On March 15-16, Atomic Heritage Foundation (AHF) President Cynthia C. Kelly and AHF staff attended the National Parks Friends Alliance meeting in Washington, DC. This biannual conference, organized by the National Park Foundation, brought together more than 130 people from the National Park Service (NPS) and partner organizations. Participants discussed the 2016 celebration of the National Park Service centennial as well as ways to support the parks, including the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
NPS officials at the Friends meeting emphasized the need for educational programs that reach young and diverse audiences. Park Service director Jonathan B. Jarvis and other NPS officials discussed the importance of handing off park responsibility to millennials and developing more ways for the public to use technology to engage with parks.
Participants stressed that 2016 will be a pivotal year for the National Park System. The national parks recorded a record-breaking 307.2 million visits in 2015, and will likely welcome even more visitors this year. The Friends meeting included updates on the popular “Find Your Park” campaign, which encourages Americans to visit national parks, and the “Every Kid in a Park” initiative, which gives every fourth-grade student in the country free access to national parks during the 2015-2016 school year.
Another important part of the centennial is ensuring sufficient funding for the National Park Service’s operations. President Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget request to Congress includes a $250 million increase in funding for the Park Service, for a total of $3.1 billion. The President’s budget also includes $10.7 million to support new parks, including the Manhattan Project NHP. While this may sound like an enormous amount of money, it pales in comparison next to the roughly $12 billion maintenance backlog NPS currently faces due to funding constraints.
Participants also discussed other measures to fund and improve the national parks. The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources recently approved the National Park Service Centennial Act, which promotes the educational role of the Park Service and creates an endowment for NPS. The full House of Representatives may soon vote on this legislation. Director Jarvis has said, “This legislation gives us an opportunity to modernize our tools and meet the century-old mandate to protect, preserve and share with the American people the diverse and special places in our care.”
Over the past two years, the Park Service has also selected more than 150 “Centennial Challenge” projects that match Congressional appropriations with private sector funds to improve visitors’ experiences at national parks. Programs include involving youth in forest restoration at Bandelier National Monument and Valles Caldera National Preserve (now under National Park Service management) near Los Alamos.
What does this mean for the Manhattan Project NHP? The three park units (Hanford, WA, Los Alamos, NM, and Oak Ridge, TN) can certainly expect more visitors in the years to come. Thanks to the establishment of the park, the B Reactor at Hanford has eliminated age restrictions for tours. Now participants in the “Every Kid in a Park” program and families with children can experience this scientific and engineering landmark.
National park supporters around the country are planning exhibits, recreational activities, programs and much more to celebrate the centennial. A display on the Manhattan Project National Historical Park and eight other national parks in Tennessee will open on April 21 at the Knoxville airport. Stay tuned for updates on other programs related to the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.
AHF continues to develop resources to support the new park, including additional “Ranger in Your Pocket” tours, which park visitors can access on their tablets or smartphones as well as personal computers. The Manhattan Project Veterans Database now features more than 10,000 profiles, and will be a valuable resource for the public including families of Manhattan Project veterans, tourists, students, and scholars.
We very much enjoyed the chance to interact with NPS officials and partner organizations at the Friends Alliance Meeting. Their focus on developing new educational initiatives and on interpreting national parks for the next generation of park visitors was heartening. During the centennial year and beyond, AHF will work with NPS and our partners in Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos to keep the Manhattan Project NHP moving forward.