Dear Friends,
We, the Board and staff at NPT, are
excited to share with you our new
vision: Everyone will have an
American Park Experience.
So,
in addition to our land projects in
Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida,
Minnesota, and West Virginia, we also
are working to increase park attendance
and outdoor recreation experiences for
all ages, especially our youth.
Did you know that
attendance at America’s parks and
forests has declined steadily each year
since the late 1980s? Why has this
happened?
As reported in
U.S News and World Report and in a
recent study published in Proceedings
of the National Academies of Sciences,
‘videophilia’ or sedentary
electronic-based activity is largely to
blame. According to Dr. Marc Siegel of
New York University School of Medicine,
“national parks and being outside are
symbolic of a healthier lifestyle than
where America seems to be going these
days.”
Furthermore, outdoor
recreation in our parks not only results
in a healthier lifestyle, it also
teaches our youth about the importance
of protecting our natural treasures.
There is concern that the downward trend
in park attendance may lead to a society
that is less committed to conservation.
“People must be exposed to natural areas
as children if they are to care about
them as adults . . . to create the most
environmentally responsible behavior”.
Land conservation,
park attendance, and good health all go
hand in hand. According to Dr. Howard
Frumkin at the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention and Richard Louv,
author of Last Child in the Woods:
Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit
Disorder and chairman of the
Children & Nature Network, “we need a
vision of healthy, wholesome places, a
vision that extends from densely settled
cities to remote rural spreads, from the
present to the future, from the most
fortunate among us to the least
fortunate, from the youngest child to
the oldest adult. Conservation of land
is central to this vision.”
Many of NPT’s
land protection projects incorporate
programs that will bring our youth
outdoors, allowing them to have their own
unique American park experience.
However, we need your involvement and
support if we are to succeed in
protecting our precious parklands for
our children and their children.
As we are renewed by the arrival of
spring, I hope that today you
will make plans to visit a national,
state, or regional park. As so
succinctly stated by Frumkin and Louv,
“such places will promote our health,
enhance our well-being, nourish our
spirits, and steward the beauty and
resources of the natural world.”
Please contact me with your ideas or if
you would like to learn more about how
you can help.
Warmest regards,
Grace Lee
grace@parktrust.org
or
301-279-7275
