[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

[[Page 137]]

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.