Dear Friends,
This has been a significant year for
National Park Trust. With your generous
support, NPT has accomplished much for
the parks. For instance:
After owning and administering Tallgrass
Prairie National Preserve for more than
ten years, NPT transferred the Preserve
to Kansas Park Trust. As the only
private institution in the country
authorized by Congress to own a national
park unit of this nature, NPT is proud
of our leadership role in preserving
this unique and beautiful tallgrass
prairie.
At U.S. Virgin Islands National Park, a
crucial contribution from a concerned
private citizen helped us to purchase an
important black sand beach on St. John
adjacent to the park that protects the
shoreline of a National Marine
Sanctuary. With the signing of transfer
papers, we will soon donate this land to
the National Park Service for permanent
protection.
In Florida, NPT has been working with
state agencies and the people of Florida
to arrange the transfer of state
holdings in Big Cypress National
Preserve in exchange for lands to be
made available to the state education
system. The exchange will protect 12,000
acres in the heart of the Preserve that
have been devastated by swamp buggies,
poachers, and squatters. This complex
negotiation is about to be completed.
In Oklahoma, NPT has provided support
and strategic advice to local groups
striving to save the Lake Atoka Forest.
The forest is part of the Ancient Cross
Timbers Forest ecotone, the largest area
of old-growth forest in the eastern
United States, and is important also as
the traditional land of the Native
American Caddo Nation.
Along the Appalachian Trail, NPT is
helping a Quaker community that owns
more than a thousand acres adjacent to
this national parkland devise unique new
protection approaches while also
providing programs for disadvantaged
children's environmental education.
Nationwide, we worked with others to
halt the efforts of members of Congress
who have been attempting to legislate
the sale of important parklands.
For more than two decades, NPT has been
uncommonly effective in helping to
preserve nationally significant lands.
As the U.S. Government's commitment to
protecting our parklands diminishes,
NPT's commitment and action will
continue to increase. We can do no less.
I would like to thank you for making all
of this possible. As a nonprofit
organization that depends on private
citizens for support, we at NPT know
that none of our many successes would
have been achieved without your help.
Thanks to you, we will continue the
fight to save our national parklands.
Best regards,
Paul
C. Pritchard
National Park Trust (NPT)
(301) 279-7275
Please email me
at
paul@parktrust.org |
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