On March 26, 2007, Deputy Secretary of the Interior, Lynn Scarlett, will host a Listening
Session at Cuyahoga Valley National Park to seek suggestions and ideas on President
Bush’s $3 billion National Park Service (NPS) Centennial Initiative. The session is one in
a series that are being held around the country. The President’s proposal would provide
significant new public and private investment during the next ten years to reinvigorate
and strengthen national parks by the National Park Service’s 100th birthday in 2016.
Participants are being asked to focus their comments on three vital questions:

• Think of your children and grandchildren enjoying national parks in 2016 and beyond. How do you imagine their visit? What are your hopes and expectations?
• What role do you think national parks should play in the lives of Americans and visitors from around the world?
• What are the signature projects and programs that you think should be highlighted for completion over the next 10 years?

The Listening Session will take place from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Happy Days Visitor
Center in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Happy Days Visitor Center is located at 500
W. Streetsboro Road (SR 303), Peninsula, Ohio 44264, one mile west of SR 8. The
format of the Listening Session will be similar to other NPS Open Houses, where
participants will have the opportunity to rotate among three stations, one for each of the
questions, to provide their comments to a facilitator. All comments will be recorded.

Deputy Secretary Scarlett will briefly address the audience at three separate times (5:15,
6:15, and 7:15 p.m.) and will also mingle with the audience at each of the facilitated
stations. Please join us for this unique opportunity to help shape the National Park
Service Centennial Initiative.

For more information or to provide comments on-line, please visit www.nps.gov/2016.
On-line public comments regarding the Centennial Initiative are strongly encouraged and
will be accepted between March 12 and April 2, 2007.

Disrupt IT

Thanks for the notice Laura and the additional info Norm. Here are my comments:

1) My grandchildren will understand the benefit of large wild spaces preserved for future generations -- those spaces that insure clean water and air, that protect and repair the damage wrought by their parents and grandparents and great grandparents. They will look to the National Parks and all conservation efforts as the things that sustain us, that provide vast areas for a deeper richer understanding of the planet on which we live and the stunning biodiversity of which we, as humans, are only one small part.

2) Green Building techniques and the use of technology for access (transit trip planners and interactive maps) and for study should be first and foremost on the agenda of doing business as a park. If this is not already “in place” what in the world would the National Parks – should/would/could be leaders in the field of sustainability – be doing? If not the National Parks, then who will lead us? If the US Green Building Coalition has not provided for embodied energy as part of the LEED formula in the restoration of parks buildings, then the National Parks should set the example. The National Parks should be a place to learn about our natural heritage and our connection to our soil, air and water and the biodiversity that sustains us. The Parks can be a place to learn about the mistakes made and to find the remedies for these ills. The National Parks should be leading the charge to amend climate change. National Parks are not a partisan issue and neither is sustainability. A small carbon footprint is frugal and a good investment of public and private dollars.  Waste not, want not.

3) I think that the children of the future should be able to access the parks, particularly those near urban areas via public transportation. I was appalled when I called our park and was told that no one has ever asked how to get there by bus or bus and bike. This would indicate to me that urban school children whose families do not have cars are not accessing the park except via a costly (to the school) school trip. There is so much that nature can teach them and so much that they can learn while exploring nature with a parent or friend. So particularly where parks are near urban settings we must provide affordable access to low income families. With regard to “no child left behind”,  think of the thousands of children left behind without access to our rich natural outdoor heritage. I have read that there is movement afoot to use transit and block larger parks from automobile traffic to safeguard animal habitats from polluting traffic, but this is different. This is a parent/child foray into learning and the quiet respite of a forest or stream bank. It seems appropriate for parks to reach out a hand to transit systems in the areas to get links up for trip planning to the parks. It would be a public -- public partnership; public via public transit to public parks. Hey! It would be your tax dollars at work – not paving paradise, but getting you there in an affordable environmentally friendly way.

Further conservation easements should be encouraged for property owners whose land surrounds the parks. This investment will pay off for future generations. There is no price too high to conserve undeveloped land. This is crucial for habitat and migratory routes for wildlife -- and I don't mean birds. We live in an increasingly fragmented US. How does a deer get to the other side of the highway? Often he gets there dead and the injury caused to the auto traveler is not negligible either. We need to expand open wild spaces and private public partnerships can improve the connectedness of our land. The Pinhook Swamp is a good example of a restoring wildlife habitat. Let's see more of that. Some conservation areas are not national parks, but they come close in geographic proximity. How can those links be forged with partnerships?

We must stop logging in the National Forests! The ROI just doesn't make sense. No one in their right mind would spend what our government spends to earn what is earned in this economically backward, money losing, habitat losing plan.

Go here to add your comments. I'd love to hear the other good ideas generated for the Parks from you. These are off the top of my head right now, but since they're asking... I couldn't resist. Hope you won't either. The numbers are at their request and in response to their questions.

Thank you Susan for saving me a car trip.  Here are my comments submitted via your link (Go here to add your comments).

1) Imagine you, your children, or future generations enjoying national parks in 2016 and beyond. What are your hopes and expectations?
I hope that every resident of the United States can enjoy a national park without having to drive to it.  I can walk/ride my bike to my national park.  Why shouldn't everyone have that opportunity?

2) What role do you think national parks should play in the lives of Americans and visitors from around the world?
National Parks showcase our local flora, fauna and local history. They also protect our vital natural resources. In the case of the CVNP--our water supply--the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie.

3) What are the signature projects and programs that you think should be highlighted for completion over the next 10 years? Without reservation, the regional greenway connections.  West Creek's greenway trail will allow residents and visitors from Cleveland, Parma, Brooklyn Heights, Indepedence and Seven Hills to access the National Park without having to use fossil fuels to get there.