National Park Service formulates plan for the next 100 years

Top authorities meet in Westlake


NATURE'S WAY—A hiker enjoys one of the many Santa Monica Mountain trails that crisscross the area.

NATURE’S WAY—A hiker enjoys one of the many Santa Monica Mountain trails that crisscross the area.


A blue-ribbon commission comprising scientists, conservationists, politicians and other community leaders met recently at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village to discuss the future role of America’s national parks.

The “National Parks Second Century Commission” met in Westlake because of the city’s proximity to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, one of 390 national park sites covering more than 84 million acres in the United States.

The commission is co-chaired by Sen. Howard Baker Jr. (R-Tenn.) and Sen. J. Bennett Johnston Jr. (DLa..). It’s the first of its kind in a generation to examine the role of the national parks and chart a vision for their future. The areas include monuments, battlefields, historical parks, scenic rivers and trails—even the White House.

Baker addressed the group via telephone from Tennessee. “I am available and anxious to make (the commission) a success,” Baker said.

The goal of the commission is to create a report that outlines how park services can be expanded to reflect cultural changes and to establish a 10-year program to repair and enhance the parks through a mix of public and private funding, Johnston said.

The National Park Service, which has a visitor center in Thousand Oaks, is a bureau of the Department of the Interior.

“What is more popular than national parks?” Johnston asked the group. During the next 12 months the commission will come up with “creative ideas to help sell the plan,” he said.

Johnston said national parks are “not just a mere part of America, but a central part of American culture and the American psyche,” he said.

Brainstorming

Commission members were asked to discuss the current state of the parks and give their opinions on what improvements need to be made during the next century.

“Our charter is to anticipate the role of national parks in the second hundred years,” said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association.

At the very least, the group’s work will serve as a guide for the next administration in Washington.

Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University and former assistant secretary and chief financial officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce, called for more park funding.

Commissioner Sally Jewell, a member of the National Parks Conservation Association board of directors, warned of a “growing disconnect between children and nature.”

John Fahey, president and chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society, said his organization has a “symbiotic relationship” with parks and that Americans can’t be “fully human” unless they “experience nature.”

Gretchen Long, trustee for the National Parks Conservation Association and current board member, lives next to Grand Teton National Park in Colorado. Long challenged the commission to consider how the use of parks is influenced by urban sprawl, legislative mandates and other forces.

Forecasting the future

Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future and a visiting scholar at Stanford University, advised that the commission look far into the future and then work backward to formulate their plan for the next 100 years.

The future of America, Saffo said, will be in the hands of immigrants. He said that by midcentury, 87 percent of the nation’s growth will come from other countries.

“Global rootlessness” created by people moving to the U.S. from their native lands will have an impact on how people perceive the need for parks.

“The world is much more transient,” Saffo said. “What history do you teach if residents don’t buy into the American myth?” he asked.

The new urbanism, he said, will place pressure on parks.

Points of change

Dr. Dwight Pitcaithley, a history professor at New Mexico State University, and Rolf Diamant, superintendent of MarshBillingsRockefeller National Historical Park, gave a talk about the history of national parks and the changes ahead.

“The core mission is to protect parks,” Diamant said. He said park leaders need to “inspire and educate for the betterment of all.”

Each region of parks will have different challenges, he said. In Alaska, the goal will be to manage and preserve vast ecosystems, while another section of the U.S. might want to create parks with an eye toward “civil rights.” Local issues

Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, discussed the impact of urban growth on parks. By 2050, Los Angeles will grow to 33 million citizens, half of whom will live within a one-hour commute of a national park, he said.

In response to the changing demographics of the region, Smeck said the SMMRA conducted a public “Bio Blitz” in May to count living species in the mountains. Children were bused in from the inner city to work alongside scientists and other students.

Smeck described how excited East Los Angeles elementary students were to see the ocean for the first time. “They ran out of the bus, threw their shoes off and ran into the water,” he said.

Smeck said connecting children to the parks is the first step in creating the environmental stewards of the future.

Smeck characterized the Santa Monica Mountains as an “island of nature.”

Simi Valley resident Wayne Fishback attended the symposium because he’s worried about the government seizing his private property for parkland.

Fishback owns 500 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and said the Santa Monica Conservancy, a nongovernmental land preservation agency, has long-range plans to purchase private land for permanent open space.

Since the conservancy doesn’t have enough funds to buy all the land they’d like, Fishback believes officials will “use all kinds of measures to prevent people in using their land in any way, shape or form.”

Fishback, a retired architect who wants to build a horse and cattle ranch in the hills between Los Angeles and Simi Valley, formed a coalition of property owners who together own about 8,000 acres of land. The group plans on taking necessary legal steps to use their land as they believe the law allows. What’s next?

The commission is being led by the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association.

Commissioners will meet at four additional national parks from now until next June as they put together a report, with recommendations, that will be delivered to the Department of the Interior by late 2009.

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