Dear Friends:

"Green gold"- big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian feather, and switch grass - sweeps across the gentle hills of the prairie in the vast multicolored Flint Hills of Kansas.

The Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve provided this inspirational natural venue for National Park Trust's (NPT) October Board meeting.

Journeying from California, Idaho, Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, NPT board members enthusiastically embraced the spiritual beauty and moving history of the Preserve. And at a reception hosted by the Kansas Park Trust, we celebrated the dedication and partnership between the National Park Trust, Kansas Park Trust, National Park Service, and The Nature Conservancy that transformed this dream into today's reality.

As the Trust enters its 25th year, our new strategic plan for us -- our supporters and the Board - is to rededicate ourselves to the Trust's mission of acquiring and preserving America's critical parklands so that Everyone will have an American Park Experience.

Accordingly, while we continue to work on our long-term projects including the protection of 13,000 acres of land within the Big Cypress National Preserve, we have added many new projects at Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (Alaska), Point Reyes National Seashore Park (California) and Lassen Volcanic National Park, to name a few. But our mission is not limited to our National Parks.

We also are also working to secure funding for new projects at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary (Minnesota) and the proposed Elder Mill Park (Georgia). And our dedication to protecting the historic homes built by George Washington's family in Charles Town, West Virginia still remains a high funding priority. All of these projects are being significantly advanced thanks to the efforts of our Lands Committee and our new land projects manager, Kit McGinnis (kit@parktrust.org). More details about these projects will be featured in our upcoming 2007 Annual Report.

Looking to the new year, I am pleased to announce that Senator Harry Reid of Nevada will receive the 2008 Bruce F. Vento Award in June. Senator Reid will be recognized for numerous park protection efforts including his pivotal role in protecting the Arctic, his work to establish Great Basin National Park and the Desert Protection Act, and his work to protect Lake Tahoe. He also introduced in 2003 the Yellowstone Protection Act to control snowmobile use in our national parks and has supported the significantly increased 2008 budget for the National Park Service.

We hope that you will join us to celebrate and honor Senator Reid's continued commitment for the preservation and protection of our nation's public lands. Details of the reception will be forthcoming on our website and in our electronic newsletter.

All of our accomplishments would not be possible without your continued loyal support. I look forward to hearing ideas (grace@parktrust.org) on how together we can help assure that Everyone will have an American Park Experience.