Renovations At Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center Completed
The Appalachian Highlands Science and Learning Center at Purchase Knob in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of twelve in a network of Science and Learning Centers across the national park system, and one of the first five funded by Congress. On May 12, the Center was dedicated after undergoing renovations to facilitate research projects and education opportunities. Former North Carolina State Senator Voit Gilmore and Kathryn McNeil donated 550 acres and their home to the national park. Friends of the Smokies and the Smoky Mountain Association supplemented federal funds to renovate the house to provide accommodations, labs, and classroom space for visiting scientists and school groups.
The Learning Center sits in the national park at 5,000 feet in Haywood County, North Carolina. The Center hosts students ranging from middle through graduate school and researchers working on the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory—an ambitious project to identify every species in the park. Corporate gifts to fund programs at the Center have included funding from the GlaxoSmithKline Foundation and The Burroughs Wellcome Fund. In addition to serving the Smokies, the Center provides support to the Blue Ridge Parkway, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, Appalachian Trail, and Obed Wild and Scenic River.
12 Congressionally Funded Research Learning Centers Natural Resource Challenge
NPCA is working closely with a bipartisan group of Senators and Representatives to pass the National Park Centennial Act. The Act stipulates that twenty percent of the funds deposited into the Centennial Fund shall be used to protect natural resources within the parks. Moneys would be made available from the Centennial Fund for activities such as:
(1) Natural resource inventories
(2)Monitoring efforts including air and water-quality monitoring
(3) Protection of native and endangered species and their habitats
(4) Control of nonnative species
(5) Resource planning
(6) Increase collaboration with scientists
(7) Authorized environmental restoration projects
(8) Use of parks for learning, including visitor education and interpretation
(9) Establishment of partnerships with non-park entities for the purpose of leveraging Federal funds allocated to natural resource protection
If you are excited about increasing opportunities for learning, for partnerships and for science based park resource management, call your Senator and Representative and ask them to support the National Park Centennial Act.
