Mount Rainier National Park Receives 2014 America’s Best Idea Grant from the National Park Foundation to Support Student Conservation Association Youth Crews

For Immediate Release

Alanna Sobel, National Park Foundation, asobel@nationalparks.org, 202-354-6486
Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier National Park, kevin_bacher@nps.gov, 360-569-6567
Jay Satz, Student Conservation Association, jsatz@thesca.org, 206-324-4649
Laurie Ward, Washington’s National Park Fund, laurie@wnpf.org, 206-623-2063 

 

Mount Rainier National Park is one of 39 national parks selected to receive a 2014 America’s Best Idea grant from the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Inspired by Ken Burns’ critically acclaimed documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” this program builds partnerships between national parks and community, state, and other public organizations, and engages diverse audiences in meaningful and relevant ways with national parks and inspires participants to become stewards of our National Park System.

2013's SCA Community Crews were also funded,
in part, by the National Park Foundation

 

“The America’s Best Idea program connects people – particularly youth – to America’s national parks, often for the first time,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “Through meaningful and memorable in-park experiences that highlight the natural, cultural, and historical treasures in our National Park System, we are able to inspire the next generation of park-goers.”

“We want everyone to find themselves in a national park,” said Jonathan B. Jarvis, director of the National Park Service. “These National Park Foundation grants will help people acquire a better understanding of their national parks and, hopefully, of themselves, through place-based learning and recreational activities. Native Americans who will visit traditional homelands, budding scientists who will study environmental impacts, and students from Gallaudet University who will examine aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act are among the many groups which will benefit from the grants.”

At Mount Rainier, National Park Foundation funding will support three teams of youth recruited by the Student Conservation Association (SCA) from communities in Seattle, and from Joint Base Lewis-McCord (JBLM) through SCA’s “Base to Base Camp” program. Eight high school students and two crew leaders in each Community Crew will spend fifteen days working on trail maintenance projects throughout the national park, repairing trail tread and building bridges at sites like Klapatche Park and the Wonderland Trail. This is SCA’s 20th year fielding Community Crews at Mount Rainier, and the third for its Base to Base Camp program. Eleven students from JBLM joined thirteen from Seattle on last year’s crews. This year’s crews will be in the park from July 6th through August 31st.

“We are pleased to have Community Crews back at Mount Rainier this year,” said Superintendent Randy King. “These young people play an important part in the protection and care of our national parks, and they also represent the next generation of park stewards.” Many graduates of past Community Crews have gone on to serve as seasonal or career rangers with the National Park Service or other agencies.

"SCA is honored to be the farm team for the National Park Service and other national resource agencies," says Jay A. Satz, SCA's regional Vice President. "SCA's success in engaging an ever more diverse young constituency with our national parks and public lands is essential for the future of American citizens’ support of the national park ideal." Satz expressed appreciation to The Norcliffe Foundation for their financial support.

Mount Rainier’s Community Crews are also funded by a grant from the Eleanor and Raymond Wilson Charitable Trust throughWashington’s National Park Fund, which supports projects at Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades National Parks. “Youth programs are one of our most important investments in the national parks,” said Laurie Ward, Executive Director of Washington’s National Park Fund.

The National Park Foundation wishes to thank The Ahmanson Foundation, Chapman Hanson Foundation, the Fernandez Pave the Way Foundation, and Subaru for their generous support of the America’s Best Idea program.

The 2014 America’s Best Idea grantees include:

Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area (KY, TN)

Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site (KS)

Bryce Canyon National Park (UT)

Canyon de Chelly National Monument (AZ)

Cape Cod National Seashore (MA)

Cape Lookout National Seashore (NC)

Congaree National Park (SC)

Denali National Park & Preserve (AK)

Everglades National Park (FL)

Flagstaff Area National Monuments (AZ)

George Washington Carver National Monument (MO)

Glacier National Park (MT)

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (AZ, UT)

Grand Teton National Park (WY)

Great Sand Dunes National Park & Preserve (CO)

Independence National Historical Park (PA)

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (MO)

Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (GA)

Katmai National Park and Preserve (AK)

Kobuk Valley National Park (AK)

Lincoln Home National Historic Site (IL)

Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac (VA)

Mississippi National River & Recreation Area (MN)

Moores Creek National Battlefield (NC)

Mount Rainier National Park (WA)

National Capital Region (DC)

Olympic National Park (WA)

Point Reyes National Seashore (CA)

President’s Park (White House) (DC)

Prince William Forest Park (VA)

Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park (CA)

Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway (WI, MN)

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (CA)

Virgin Islands National Park (VI)

Weir Farm National Historic Site (CT)

Wilson's Creek National Battlefield (MO)

Yellowstone National Park (ID, MT, WY)

Yosemite National Park (CA)

Zion National Park (UT)

A listing of these parks and their America’s Best Idea project descriptions can be found on the National Park Foundation website.

For more information on the National Park Foundation and how you can support and protect America’s national parks, please visit www.nationalparks.org. For more information on the National Park Service, please visit www.nps.gov.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at: www.nps.gov.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION

The National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s national parks and nonprofit partner to the National Park Service. Chartered by Congress in 1967, the National Park Foundation raises private funds to help PROTECT more than 84 million acres of national parks through critical conservation and preservation efforts, CONNECT all Americans with their incomparable natural landscapes, vibrant culture and rich history, and INSPIRE the next generation of park stewards. Find out more and become a part of the national park community at www.nationalparks.org.
  

ABOUT THE STUDENT CONSERVATION ASSOCIATIONThe Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a nationwide conservation force of college and high school volunteers who protect and restore America’s parks, forests, and other public lands. For more than 50 years, SCA’s active, hands-on approach to conservation has helped to develop a new generation of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save our planet. For more information, visit www.thesca.org.

ABOUT WASHINGTON’S NATIONAL PARK FUND

Washington's National Park Fund raises private support to deepen the public's love for, understanding of, and experiences in Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Park. The Fund was founded in 1993 by a group of passionate parks people including Governor Dan Evans and Melinda Gates. Thanks to their vision, the Fund has been able to raise much needed funding for Washington’s national parks, including more than $2 million over the past six years. For more information, visitwww.wnpf.org.

- ### -

Community Crews hard at work

From the National Park Foundation:

Thanks to a 2013 NPF "America's Best Idea" grant, Mount Rainier National Park in Washington has been able to work with Student Conservation Association Community Crews - that included youth from Joint Base Lewis-McChord - to restore trails ...such as the Trail of the Shadows, Comet Falls Trail and Wonderland Trail! Have you ever hiked any of these trails?

Learn more about "America’s Best Idea" at http://prks.org/15fifFK & check out even more great photos from the recent volunteer event at Mount Rainier at http://prks.org/11MLsWq!

Mount Rainier National Park receives 2013 America’s Best Idea grant from the National Park Foundation

July 10, 2013: For Immediate Release

Alanna Sobel, National Park Foundation, asobel@nationalparks.org, (202) 354-6486
Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier National Park, kevin_bacher@nps.gov, (360) 569-6567
Jay Satz, Student Conservation Association, jsatz@thesca.org, (206) 550-5977

Mount Rainier is one of 34 national parks across the country selected to receive a 2013 America’s Best Idea grantfrom the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks. Inspired by the critically acclaimed Ken Burns documentary “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” the America’s Best Idea program funds park activities designed to connect diverse, underserved and under-engaged populations throughout the United States with their national parks in innovative and meaningful ways.

“One of the great things about our national parks is that every American can relate to these treasured places if given the chance to experience them,” said Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service. “It’s our mission to engage visitors from all backgrounds in the diverse stories that we tell in our national parks. Thanks to the support of the National Park Foundation, we can propel that outreach, and engage new audiences that would otherwise never have the opportunity to experience a national park.”

“The America’s Best Idea program gives people – particularly youth – incredible opportunities to connect to ournational parks through unique and innovative ways,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation. “From experiences that center on history, the environment and even adventure, we are able to capture the imagination of a new generation of park-goers in ways that benefit their lives and the future of the parks.”

At Mount Rainier, the America’s Best Idea grant supports a long standing and growing partnership between theNational Park Service and the Student Conservation Association (SCA). “SCA’s mission is to build the next generation of conservation stewards, by connecting them to our parks and forests through the action of conservation service,” said Jay A. Satz, SCA’s Regional Vice President.

“We are fortunate here at Mount Rainier to work with SCA’s Community Conservation Program, which engages high school students in Seattle during the school year, and then brings them to Mount Rainier to serve with 15-day trail crews during the summer,” said Kevin Bacher, Mount Rainier’s Volunteer Program Manager. “SCA’s outreach to members of military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, through a program called ‘Base to Base Camp,’ has resulted in almost half of this year’s crew members coming from JBLM. And we’ve worked with SCA For decades to provide interns who support park staff in critical roles, learning skills, doing important work, and serving the public. Through our partnership with SCA this summer, 37 young people will contribute more than 9,000 hours of conservation service at Mount Rainier while having an extraordinary national park experience.”

Funding from the National Park Foundation supports the crew leaders for three eight-person trail maintenance teams, each made up of Community Program members from Seattle and Base-to-Base Camp youth from JBLM. The first crew is in the field now, and the second and third will be in the park later this month and next. Additional funding for the program comes from the National Park Service’s Youth Partnerships Program and Washington’sNational Park Fund.

“We are pleased to work with SCA’s Community Crews again this year, and especially pleased to welcome members of our military families at Joint Base Lewis-McChord,” said Randy King, Superintendent of Mount RainierNational Park. “These grants allow us to reach out to the conservation leaders of tomorrow and offer them a great experience in their national parks, as well as stepping stones toward possible future careers. We look forward to working with these young men and women for many years to come.”

For a full listing of participating parks and program descriptions, please visit the National Park Foundation website.

The National Park Foundation wishes to thank L.L. Bean, the Anschutz Family Foundation, and The Ahmanson Foundation for their generous support of the America’s Best Idea program.

About the National Park Service

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. Learn more at www.nps.gov and www.nps.gov/mora.

About the National Park Foundation

The National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, raises private funds that directly aid, support and enrich America’s more than 400 national parks and their programs. Chartered by Congress as the nonprofit partner of the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation plays a critical role in conservation and preservation efforts, establishing national parks as powerful learning environments, and giving all audiences an equal and abundant opportunity to experience, enjoy and support America’s treasured places. For more information on the National Park Foundation or how you can support and protect America’s national parks, please visitwww.nationalparks.org. Follow them on Facebook at facebook.com/nationalpark and on Twitter attwitter.com/goparks.

About the Student Conservation Association
The Student Conservation Association (SCA) is a nationwide conservation force of college and high school volunteers who protect and restore America’s parks, forests, and other public lands. For more than 50 years, SCA’s active, hands-on approach to conservation has helped to develop a new generation of conservation leaders, inspire lifelong stewardship, and save our planet. For more information, visit www.thesca.org.

- NPS -

Impacts of Sequestration on Mount Rainier's Volunteer Program

Mount Rainier National Park issued a press release yesterday detailing the effects of sequestration on park programs, staff, and services. With a 5% cut in this year's budget on top of $500,000 worth of additional cuts over the past few years, hard choices have to be made, and some things that we have been able to do in previous years are no longer possible.

Our priorities are public safety and access. As we meet these priorities with leaner resources, the volunteer program will play a critical role. Of course, volunteers are already a tremendous asset to our park. Last year 1,804 volunteers contributed 74,615 hours of volunteer time. A non-partisant research organization called Independent Sector publishes an annual estimate of the financial value of volunteer service, based on what it would cost to hire paid labor (with salary and benefits) to do comparable work. At this year's rate of $22.14 per hour, Mount Rainier's volunteers contribute $1.65 million worth of productivity. Looked at another way, a typical 3-month summer seasonal employee works for about 500 hours, so our volunteers are the equivalent of hiring 149 additional seasonal workers. Obviously, even without sequestration, we could never hope to accomplish as much, nor serve our public as well, without their help.

And our numbers keep growing. I've worked here for more than ten years now, and our volunteer numbers have been larger every year except 2008, and that was only because of the immense surge of volunteers who responded to winter storm damage during the previous summer. Volunteer hours are up almost 80% over the last decade, and volunteers are being used in creative ways to help with citizen science, backcountry maintenance, and almost every other part of park operations.

I've been asked many times over the past few months how sequestration will affect Mount Rainier's volunteer program. Here are three examples:

1. Closed facilities mean fewer volunteers. The Ohanapecosh Visitor Center will not open this summer. The Cougar Rock Campground will have a shorter season. In both cases, volunteer jobs have been suspended or reduced along with those of paid employees. There will be no volunteer interpreters or Junior Ranger program assistants at Ohanapecosh, and Cougar Rock's campground hosts will come on duty later in the year.
    
2. Supervisory capacity is reduced. One of the most significant barriers to volunteer program growth has always been "span of supervision." Volunteers, just like paid employees, must be trained, mentored, supervised, and provided with the supplies and equipment they need to do their jobs safely and effectively. Thus, there is a limit to the number of volunteers a supervisor can work with. Under sequestration, many vacant positions at Mount Rainier have gone unfilled, leaving remaining staff with more work to accomplish with fewer people, and in many cases, even less time to work with volunteers. We've found creative ways to overcome this problem over the years--for example, hiring interns through the Student Conservation Association (SCA) specifically to coordinate volunteers in the Citizen Science and Trails programs; and working in partnership with the Washington Trails Association to coordinate volunteer projects. And many supervisors are finding that if they assign their front-line employees to work with volunteers, they can get even more accomplished than they can without their help (and because those volunteers require training and supervision, the front-line employee's own job is in no danger of being "replaced" by them).
    
3. Less money is available to support the volunteer program. Contrary to popular believe, volunteers are not "free" (though they provide an exceptional return on investment). There are costs associated with training, supervision, supplies, uniforms, fleet vehicles, housing, and sometimes a small per diem to cover living expenses for long-term volunteers. Volunteer program support comes from four places. My own salary, as the park's Volunteer and Outreach Program Manager, is supported by the park's "base" funding. We receive a small additional budget (usually $15-$18,000 annually) distributed out of a nationwide appropriation for the Park Service's volunteer programs. A significant amount of volunteer support comes from the individual programs in which volunteers work--for example, our Visitor Protection program may pay for a fleet vehicle to support our Emergency Roadside Assistance volunteers, or our division of Interpretation and Education may pay for housing and utilities on behalf of a volunteer working full-time in one of the park's visitor centers. All three of these funding sources are affected by sequestration and other budget cuts. With less money to support volunteers, our capacity to work with them is reduced.
   
   Fortunately, our fourth funding source, grants and donations, has so far made up a lot of the difference. A Youth Partnerships Program grant, for example, will support three SCA Community Crews made up of high school age youth from Seattle this summer, as well as youth internships in our education and restoration programs. An "America's Best Idea" grant from the National Park Foundation will expand that program further and support hiring almost a dozen youth from Joint Base Lewis-McChord to join the Community Crews. Donations from Washington's National Park Fund (WNPF) and "Keep America Beautiful," a program supported by Glad®, will fund much-needed upgrades to the volunteer campground at Longmire. And through an incredibly generous estate gift from the Raymond and Eleanor Wilson Charitable Trust, we're in the third year of a five-year, $50,000-per-year commitment by WNPF. This year's installment will pay for housing, reimbursements, uniforms, vehicles, and supplies for volunteer interpreters, educators, emergency roadside assistants, campground hosts, citizen scientists, restoration and trail crews, geologists, wilderness patrol, nordic patrol, and climbing rangers. We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of those who support these programs through their donations.

As with every park program, the volunteer program addresses the effects of sequestration by being as creative and efficient as we can with the resources we're given. We are glad to be a means for members of the public to work in partnership for the preservation of their national parks. This year, that support is more vital than ever.

MOUNT RAINIER ANNOUNCES CAMPING ADVENTURES WITH MY PARENTS PROGRAM

Nationwide grants program is made possible by the National Park Foundation and Unilever as part of the
America’s Best Idea Grants Program

Ashford, WA – June 16 – Mount Rainier National Park today announced receipt of a $10,000 grant from the National Park Foundation in support of the Camping Adventure with My Parents (CAMP) program. The CAMP program, now in its second year, takes families who have never camped before on a two night camping trip to Mount Rainier. The project is part of the National Park Foundation’s America’s Best Idea grants, a nationwide program currently underway in 33 national parks which seeks to connect youth and other underserved audiences to parks.

“The CAMP program opens the door for kids who have never camped to experience nature with their parents,” said Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. “The park rangers make it safe, fun, and a great chance to learn.”

“As stewards of the parks, there is nothing more important than connecting our communities and young people to these treasured places,” said Neil Mulholland, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation.

Mount Rainier National Park recruited families for this opportunity through partnerships with Student Conservation Association, Seattle Parks and Recreation, and Tacoma Metro Parks. The families will learn the basics of setting up a camp site, go on ranger-led hikes, and at night sit around the campfire roasting marshmallows. The park provides participants with transportation to the park, equipment, food, and instruction—all free of charge.

“The CAMP program would not be possible without grant support from the National Park Foundation and the McKibben Merner Family Foundation ,” said Uberuaga.

Inspired by the epic Ken Burns documentary The National Parks: America’s Best Idea , the National Park Foundation , in partnership with Unilever, has awarded America’s Best Idea Grants totaling roughly half a million dollars, to 33 national parks across the country.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PARK FOUNDATION
You are the part-owner of 84 million acres of the world’s most treasured landscapes, ecosystems, and historical sites -- all protected in America’s nearly 400 national parks. Chartered by Congress, the National Park Foundation is the official charity of America’s national parks. We work hand in hand with the National Park Service to help connect you and all Americans to the parks, and to make sure that they are preserved for the generations who will follow. Join us – This is Your Land . www.nationalparks.org

FACEBOOK http://www.facebook.com/nationalpark
TWITTER http://twitter.com/goparks