North Country National Scenic Trail
Thinking about taking a hike this summer? Consider the North Country National Scenic Trail. It offers hundreds of miles of hiking opportunities and dozens of cultural stops, too.
But don't expect to hike it end to end just yet. The North Country Trail is a work in progress. Just over 50 percent of the trail--about 1,800 miles--is ready for hikers. Once complete, it will cover over 4,000 miles, making it the longest continuous hiking trail in the entire United States!
The trail stretches from Lake Sakaakawea in western North Dakota to Crown Point on the western shore of Lake Champlain in New York. The route passes through five northern states in between--Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Thinking about taking a hike this summer? Consider the North Country Nation Scenic Trail. It offers hundreds of miles of hiking opportunities and dozens of cultural stops. too.
But don’t expect to hike it end to end just yet. The North Country Trail is a work in progress. Just over 50 percent of the trail--about 1,800 miles--is ready for hikers. Once complete it will cover over 4,000 miles. When it is finished, it will be the longest continuous hiking trail in the entire United States!
The trail stretches from Lake Sakaakawea in western North Dakota to Crown Point on the western shore of Lake Champlain in New York. The route passes through five northern states in between—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
It passes through private land and many public land units, including national forests, wildlife refuges, state parks, and four national parks: Michigan’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Wisconsin’s St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, Ohio's Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, and New York's Fort Stanwix National Monument.
The North Country Trail was authorized by Congress in 1980 and is one of eight National Scenic Trails in the National Park system. The trail is managed by the National Park Service and the North Country Trail Association. But most of the trail maintenance is done by volunteers, organized by the work of the North Country Trail Association.
So this summer get out there and take a hike! Or just take a walk in the park. Whether you want a remote wilderness adventure, or an amble down a country path, the North Country Scenic Trail offers those options and more.
Watch the Slideshow > >
Gateway National Recreation Area Needs Your Help
 Gateway National Recreation Area, located in New York and New Jersey, is home to public beaches, historic military forts, and New York City's first municipal airport. The park is also a key sanctuary on the migratory flyway where more than 330 bird species have been observed. Unfortunately, chronic under-funding and years of neglect have left this park in disrepair.
To help, NPCA, along with its partners, launched "Envisioning Gateway," an international public design competition and open call for ideas to transform Gateway into an iconic national park. In May, a distinguished jury reviewed nearly 100 designs and selected six finalists. Now NPCA needs your help! Pick the ideas that will transform this site into a world-class park--one that will be both a global model of public space as well as a great regional resource. Click here to vote and offer feedback by September 15!
National Parks Family Day
 NPCA's Pacific Region staff "brought the parks to the people" with the fourth annual National Parks Family Day. Held on June 9 in Fresno, California, Family Day attracted 3,900 people and showcased five area national park sites through interactive displays and hands-on activities for all ages.
Visitors enjoyed ranger talks, musical entertainment, and a giant rock-climbing wall. In addition, 400 lucky attendees received free day passes to nearby Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Congressman Jim Costa (D-CA) attended the event, publicly endorsing the efforts of NPCA and stressing the importance of protecting public lands like our national parks for future generations. To read more about National Parks Family Day 2007, visit www.npca.org/familyday.
Midwest Regional Office Opens
 We are pleased to announce the opening of our Midwest Regional Office in Chicago, Illinois. Lynn McClure, our newest regional director, will advocate for the 43 national park units in nine states: Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota, and Kansas.
NPCA has been working in this region for several years now. In 2005, NPCA and the National Wildlife Federation launched the Great Lakes Coalition, which is aimed at building public support to restore America's greatest freshwater resource. Additionally, our State of the Parks program has just completed a resource assessment of six national park units found in the Great Lakes basin including Sleeping Bear Dunes, Indiana Dunes, Isle Royale, Apostle Islands, Keweenaw, and Pictured Rocks. The report will be released in August and will be an important public education tool for our Midwest office.
NPCA also has a Midwest Advisory Council, led by Adrienne Johns, that will be a terrific asset to this region. The council was instrumental in helping NPCA raise the funds needed to open the new office. Council members have also been contacting key members of Congress to advance our park funding goals.
Our new Midwest Regional Director, Lynn McClure, comes to NPCA with a strong background in public relations, communications, coalition building, and campaign development/execution. Prior to joining NPCA, she established McClure Communications, a public relations firm specializing in public consensus building and issues management for park, environmental, and conservation organizations. One of her current projects focuses on the impact of global warming across four states, work that involves other groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In 2005, Lynn played an instrumental role in reestablishing park-funding support in Illinois. Her role in this campaign was one of garnering public support—working with larger groups to locate their willingness to act in a grassroots way, devising common messaging points and providing proper pressure on the media to get the story out there. From 2001-2004 Lynn worked for the Illinois Association of Park Districts, in Springfield, IL. Lynn has a BA, from the School of Art Institute of Chicago.
Northwest Parks Storm Recovery Update
 NPCA and its partners in the Northwest Storm Recovery Coalition recently held a town meeting to update the public on recent storm damage at Washington's national parks and the state of recovery efforts.
Thanks to the generous support of REI, roughly 70 people turned out on a beautiful Seattle night to hear recovery reports from the Superintendents of Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades National Parks. Although the storms damaged infrastructure such as road and trails, all three parks are open to the public and the Park Service is making quick progress on restoring the parks.
A big thank you to Representatives Norm Dicks (D-WA) and Dave Obey (D-WI) who also attended the event, and provided insight into the Park Service appropriations process.
National Parks Magazine Wins Bronze
 We're proud to announce that National Parks magazine, NPCA's premium membership benefit, won the bronze award for "Most Improved" magazine with a circulation of more than 50,000 readers in the 2007 EXCEL Awards. This annual competition recognizes and rewards the exemplary work of association publishers. More than 1,000 magazines, newsletters, scholarly journals, electronic publications, and websites compete for recognition in editorial quality, design, general excellence, among other categories. Subscribe online today to see our new look for yourself. And after you do, you can check out a sampling of the summer issue online.
Meet Scott, Park Ranger and Park Protector
 Scott from Ohio told us why he loves the national parks, and how that passion led him to work full time for their protection! We thought it was a great story--we hope you’ll enjoy it as well:
My first memories of our precious national parks are from family vacations when I was around 10 to 12 years old. The heart-stopping beauty, sounds of the magnificent animals, and the unspoiled grandeur of our parks has never left me. Those experiences out West combined with camping and fishing trips to more regional state parks in Ohio and Pennsylvania inspired me to devote my life to protecting the last remaining unspoiled areas of our country. I have been a park ranger working all over the United States for about 6 years now. I was just working at Biscayne National Park, and now I am working in Grand Canyon this summer!
Scott from Ohio told us why he loves the national parks, and how that passion led him to work full time for their protection! We thought it was a great story, we hope you’ll enjoy it as well:
My first memories of our precious national parks are from family vacations when I was around 10 to 12 years old. The heart-stopping beauty, sounds of the magnificent animals, and the unspoiled grandeur of our parks has never left me. Those experiences out west combined with camping and fishing trips to more regional state parks in Ohio and Pennsylvania inspired me to devote my life to protecting the last remaining unspoiled areas of our country. I have been a park ranger working all over the United States for about 6 years now. I was just working at Biscayne National Park, and now I am working in Grand Canyon this Summer!
I can think of nothing more fulfilling than being a Park Ranger. Educating children, re-inspiring adults, protecting the resources, and sharing my passion are everyday duties in my job. I am thankful everyday that I do what I do. But being a park ranger isn't without sacrifices. For example being away from friends and family, low pay (I've eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch every day for the past 5 years), constant moving, etc. are all part of the job. But those few inconveniences pale in comparison to the rewards and joy I receive from my job. I can only hope that visitors are inspired by my happiness and passion for the environment, and, in turn, look at themselves to see what they can change or improve in their lives that will reduce our impact on nature and help preserve it for future generations.
My entire life, my career, my hobbies and interests, and my passions center around nature and our national parks. It was those childhood vacations that sparked something inside of me that has never left. In fact, that spark has grown into an inferno. My job now is to spark something inside of other visitors that will inspire them to become stewards of our planet. Maybe someday a future park ranger will look back at an interaction with me during one of their childhood vacations, and regard that as their inspiration to become a ranger. That would be the most rewarding thing I could possibly do in my career, and that’s when you know that you are doing a good job as a ranger.
Thanks for sharing your story, Scott!
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