    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2007, Book I)]
    [February 7, 2007]
    [Pages 117-119]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks in Shenandoah National Park in Luray
    February 7, 2007

        Laura and I and the Secretary really appreciate the good folks here at Shenandoah
    National Park for their hospitality and their hard work in making this
    beautiful part of our country accessible to citizens.
        Today I had the honor of spending time talking to a group of
    concerned citizens about our National Park System. We've got about 80
    million acres in our Park System. There's millions and millions of
    visits a year by our citizens to take advantage of and participate in
    the special beauty of our parks. All you got to do is look out here.
        We spent time talking about our understanding that these parks are
    national treasures, that they are fantastic places in which to learn
    things and to get exercise, that our parks are a way to teach our fellow
    citizens about the history of the country. After all, Laura and I live in the White House, which is managed by the
    National Park System. Our parks are important, and the people who work
    in the parks are important.
        I asked Dirk Kempthorne to join my
    administration because I know that he is committed to the National Park
    System. He's a man from the West who has been able to enjoy the beauty
    of the parks in his own home State of Idaho.
        One of the things we talked about is how we can make sure the
    commitment that we all think is necessary to our Park System is really
    honored in the appropriations requests that we make to Congress.
        Our parks will have its 100th anniversary in 2016. And we felt like
    a vital goal for this country would be to prepare those parks, to guard
    the parks, to conserve the parks, to make the parks relevant to the
    American people in honor of the 100th anniversary. And so
    Dirk and I and others

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    in this administration have come up with what we call the National Parks
    Centennial Initiative. It's a bold program that calls upon the
    Government to do its part, as well as our citizens, to become invested
    in a campaign to really enhance the parks.
        The funding starts with a billion-dollar request over the next 10
    years that I've sent up to Congress. It's really to enhance the
    operating missions of our parks. I'm looking forward to working with
    both Republicans and Democrats to get this initiative passed. I think if
    any Member of Congress were to ask a Park Service employee or those who
    know a lot about the parks, our fellow citizens who give of their time
    to make sure our parks are vital, they will find out that this request
    is a really important request.
        Secondly, we're issuing what's called the President's Challenge, and
    that is to--we're asking the private sector to donate up to a billion
    dollars over the next 10 years to help this Park System be vital and
    strong, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our Park System. And as
    they--fellow citizens contribute, whether it be through foundation,
    corporation, or individually, the Federal Government will match those
    contributions. In other words, this is a collaboration of the Federal
    Government and individual programs.
        I've asked Dirk, after today, to go
    around the country and to learn from our fellow citizens and learn from
    the park rangers and learn from the foundations that care about our Park
    System how best to spend this money, how best to honor the centennial
    that we'll be celebrating in 2016. In other words, we really do want
    individuals to feel that they own a piece of this strategy. After all,
    the parks do belong to the people.
        We believe that we've got a fantastic chance to enhance habitats in
    the Park System. Laura, for example, really cares
    about the bird population of the country, and the Park System has a
    fantastic--as do I, by the way, not as much as you do. [Laughter] But
    it's a chance to make sure our Park System enhances bird migratory
    patterns, for example.
        We want to spend time making sure that we enhance educational
    opportunities in our Park System through new technologies. The iPod is
    hip amongst some of the younger citizens here in the country, people we
    want to encourage to come to the parks, so we need to make sure that we
    can combine that technology with educational opportunities, as somebody
    goes walking through our parks. We want to talk about--and we will
    continue to talk about expanding park accessibility through a junior
    ranger program that Laura has been very much
    involved with.
        We're going to hire 3,000 seasonal park rangers, and that's going to
    make the job of the folks who, for example, run the Shenandoah Park much
    easier, and more importantly, make the customer service--in other words,
    the citizen service--richer for somebody who comes and uses our parks.
        We want to upgrade our facilities and historic buildings. We're
    going to add and--ask people in their different Park Systems to become
    recruiters of volunteers so that more and more people get involved with
    this fantastic national resource of ours.
        So, Mr. Secretary, I want to thank you
    very much for the hard work you've done leading up to the budget
    proposal we've made. I want to thank you in advance for the hard work
    you're going to do, to travel our country to get input from our fellow
    citizens. And I thank all the people in our country who care about our
    Park System for your direct involvement and your sincere concerns about
    making sure the Park System is modern and restored and rehabilitated.
        I urge our fellow citizens to use the parks. I urge you to bring
    your families to the parks. I think you'll find that the people who work
    in our Park System are genuinely decent, kind people who want

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    you to enjoy the great beauty of the National Park System.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:10 p.m. in the Harry F. Byrd, Sr.,
    Visitor Center.