staff and partners, and their own dialogue about the goals of the commission.

The commission’s conversation has begun to probe the definition or notion of a national park in the 21st Century and that parks should not be managed based on a common denominator principle noting that Yellowstone and Lowell are very different. One member urged that parks should represent “superlative” examples of the nation’s natural and cultural heritage but worried about the on-going confusion over NPS nomenclature – so many types of national park units just confuse the public and makes public outreach and understanding more difficult. Another reminded the commission that national parks are ideas expressed through place, such as Lowell and the concept of national parks will evolve based on very specific local circumstances and the intent of Congress. It is the experience and management skill of NPS professionals that ultimately provide the system with over-all cohesion and unity. This discussion concluded with the observation that “the creation of a national park is an expression of faith in our future.”

Draft oral reports were presented from each of the commission’s committees (but are too preliminary to summarize): 

• Science and Natural Resources 
• Cultural Resources
• Education and Learning
• Shaping the Future of the System
• Budget 
• Visitation and Use