Connecting America through parks: National Park Service Director Fran Mainella seeks to strengthen seamless park network.

Fran Mainella, former president of NRPA, is the first woman to become director of the National Park Service. Appointed by the Bush Administration, Mainella has shown support in preserving natural and cultural resources in the parks and reducing a massive maintenance backlog. She is especially focused on strengthening volunteerism, partnerships and outreach programs. Before joining the U.S. Department of the Interior, Mainella was director of the Division of Recreation and Parks in the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, where she received the much-coveted Gold Medal Award from 1999-2001. Although Mainella's post has her concentrating on the nation's park lands, she believes in a seamless park network, whereby each trail, preserve and playground is interconnected to better serve the American community nationwide.

Parks & Recreation: What do you see as the current state of our nation's park system?

Fran Mainella: I'm really proud that we have continued to have a 96 percent satisfaction level with our great experiences in the national parks. My best asset with all my cultural and national resources is my employees-they do such a great job. We currently have the biggest budget we've ever had, but we have had to devote a substantial amount of funding to law enforcement--in fact, my law enforcement budget has gone up 23 percent since '01. We've been proud of what we've done in law enforcement, what we've done also in fire protection, natural resource challenge and maintenance.

P&R: What about the physical state of our park system?

Mainella: They're in the best probable physical condition that they're ever been, due to the emphasis on things that aren't very exciting--sewage, maintenance backlog (which is about 50 percent sewage), water, water lines, electrical, air conditioning and the things that we've worked on a lot--trails. The only thing is we've gone basically 10 years, since 1994, absorbing salaries. So we'll be working more aggressively with Congress to try to make sure we have the funding that goes with it to support it.

P&R: You mentioned the challenges with the operations in 2005. The news is full of reports about conflicts in the national park system. Do you really just see operations as the major challenge for you in 2005?

Mainella: Nature is always one of our challenges. The hurricanes that came through this year in '04 have caused us some challenges, but thanks to the president and the Congress, they've come forth with supplemental budgets [that] will put over $50 million to help us with restoration. Over this next year through '05, we'll be spending a lot of that money to restore the parks back into their condition. We are in an election year, so some of those comments are not always captured in the whole story, let me put it that way. But we are very proud of what we've been able to do with protection in fires. Even with our hurricanes, we did not lose any employees, we did not lose any visitors, and our emergency procedures are so much better than they were since [Hurricane] Andrew hit in '92.

P&R: Partnerships, is that the big idea for involving all the different tiers of the park system?

Mainella: Exactly, the term I've used is the seamless network of parks. Truly, it doesn't mean that anyone gives up their individuality. It just means that we communicate and partnet more together and make sure that we all are focusing on the parks as a whole. And the rivers and trails program has been part of that seamless network. But, again, NRPA has been an extremely important entity helping to make sure that the transportation bill and others continue to have enhancement monies and also continue to emphasize the importance of trails. National parks have 13,500 miles of trails, and so we're very proud of that linkage and we work with partners all the time.