UNESCO World Heritage list in the US

 You don't need to travel to Europe or South America to visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are multiple sites within an easy drive of Rutgers. And there are even more all throughout the US (28, to be precise), with the National Park Service and the Department of Interior maintaining a list of future candidate sites to list. Here is a list/map of the US sites.

What should be added? What is a site that is significant to the entire world's population?

National Parks jobs on hold

Before you plan a summer vacation in one of our National Parks, you might want to be sure that they will be staffed up. Among the flurry of Federal news there is a temporary pause in hiring of seasonal staff in the parks. Maybe it will be resolved quickly, or maybe it will be a lingering issue. Seems like something worth watching while making summer plans.

Land and Water Conservation Fund

The Land and Water Conservation Fund is under threat, which means that some of the more important natural lands in the US are also at risk. This would be a good time to read the ASLA policy brief on the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The 2023 update was set to include over $7 million for New Jersey, but the latest Senate proposal cuts the nationwide funding by $100 million. Keep an eye on the policy as it moves forward.

TodayFood reporting National Park news

 You know it is going to be an odd story when TodayFood is reporting on a news story in a National Park.

Exploring the National Parks

As part of the National Park Service guide to its parks, it has curated topic guides to the websites. For a topic, like Civil Rights, they provide a brief overview of the topic and then give the visitor link to a variety of parks where they could learn more about the topic.

 

Sample Topics

Civil Rights

Industry

Literature and poetry 

Presidential sites

Explorers and Exploration

Sample Features

Homes

Grasslands and Prairies

Waterfalls and Gorges 

Monuments, Memorials and Statues

 

Of course, some topics are too general to have a list associated with them. For instance, there is a fabulous guide to Cultural Landscapes without a list. And the guide to Natural Sounds is unexpected and remarkable.

 

Subpar Reviewers

 Amber Share turns horrifically bad one-star reviews of our National Parks into art that she calls, Subpar Parks.The art work is beautiful. And, as sophisticated commentary on attitudes to the parks, the reviews she has chosen are masterful.

Memorials

 

Isolation on the AT

Maybe you remember the story a couple years ago about an artist who moved to Ohio and disconnected from all news and social media. The NY Tims called him "the most ignorant man in America."

Thanks to a robust National Park system, we have a less intentional version. An AP reporter interviewed Appalachian Trail thru-hikers who were startled to discover that the world had been shut down while they were walking in the woods. Already this spring, quite a few intrepid hikers had headed out to make the roughly 6 month trek. After quitting their jobs and disappearing into the woods, they would briefly emerge for food or showers only to be greeted by what must have seemed like unbelievable news about the global public health crisis.

As the pandemic grows, hikers face the difficult decision to postpone their dreams or ignore warnings and forge ahead. Like virtually every other entity in the U.S., the Appalachian Trail Conservancy began issuing COVID-19 safety guidance in March. But social distancing and hand-washing suggestions soon shifted to urging all hikers to leave the trail immediately. Shelters and privies were shut down, and volunteer programs were halted. On Wednesday, the conservancy and 29 other trail-maintaining clubs asked federal officials to close the trail until the end of the month.

While the AT seems sufficiently isolated to be safe, it is also sufficiently isolated to be a dangerous place if you experience a sudden onset of symptoms. Also, many thru-hikers forgo a tent and rely on the shelters at night, so their closure makes things a bit trickier for those who try to ignore the advice. This might be an interesting story to continue to watch over the year as a few people ignore the advice and try to complete the 2,000 mile trip.

Lake shore erosion

It is easy to mistake the Great Lakes as stable and calm - they are just lakes and immune from sea level rise.  But, residents of the Upper Midwest know that are more like incredibly active and dangerous inland seas, home to dramatic storms and fabled shipwrecks, and subject to damaging changes in levels.

The current changes in levels are making a visible impact along the Lake Michigan's shore in Indiana. Over the weekend, the Indianapolis Star published a serious, in-depth look at the issues and problems involved in this complicated environmental change.

First, the 2,000 word feature sets the stage by reminding us that this is a serious force of nature. They focus on a road near the lake that is getting severely undercut:"Lake Michigan is at near record levels,15 inches above this time last year. Its waves, which can top 20 feet during storms, are now chewing away at the earth underneath the road."


Then it talks about several different communities, illustrated with useful photos and videos. For our environmental planning class this is helpful in pointing out how the fractured nature of the jurisdictional landscape.

And it argues that this isn't just a local problem. That shoreline is home to America's newest National Park: Indiana Dunes NP. And that makes it all a problem that belongs to all of us. But the neighbors aren't so happy, since the National Park (and the US Army Corps of Engineers) oppose letting some parts of these communities use intensive built structures to fight back against nature. (I am sure there is more to it, but you get the idea)

If you think lakeshore erosion isn't a serious thing, just watch the waves in this video.

National Park posters

Someone has taken the idea of the 1-start Yelp reviews of National Parks and created fantastic looking Subpar Parks posters.

National Parks and Parklands about 1 person

Someone asked me yesterday if there were many National Parks devoted to one person. Well, I said, there are lots about individual presidents (Adams NHP would count as 2 or 3?) so we should exclude them.

Harriet Tubman
Booker T. Washington
Eleanor Roosevelt
Maggie L Walker
Frederick Law Olmsted
Thomas Edison
Edgar Allen Poe
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Martin Luther King Jr.
Thaddeus Kościuszko
César E. Chávez
John Muir
Eugene O'Neill
Thomas Stone
Jean Lafitte
Frederick Douglass
George Rogers Clark
Clara Barton
Charles Pinckney
Carter G. Woodson *
Carl Sandburg *
Mary McLeod Bethune *

The NPS uses a short "nickname" for parks. All of these use the person's name as the nickname except for the three marked with asterisks. These each add a variation on house to the name, but I don't think it represents a major change in the way that the Park Service treats those sites. Similarity, I don't know why Edgar Allen Poe couldn't be the Edgar Allen Poe House.

Almost none of these are really just about one person. That person represents something else. Olmsted is about landscape architecture and parks and cities. Edison is about the ways that innovation transformed America.
 
Who else represents a truly American Experience? When you include arts, it opens up some interesting conversations. Who should get a single person National Park site?

Frank Lloyd Wright
Ed Orgeron
George Lucas
Elvis
Ernest Hemingway

One star reviews of National Parks

National Parks are amazing. But not everyone on Yelp agrees. The Adventure Journal has collected 20 notable bad reviews of parks.

MLK Jr., NHP

Atlanta is home to the National Historic Park that includes Martin Luther King Jr's Ebeneezer Baptist Church and his burial site. It stands as a powerful symbol of the diversity of issues that he worked on, from labor issues to anti-semitism to civil rights. And, situated in his neighborhood, reminds us of his humanity.

I anticipated seeing the sanctuary, just like in the photos. But I was taken aback by the Fellowship Hall, which looked like so many other basement meeting rooms. While his sermons and writings got featured at the park's museum, I couldn't help but imagine the less historic meetings that the pastor held in the basement with small bible study groups or struggling families.

In his final Christmas sermon, in the pulpit picture above, he famously said:

"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective." 

 The National Park Service's mission is: "The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations." While totally different than Yosemite, this site seems essential to fulfilling that mission.

Organ Pipe Cactus

I have no words.

Ahwahnee Hotel name

The fight over the name of the Ahwahnee Hotel is not over yet.

Use at your own risk?

National Parks have always been a little dangerous. That is part of their appeal. But, while the park rangers are furloughed, some people are still using National Parks. And, explains the Washington Post, for at least three different visitors it has turned deadly.

“A casual cross country skier would want to go to Tower Falls” in Yellowstone, Wenk said. “If they suffer a heart attack — every year you have that — we wouldn’t be able to quickly respond. You might be dramatically delayed. It’s correct, people die in national parks all the time. If you can attribute [the shutdown] to people not being able to get to them for an hour and a half, that’s another story.”

Rough headline

The AP starts the new year with this rough headline:

Garbage, feces take toll on national parks amid shutdown

Island recovery

The coverage of hurricane damage to the islands is still slowly leaking out.

While Puerto Rico's crisis is clearly the largest, Rutgers has developed a relationship with St Croix over the last several years, so is has been particularly tough watching the stories from that island.

Local news has been very hit and miss. The St Croix Source is understandably more focused on recovery (the virtue of the week was gentleness). The VI Daily News has included some interesting updates.  A station in Tampa posted a few photos.

The New York Times has a compelling set of images and stories from the American Virgin Islands that are heartbreaking. They go inside the main hospital on St Thomas and report that it will most likely have to be torn down and rebuilt.

"Reinforcing the sense of despair, St. Croix was hit especially hard by Maria after being spared the worst of Irma’s ferocity. And what had been a staging ground there for relief operations for St. Thomas and St. John was suddenly thrown into a state of emergency."

BTW, over the last month there have been so many different NPS parks and parkland impacted, that they keep their news on a separate website: https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/news/severe-weather-response.htm  The news ranges from Kitty Hawk to De Soto to Buck Island. Although for several properties, the current status is little more than "All employees have been accounted for."

The bobcat economy

According to the Washington Post, one wild bobcat in Yellowstone has been estimated to generate more than $300,000 of economic activity. This does not mean that he could be sold for his pelt, which has a market value of $315. instead, as the article explains, he gets people to spend real money:

"By crunching costs, from filling up a gas tank and guide fees to gear purchases and revenue earned from photo sales, Elbroch and his colleagues found that the Madison River bobcat brings in well over a quarter of a million dollars each year."

What is your cat doing for you?

(BTW, NJ fans will note that they slip in a reference to Island Beach State Park)

NPS 100th hangover

After seeing all of the anniversary stories, I couldn't resist posting a "few" more NPS photos.