Centennial Philanthropy Funding National Park Improvements

Centennial Philanthropy Funding National Park Improvements

October 2007

 First Lady Laura Bush today 
convened the National Park Foundation's first Leadership Summit on 
Partnership and Philanthropy to benefit national parks at the University 
of Texas at Austin. 
The gathering is intended to advance the Bush administration's solution 
for dealing with the perennial financial problems of maintaining the 58 
U.S. national parks and hundreds of other national monuments, lakeshores, 
battlefields, wild and scenic reivers, trails and historic areas. 
Today, there is an annual $600 million operations shortfall throughout the 
National Park System. The deferred maintenance backlog is now estimated by 
park officials at approximately $8 billion.

Opening the conference this morning, Laura Bush said, "Making sure 
Americans share that sense of responsibility for our national treasures is 
central to the National Park Foundation's mission. 2007 is the 40th 
anniversary of the National Park Foundation, and this Leadership Summit on 
Partnership and Philanthropy is a great way to celebrate this milestone." 
On August 25, 2006, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced 
the Centennial Initiative. He proposed that $100 million dollars of 
Federal funds, for 10 years beginning in Fiscal Year 2008, be leveraged 
with equal private donations to restore the national parks by their 
centennial year - 2016. 
In August 2007, the National Park Service, NPS, announced over 200 
projects that qualified for inclusion in the Initiative’s first year. 
Secretary Kempthorne said, "The driving force behind the creation of our 
National Park System was the sheer will of the American people who set 
aside thousands of acres of wilderness for all to enjoy. And now, as we 
look forward to celebrating our 100th anniversary in 2016, it will be this 
same spirit of giving and public philanthropy that will keep our parks 
thriving for the next century." 
Vin Cipolla, President and CEO of the National Park Foundation said, "The 
Leadership Summit will help raise awareness about the importance of 
private, corporate, and philanthropic support in preserving our parks so 
that our children and their grandchildren may enjoy them for generations 
to come." 
In the face of public criticism, the National Park Service has reversed 
its previously announced plans to increase corporate donations through 
direct solicitations by park officials in return for greater "donor 
recognition" in the form of in-park displays and christening of park 
features - the Nike Trail, for instance, or Coca-Cola Hill. The reversal 
was announced in May 2006 after many critical comments were received.

Instead, the Park Service will allow corporate advertising featuring a 
tie-in to donation to park causes but would forbid corporate use of the 
NPS arrowhead symbol or the agency uniform. Donor plaques or other 
"non-intrusive displays" will be allowed, as will web and video links from 
park websites or kiosks to those of corporate donors. 
But critics say the Centennial Initiative may actually worsen the growing 
backlog of deferred maintenance and skew priorities toward questionable 
projects pushed by donors. 
Few if any of the projects selected in the first round of Centennial 
projects are on the park service maintenance backlog list, according to 
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national 
association of workers in natural resources agencies. 

Donor influence may lead to selection of questionable projects, says PEER 
Board member Frank Buono, a former NPS manager. "Waste water treatment 
plants are not sexy sells for recruiting prestige-minded private partners 
but our park system cannot continue to ignore sewage and its other 
housekeeping needs," he said. "Subsisting on low hanging fruit is not a 
sustainable diet." 
Many U.S. national parks need basic maintenance and restoration, according 
to the National Park Service, which says, "Park resources have been 
degraded through human activities before and after designation as a park 
unit by Congress. Many lands were logged, grazed or mined, leaving a 
legacy of weedy vegetation and eroded soils." 
"Some park management, such as fire exclusion and emphasis on large 
mammals to enhance visitor experience, have lead to imbalances in park 
resources," the NPS says. "Park resources also experience continuous 
threats from alien species, pollution, and climate change." 
The private partnership nature of the Centennial Initiative also raises 
the danger that special interests can demand customized projects that do 
not serve park needs in return for their donations. 
PEER cites a proposed bike trail at Big Bend that will be designed to 
resemble a racecourse, to maximize thrill, precluding other users. Big 
Bend already has more than 200 miles of existing trails, yet none of the 
existing trails will be used. Even with an International Mountain Biking 
Association "partnership," NPS would still have to produce $60,000 as its 
share of new trail construction, and additional sums for future 
maintenance. 
"The vast majority of the Centennial projects are worthy," Buono added. 
"The danger, however, is that unless priorities are identified free from 
donor involvement the parks could become a partnership pinata." 
At the summit, International Paper, the National Park Foundation and the 
National Recycling Coalition today announced a new pilot program to 
evaluate ways to limit the impact of foodservice products in America's 
national parks. 
The study, funded in part by a donation of up to $1 million by 
International Paper, IP, will start in the summer of 2008 and is aimed at 
moving toward zero waste across the park system by identifying best 
practices in foodservice waste reduction that can be transferred to 
national parks throughout the country.

"At International Paper, we have already celebrated our first centennial 
of environmental stewardship, and now we're looking forward to helping the 
National Park System celebrate theirs," said John Faraci, IP chairman and 
chief executive officer and National Park Foundation board member. "It's 
an exciting opportunity, but one where each of us must be prepared, right 
now, to provide strong support for the challenges the park system will 
face going forward." 
Through an agreement with the National Park Foundation, International 
Paper will produce a customized cup for use by parks, concessionaires and 
others. The cup, International Paper's fully compostable, recyclable 
"ecotainer," will display printed messages that will raise awareness about 
the National Park Centennial in 2016 and educate the public about 
conservation and environmental stewardship. 
International Paper will donate a penny for each commemorative cup sold, 
up to $1 million, back to the National Park Foundation to help fund a 
joint effort between IP, the National Park Foundation and the National 
Recycling Coalition to evaluate foodservice waste management practices and 
educate employees, concessionaires and visitors about ways to reduce waste 
in the parks. 
"Becoming a zero waste society means we each have a role to play, from the 
thoughtful design of a package to simple systems that take the package 
back to its basic element," said Kate Krebs, executive director of the 
National Recycling Coalition. "What better place to demonstrate zero waste 
than our national parks, where packaging can become a rich compost that 
can nurture the flora and fauna of our parks." 

---