Dear Reader,
Can you imagine ...
Campgrounds and visitor centers closed when visitors arrive?
School groups turned away for lack of rangers?
Not enough law enforcement rangers to prevent illegal drugs from being grown and sold on national park land?
Unfortunately, we may not have to imagine it, because it could happen soon in many of our national parks.
NPCA's recent Made in Americareport makes it clear that our parks are paying the price for years of neglect and underfunding.
If our park system is allowed to fail, we stand to lose so much.
Think of an unprotected archaeological spot destroyed by looters.
Think of a critical historical site paved over for a new casino or superstore.
Think of future generations never getting to see a live pronghorn, grizzly bear, or wolf because they've been driven to extinction.
If these possibilities trouble you, then I hope you'll help today with a generous, tax-deductible donation to support NPCA's comprehensive, far-reaching work to protect the parks.
National parks receive only 82 cents of every dollar they need to operate effectively.
With pollution, climate change, and the spread of invasive species threatening some of our most spectacular land and water . . . with the very integrity of our national-park experience in peril . . . the support of friends like you becomes all the more critical to our long-term success.
In today's political climate, we can no longer rely on lawmakers in Washington, DC, for our only source of support. If we're going to safeguard America's parks for future generations,we need to be part of the solution.
With your help today, NPCA can make significant progress. Here are some of the ways we will put your gift to work in the months ahead . . .
Make the Case for National Park Investments
As Washington policymakers continue to hammer out ways to reduce our national deficit, NPCA will be there to make the case that healthy national parks are profoundly important and pay real dividends far beyond their miniscule share - just 1/13 of 1 percent - of the federal budget.
Safeguard the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)
NPCA will be working with Members on both sides of the aisle to permanently fund the LWCF at its fully authorized level - protecting it from year-in, year-out budget battles and ensuring a sustained pool of resources for defending and improving our national parks.
Fend off Attacks on the Antiquities Act
NPCA will continue working with Congressional partners in both parties to protect this landmark law from attack. At the same time, we will encourage President Obama to consider other places worthy of protection for his future use of the Antiquities Act.
The challenges we face are formidable, but no organization is better equipped to meet them than NPCA.
This past year alone, with the help of friends like you, we were able to:
- Celebrate victory when Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to continue the ban on new uranium mining claims on more than one million acres of public lands surrounding Grand Canyon National Park;
- Block a Walmart superstore on a privately owned portion of the Civil War Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia;
- Spearhead the transfer of a prominent 49-acre bluff to Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas; and,
- Support the start of the restoration of native salmon runs in Olympic National Park's Elwha River.
That's why I hope you'll give as generously as you can to NPCA's 2012 park protection efforts today.
Sincerely,
Thomas C. Kiernan
President
Photo: Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, © Pdamai/Dreamstime.com
This message was sent by the National Parks Conservation Association.
E-mail us at TakeAction@npca.org, write to us at 777 6th Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20001, or call us at 800.NAT.PARK (800.628.7275).
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