[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 6 (Monday, February 12, 2007)]
[Pages 136-137]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
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 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
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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 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.