By Jennifer Nagorka
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-876303.mp3
Dallas, TX –
INTRO: Ken Burns' recent documentary series recounted the history of America's national parks and what they've meant to this country. Commentator Jennifer Nagorka wonders if the parks mean as much to us now.
COMMENTARY: My family never went to expensive resorts when I was a kid - we couldn't afford to. We visited grandparents or went to America's parklands, which cost, at most, a few dollars to enter and let you from bring in your own food. Those childhood trips, to places like Arches National Park in Utah and White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, helped shaped my sense of being American. The parks were something beautiful and tangible to cherish about our country, at an age when the intangibles of "liberty and justice" didn't mean much.
Now, my husband and I take our kids to some of those same parks. Our 6-year-old twins splash in the seasonal stream that runs in front of Colorado's Great Sand Dunes. When they tire of the water, they scramble up the dunes and tumble back down. They love it. And the price is right: a one-week pass to the Great Sand Dunes National Park for two adults - kids under 16 are free - totals $6. Try getting your whole family into Six Flags for $6.
The national parks are so iconic it's hard to imagine our nation without them. But the whole system is under stress. The 391 national parks, including sites like Big Thicket and Big Bend in Texas, receive more than 274 million visits annually. The park service has a $6 to $13 billion backlog of maintenance, construction and reconstruction. Climate change and private development outside the parks are altering the environment within their boundaries. Our country is more urban and diverse than ever before; maybe the parks have become irrelevant.
Luckily, national parks have many fans, and they're working to keep the parks valued and relevant. Film maker Ken Burns's documentary series about the history of the park system recently aired on public television.
A new report from the National Parks Second Century Commission, a high-level study group led by two former U.S. senators, picks up where the documentary series left off. The commission's goal was to create a vision for the parks' next 100 years.
The commissioners addressed some predictable issues. They encouraged the park service to cultivate new leadership and strengthen its scientific research. The commission suggested forming additional alliances with other public and private agencies. It recommended creating an endowment fund to help support the national parks, a smart move.
But all that is secondary to commissioners' grandest idea: that the national parks have a role as an internal, nation-building program. As the report states: "The Park Service should build a citizenry committed to the nation's principles and purposes, and empowered with the knowledge and skill needed to carry them forward in the world."
That sounds a little pretentious, but it makes perfect sense to me. The parks could help our diverse country achieve the ideal of "e pluribus unum." or "out of many, one." They're the outcome of our best democratic impulses: created by an elected government for the enjoyment of all Americans for all time. The system includes our most beautiful natural landscapes and our most important historical and cultural treasures. Know them, and you know our country.
The National Park Service was a great idea when it was founded in 1916. We can update and expand the parks' mission and still enjoy their beauty.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer from Dallas.
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