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Five national parks to receive facelift
Courtesy Glacier National Park
CANTON, Mass. – A new Wild Gardens bog, renovated mountain trails and newly added native plants will help spruce up five of America’s national parks with Save Our Sites grants from the nonprofit charity, Tourism Cares. Announced on May 28, the grants were chosen by a voting round this spring where travelers could vote for destinations they wanted to preserve and enhance.
The five grantees are Glacier National Park in Montana, Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, Acadia National Park in Maine and Joshua Tree National Park in California.
The Save Our Sites program was developed by Tourism Cares to help preserve and enhance beloved historic, national and cultural attractions for future generations through periodic voting rounds. This is the second year of the worldwide initiative, which allows the public to vote for their favorite destination once per day for two months, as well as donate funds to the grants.
Mountain trails will receive the maintenance they need after record snowfalls, avalanches, floods and forest fires at the Glacier National Park. This grant goes to the Trails Forever Funds to upkeep the park’s scenic trails.
The grant for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park will aid the park’s Environmental Education Center to expand programs that already reach 3,000 children a year. The park’s programs teach children to love learning about the outdoors and to care about protecting it.
Keeping out flowing water, re-excavating a basin and replenishing peat moss will be crucial for creating the Wild Gardens bog for the Acadia National Park. This natural ecosystem created with the grants’ funds will attract a variety of wildlife to the area, which will be viewed from a planned boardwalk built over the wetland.
The stories of the brave individuals who tried to scrape a living out of the Mojave Desert will continue to be told with the Save Our Sites grant to the Joshua Tree National Park. The funds will help renovate and protect the homesteaders’ homes and buildings from deteriorating into the desert.
Tourism Cares has delivered up to $2 million to 143 organizations, including dozens of national parks in 42 states and 26 countries. The summer 2010 Save Our Sites voting round will begin in late June.
For more information, visit www.tourismcares.org.
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