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FEATURED PARK
Featured Park: Great Basin National Park, Nevada
The state of Nevada is often thought of as an endless desert, but this belies the fact that it is home to more mountain ranges than any other state. Great Basin National Park is a stellar example of the state's rugged, mountainous terrain and natural biodiversity. Protected within the park's boundaries are towering peaks, glacier-studded valleys, fast-running creeks, sparkling alpine lakes, a variety of cave formations, expansive desert habitats, and ancient bristlecone pines (the world's oldest living trees). The inquisitive traveler who takes the time to explore Great Basin National Park will be rewarded with a surprising variety of awe-inspiring landscapes, colorful plants, and interesting wildlife.
In addition to Great Basin's spectacular natural beauty, the park offers a host of cultural and historical resources, including tree carvings left behind by Basque, Peruvian, and Scandinavian sheepherders in the late 19th century, the ruins of an early 20th-century tungsten mining operation, American Indian pictographs, the site of a 13th-century Fremont Indian village, and several historic structures that represent the area's mining, tourism, early park administration, and agricultural past.
Read the National Parks article "A Lost Art" about Great Basin's ancient tree carvings. > >
View the slideshow > >
OUR LATEST REPORT
Center for the State of the Parks: Great Basin National Park
 According to a recent assessment by NPCA's Center for the State of the Parks, Great Basin National Park's natural resources are in "good" condition and cultural resources are in "fair" condition overall. Park Service staff have recently made impressive strides to better protect these resources. For example, staff successfully reintroduced four native fish species back into the park: Bonneville cutthroat trout, mottled sculpin, redside shiner, and speckled dace. Staff also restored the Talus Room and other portions of the park's famous Lehman Cave to better reflect the cave's natural condition; they restored Lehman Flat, an area that had become degraded after years of fire suppression and grazing; they reclaimed 171 acres of abandoned mine lands; and they completed assessments for all of the park's archaeological sites in 2008.
While the park has been successful in better preserving Great Basin's natural and cultural treasures, external and internal threats continue to endanger the park's resources. For example, park staff are concerned that recently proposed coal-fired power plants in the area will degrade the park's air quality, and continued demands on groundwater in the region could affect the park's ecosystems. What's more, a lack of funding and staff, in addition to a dearth of planning and management documents, limits the staff's ability to fully protect and manage park resources.
Learn more about the park and the threats it faces > >
NPCA AT WORK FOR THE PARKS
NPCA Testifies to Climate Change in the Parks
 In early April the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Parks, Forests, and Public Lands conducted a field hearing just outside Joshua Tree National Park entitled "Impacts of Climate Change on America's National Parks." National parks are already showing the effects of climate change, and some research models suggest Joshua Tree National Park will have no living Joshua trees left within a century.
NPCA's California Desert Program Manager Mike Cipra testified, stating, "The greatest threat to the health of our national parks is global climate change. It threatens not only the plants and animals, but also the health and economic viability of many communities that rely on the parks, preserves, and monuments." Cipra called for Congress to provide funding to help wildlife and ecosystems adapt to climate change while also taking steps to slow global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Click here to read Mike's testimony.
Following the field hearing, NPCA led a tour into Joshua Tree National Park, which helped generate substantial media coverage. For more information on this issue, read NPCA's report: "Unnatural Disaster: Global Warming and Our National Parks" and listen to our podcast on climate change in Joshua Tree National Park.
National Parks Conservation Association to Empower Park Visitors to "Do Your Part"
 NPCA is proud to announce a partnership with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters to empower individuals to do their part in reducing the effects of climate change on national parks. Green Mountain received over 100 proposals in a competition to find innovative ways of addressing climate change and selected NPCA in the area of empowering individual action. NPCA will work with the company to encourage individuals to Do Your Part! for Climate Friendly Parks in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Green Mountain will fund outreach and education at dozens of national parks and their local communities and at hundreds of schools to promote this initiative. This project will help reduce dangerous emissions by enabling park visitors to measure their carbon footprint via an on-line carbon calculator and pledge to reduce it. You are encouraged to join this effort by logging on to Do Your Part! for Climate Friendly Parks.
Become a Trustees for the Parks Member!
 When you become a Trustee for the Parks, you join a special group of dedicated members whose annual commitments of $1,000 or more support NPCA's work to ensure that our National Park System can be enjoyed and treasured by our children and grandchildren. Plus, you'll receive exclusive updates specifically designed for our Trustees for the Parks, invitations to special events, and special travel opportunities.
As a token of our appreciation for becoming a Trustee for the Parks, we would be delighted to send you a beautiful coffee-table book titled Our National Parks by renowned photographer David Muench. To join, or for more information, click here.
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