Happy Birthday NPS

Today, August 25, 2016 is the 100^th anniversary of the National Park Service.  This is important.  In a time where technology reigns supreme, and development is at an unprecedented (and unsustainable) pace, we all must take the time to use and appreciate our public natural lands…before they’re gone or irreversibly changed.  Some facts:

As per www.NPS.gov, The National Park System is responsible for 412 areas covering more than 84 million acres across all 50 states, Washington D.C., American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Island.  All states you ask?  Where’s the New Jersey National Park?  Simple my simple friend.  The NPS is not just responsible for undisturbed (or minimally disturbed) large swathes of land.  No no.  They also preside over: “monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House.”  Don’t get me wrong, in NJ we’ve got the Delaware Water Gap (National Recreation Area) and the Gateway National Recreation Area which, in NJ, is Sandy Hook up into Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn and much of Staten Island’s Great Kills Park.  But, also there’s the Morristown National Historic Park (Washington slept there, didn’t you know?), and Edison’s home and lab in West Orange as well as the Paterson Great Falls commemorating “America’s first planned industrial city.”  There’s lots to do here.

Still, if you can venture out, I highly recommend it.  Whilst in California earlier this month, my family made it a point to get to Pinnacles National Park, the newest “park” in the system complete with natural caves, long-eared bats, and the occasional mountain lion.  While it was sweltering hot (in the dry desert, who wouldda thought?), the landscape was ridiculous.  Someone pushed up these jagged peaks in the middle of nowhere.   

http://www.studio534photo.com/SanFran2016/index.html#/view/ID600651

Popular with climbers, there was also ample wildlife unique to this terrain that the kids could immediately appreciate.

http://www.studio534photo.com/SanFran2016/index.html#/view/ID593552

And, it was a completely different kind of desert than the Coloradan and Mojave Deserts found in Joshua Tree in southern California, where we were able to find jack rabbits and road runners (meep meep). 

Today, the National Parks are free.  Do yourself a service and go to the website, search for the closest U.S. National Park Service museum, monument, park or site and visit it.  Also, when you next plan your vacation, make it a point to get out and see lands that have been protected due to their uniqueness and awe-inspiring vistas and wildlife.  Teach your children that this is something special.  Take them on a hike.  Encourage them to touch the trees, to touch the dirt, and to avoid the poison ivy.  Marry technology with nature by giving them a camera to capture their moments.  These lands and sites have been set aside for the good of the people; they're ours for a reason.  Hell, you’re already paying for it, it’s yours.  Might as well use it before we lose it.