National parks: serving the 21st century and beyond ...

Historian John Hope Franklin, Portland (Oregon) Park Director Charles Jordan, I and ten other distinguished Americans comprise the National Park System Advisory Board, a Congressionally chartered group that offers broad policy advice to the Nation on all matters related to parks. The Board's 2001 Report, "Rethinking the National Parks for the 21st Century," offers all of us in the parks and recreation field some profound and relevant thoughts as we begin a new year.

The Report contains seven key recommendations, calling on the National Park Service to:

* "Embrace its mission, as educator, to become a more significant part of America's educational system by providing formal and informal programs for students and learners of all ages inside and outside park boundaries.

* Encourage the study of the American past, developing programs based on current scholarship, linking specific places to the narrative of our history, and encouraging a public exploration and discussion of the American experience.

* Adopt the conservation of biodiversity as a core principle in carrying out its preservation mandate and participate in efforts to protect marine as well as terrestrial resources.

* Advance the principles of sustainability, while first practicing what is preached.

* Actively acknowledge the connections between native cultures and the parks, and assure that no relevant chapter in the American heritage experience remains unopened.

* Encourage collaboration among park and recreation systems at every level -- Federal, regional, state, local -- in order to help build an outdoor recreation network accessible to all Americans.

* Improve the Service's institutional capacity by developing new organizational talents and abilities and a workforce that reflects America's diversity."

While all of the recommendations are also important elements of NRPA's mission, and while we will do all that we can to encourage adoption and implementation of these recommendations, the two that are at the core of our current agenda are the ones concerning sustainability and integrated recreation across all levels of government.

Regional recreation planning, that requires all park and recreation agencies in a given geographic region to work together, is not a new idea. The Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission Port to Congress in 1962 included this as one of its key recommendations, though it was never acted upon. If recreation agencies were to do so, they could provide better service to their users, with greater efficiency, and with fewer intra-recreational conflicts. NRPA has been promoting this idea among agencies across the country, and is planning to begin a national effort to demonstrate the effectiveness of this concept. A preliminary meeting focused on this concept, including local, county, state, and federal recreation agencies was held in early January in Tacoma, Washington, and similar discussions have begun in Atlanta end Philadelphia.

We have also been at work, in cooperation with the National Park Service, on a training and education package to promote sustainable management, maintenance, and operating practices in parks. Such an approach covers recycling and use of recycled materials, energy efficient construction, water conservation, and the reduction or elimination of toxic chemicals of other materials in maintenance and construction.

NRPA and the NPS share a commitment to building a national system of parks and recreation facilities, programs, and services such that every American, regardless of income, will have adequate access to public parks and recreation for their health, for education, for our environment, and for our economy.