Greetings,

In this issue of National Park Explorer, we invite you to join us in New River Gorge for the annual Bridge Day Festival, where fall colors paint the scenery and BASE jumpers leap from dizzying heights. We will also update you on our recent successes protecting the parks, introduce you to a new way to support our efforts through your employer, and share our volunteers' activities on National Public Lands Day. Finally, we have a special announcement for a select few people able to enjoy the parks free of charge on November 11th.

In This Issue
Featured Park: New River Gorge National River
NPCA at Work in the Parks:
  Black Canyon Protected for Future Generations
  NPCA Speaks Up for the Parks
  Working with Congress to Secure Strong Funding
Protect the Parks at Work
Travel with NPCA to the Parks and Preserves of Florida
Veterans Day in the Parks
NPCA Leads Volunteer Efforts in National Parks

Featured Park: New River Gorge National River
Join NPCA for the Bridge Day Festival, October 21st
Established in 1978, the New River Gorge National River has a wealth of recreational opportunities, as well as historic and natural resources to explore. Each year, more than one million visitors come to enjoy whitewater rafting, rock climbing, camping, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, boating, and sightseeing. The Gorge also features a rich mining history, which can be experienced today in visits to the Kaymoor mine site and the Thurmond Historic District, once home to a bustling mining and logging community. 

One of the most popular activities in the park is the annual Bridge Day Festival. Each year hundreds of thousands of people come to walk on the bridge, take in the scenic vistas of the gorge, and watch BASE (Building Antenna Span Earth) jumpers parachute from the bridge. As the second highest bridge in the United States at 876 feet, this makes for a spectacular leap!

This year Bridge Day is Saturday, October 21st. NPCA will be there too. We invite you to join us. Stop by our booth for more information on the New River Gorge and how you can help to protect it for future generations.  Can't make it?  Visit our New River Gorge page to learn more about NPCA's work to protect the park, or contact Erin Haddix St. John at 202-454-3916 or ehaddix@npca.org.

For more information on this year's festival, visit the Bridge Day Festival Guide.

NPCA At Work in the Parks

Black Canyon Protected for Future Generations
In a historic ruling, U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer issued a decision to protect the magnificent natural resources of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in September.

"The decision is a victory for the thousands who visit Colorado's Black Canyon National Park annually, and for all Americans," said Libby Fayad, general counsel for NPCA. "The Black Canyon is a national treasure, and the flow of the Gunnison River is what made the park worthy of the highest level of protection."

This victory represents the culmination of years of work by NPCA and a coalition of national groups, including Trout Unlimited, Environmental Defense, and the Wilderness Society, as well as Colorado-based groups including High Country Citizens' Alliance, Western Colorado Congress, and Western Slope Environmental Resource Council. Thanks to our partners and supporters for making this victory for the parks possible!

Your Support Makes It Possible
Thanks to the support of our members, NPCA fought and won the legal battle to protect the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. NPCA's legal team provides an all-important last resort when governments (federal, state, and local), corporations, and individuals move aggressively to compromise national park values.

Each legal action is crucial to preventing park resources and visitor experiences from being forever harmed. And the success of those actions depends on you. Your commitment. Your financial support. You are NPCA's lifeblood. To enable NPCA to press ahead with pivotal cases and other actions in defense of our parks, please give generously to NPCA today!

NPCA Speaks Up for the Parks
In August and September the Department of the Interior and four other federal agencies held listening sessions on cooperative conservation and environmental partnerships across the country. The agencies invited the public to suggest  how the federal government might do a better job of protecting the natural, cultural, and historical resources in our national parks and other public lands.

NPCA attended many of these sessions to ensure our federal officials heard about the needs of our national parks. For example, Northeast Regional Director Alexander Brash recently spoke at the U.S. Department of Interior Listening Session in Brewer, Maine. Howard Gross, California Desert Sr. Program Manager of the Pacific Regional Office, gave testimony at the listening session in San Bernardino, CA.

Working with Congress to Secure Strong Funding
In response to the presidents' Centennial Challenge, NPCA has been working with Congress to push for a strong FY08 budget request for the national parks. Working with Reps. Mark Souder (R-IN), and Brian Baird (D-WA), and Sens. Craig Thomas (R-WY) and Daniel Akaka (D-HI), NPCA encouraged other Members of Congress to sign a letter urging a strong budget request for our national parks.

Our efforts definitely paid off. Thirty-seven senators and more than 100 Representatives signed the letter, showing strong bipartisan support for the national parks. To find out if your Member of Congress signed the letter, click here. Thank you to all those who took action to encourage your Member of Congress to sign on to these letters!

Protect the Parks at Work

Give at the office! Fall workplace giving campaigns are beginning, so now is a great time to sign up to support NPCA through payroll deduction. Donating through your workplace giving program is easy and cost effective.

NPCA participates in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC #0910) and in other payroll deduction campaigns through Earth Share. Earth Share is an alliance of leading nonprofit conservation organizations working to safeguard public health and the environment. Please look for NPCA and Earth Share in your workplace giving campaign brochure. To learn more about workplace giving or to invite an NPCA representative to participate in your charity fair or kick-off event, click here or contact Jim Thomson at jthomson@npca.org or 1.800.628.7275, extension 215.

Join NPCA on a Journey to the Parks and Preserves of Florida
January 22-28, 2007  
Come explore Everglades National Park, an ecosystem of worldwide importance, as we study the only subtropical preserve in the United States with vast areas of flooded grasslands, cypress swamps, and hundreds of islands. We will also go on a swamp walk through Big Cypress National Preserve and take a glass-bottom board tour of the third-largest coral reef in the world at Biscayne National Park. Join us to learn more about these stunning sites and the issues facing their inhabitants. There will be an many opportunities to view the region's flora and fauna ranging from swamp forests, royal palms, orchids, and coral to a wide range of birds, Florida Manatees, American crocodiles, Florida panthers and more than 200 species of fish.

Book your trip online or call our travel office at 1-800-488-4080 to book your trip or get more details.

Veterans Day in the Parks
Veterans to Visit National Parks Free of Charge on November 11th
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced that this Veterans Day (November 11), and every Veterans Day, U.S. veterans, members of the U.S. armed forces, and their families will be granted free admission to public lands managed by Interior's National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Reclamation and Agriculture's U.S. Forest Service. "The fine men and women of the armed forces, both past and present, have fought to keep all Americans free," said Kempthorne. "Allowing free admission for recreation on our public recreation lands is a small but appropriate way for us to say 'thank you' to these American heroes and their families. My hope is that they experience a day filled with recreational enjoyment."

NPCA Leads Volunteer Efforts in Seven National Parks Across the Country
Last weekend, NPCA teamed up with the National Park Service to celebrate the 13th annual National Public Lands Day, a nationwide volunteer effort to enhance America's public lands. Thanks to the support of outfitter REI, NPCA hosted hands-on volunteer activities in seven national parks across the country. 

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C., drew more than 120 enthusiastic volunteers to pick up trash and remove weeds and invasive species. Volunteers also helped with dike restoration and lotus pond projects. Meanwhile, in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, more than 75 volunteers spent the day in Big Meadows learning to identify invasive species that threaten the high concentration of rare native plants found in the meadow. These volunteers then spent two hours removing invasive species. 

At Valley Forge National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, more than 300 volunteers worked on projects ranging from trail rehabilitation to cannon painting. NPCA members worked alongside volunteers from the Girl Scouts and the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association to spread two truckloads of mulch, beautifying the gardens and grounds around the Welcome Center.

Out West, NPCA hosted volunteers at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.  Participants helped remove an old wooden footbridge on the Grizzly Lake Trail. They also worked on a steep switchback trail, clearing rocks and cutting in side trenches for water runoff in the spring to prevent erosion of the trail. In the Northwest, 66 volunteers at Washington's Mount Rainier National Park helped repair trails, bridges, and culverts. Volunteers were able to get more than 10 miles of trail drained.

NPCA also hosted events in California. At Ocean Beach (part of Golden Gate National Recreations Area) 30 volunteers collected more than 50 bags of garbage and debris. The 110 volunteers at Joshua Tree National Park helped beautify the park by picking up trash at Hidden Valley and Indian Cove as well as monitoring the success of revegetation efforts near park roads where the Park Service has conducted repaving and widening projects over the last few years.

From All the Staff at NPCA,

Thank you for your time and dedication to helping enhance and protect our national parks for present and future generations.

NPCA's park protection work is made possible by the generous support of people like you. An introductory membership is just $15, and includes a subscription to our award-winning National Parks Magazine. Join us Today!

National Park Explorer is a publication of the National Parks Conservation Association. Contact us at TakeAction@npca.org or write to us at 1300 19th Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036.

Visit us online at www.npca.org.