Parktips March
Parktips is a monthly compilation of newsworthy items and story ideas from the National Park Service.
Role of Communities Recognized in Parkway’s Future
(Mississippi) -- The NPS continuously documents, analyzes, and looks for new tools to manage the Natchez Trace Parkway’s "viewshed"-- the vistas seen from the roadway. On Thursday, March 16th, the parkway will present a Women’s History Month special event based on this year’s theme,"Women: Builders of Communities and Dreams," that addresses the importance of working with communities to protect this viewshed. Laura Rotegard, Superintendent of Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site in Montana, will be presenting the program. She is uniquely qualified to speak about partnering and viewshed issues because of her experience at the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and Virginia. As a community planner, Rotegard worked with communities, decision-makers, and other planners to protect the Blue Ridge Parkway’s scenic viewshed. She also did pioneering work analyzing the "monetary value of views," a subject not previously approached in Applied Economics. Rotegard received the NPS’s "2003 Fran Mainella Outstanding Woman in Park Resources Award" that recognizes exemplary leadership by a woman in addressing environmental issues. NPS contact: Ernie Price, 662-680-4027; Elaine Sevy, 202-208-6843.
A Sisterhood of Spies
(Triangle, Virginia) -- In honor of Women's History Month, Prince William Forest Park, a unit of the National Park System, will present a special program, Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the Office of Strategic Services. On Sunday, March 12th at 2:00 p.m., author Elizabeth McIntosh will answers questions and autograph her book detailing the role of women in America’s first centralized intelligence agency, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). National Park Service rangers from Prince William Forest Park will also give a short presentation on the park history as the first Special Operations training camp in the United States (1942-1945). Sponsored by the Friends of Prince William Forest Park, this program will take place at the Prince William Forest Park visitor center and will conclude with a brief Friends group meeting. The program is free, but there is a $5.00 entrance fee per vehicle to the park. The main entrance to Prince William Forest Park is located on Joplin Road (Route 619), just west of Interstate 95 at Exit 150. For more information about this special program and other events at Prince William Forest Park, please visit our web site at www.nps.gov/prwi or call the visitor center at 703-221-7181.
National Register Web Site Honors Women's History Month
Women: Builders of Communities and Dreams is highlighted in an on-line National Register of Historic Places feature that showcases historic properties listed in the National Register, National Register publications, and National Park Service units commemorating the events and people, the designs and achievements that help illustrate the contribution of women to America's history. Discover legendary country music legend Patsy Cline's Winchester, VA, house; Whitehead and Mantinicus Rock Light Stations in Maine, tended by lightkeeper Abbie Burgess Grant, who achieved heroine status; and the spectacular gardens of Rosedown Plantation, in West Feliciana Parish, LA, designed by amateur 19th-century landscape designer Martha Turnbull. Learn about the role of the first lady of Las Vegas, Helen J. Stewart, in The Old Mormon Fort: Birthplace of Las Vegas, Nevada, a recent Teaching with Historic Places lesson plan. Also explore the achievements of renowned educator, national political leader and founder of the National Council of Negro Women, Mary McLeod Bethune, which are embodied in the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site in Washington, DC.
Web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/feature/wom/index.htm. Contact: Beth Savage, 202-354-2220.
Abolition, Women and Civil Rights for All
(Boston) -- In celebration of Women's History Month, the Beacon Hill Scholars and Boston African American National Historic Site, will present Making Connections: Abolition, Women and Civil Rights for All, March 25, 2:00 p.m., at the Museum of Afro-American History. The program is designed to engage the public in helping to better understand the struggle for Civil Rights in this country. NPS contact: Shean Hennessey, 617-242-5616; Elaine Sevy, 202-208-6843.
African American Heritage is Focus of New Distance Learning Course
The Park Ethnography Program is launching "African American Heritage and Ethnography" a self-paced distance learning course. The course is designed for cultural resource management professionals, historic preservationists, interpreters, anthropologists, archeologists, teachers, educators, and the public who want to learn more about African American cultural heritage, ethnohistory, associated anthropological research, and heritage preservation. It includes content on ethnographic research and heritage preservation as well as African American cultural heritage. The cultural heritage content represents the first of several forthcoming modules on African American heritage. The course may be accessed from the Park Ethnography Program web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/ethnography/ or directly through this Web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/ethnography/aah/aaheritage/index.htm. NPS contacts: Audrey L. Brown, Ph.D, 202-354-2104; Elaine Sevy, 202-208-6843.
Annie Montague Alexander
(California) -- At a time when women could not vote and very few were involved in the world outside the home, Annie Alexander was an intrepid explorer, amateur naturalist, philanthropist, and founder and patron of two natural history museums at the University of California, Berkeley. Along with Louise Kellogg, her partner of forty years, Alexander collected thousands of animal, plant, and fossil specimens throughout western North America, including Petrified Forest National Park in the 1920s. Today at least seventeen taxa are named for Alexander, and several others honor Kellogg, who continued to make field trips after Alexander’s death. Her legacy endures in the fields of zoology and paleontology and also in the lives of women who seek to follow their own star to the fullest degree possible. Contacts: Hallie Larson, 928-524-6228 ext. 274; Elaine Sevy, 202-208-6843.
Crystal Buck – Student Diversity Program Success Story
(Washington, D.C.) -- Crystal Buck started her career with the National Park Service through the student diversity program. She currently serves as a Human Resource Specialist with National Capital Region at the Regional Headquarters building. Buck started this position September 2005. As a Human Resource Specialist, Crystal’s responsibilities include performing staffing duties, advising employees on payroll and benefit issues and processing personnel actions. Crystal is currently involved with the new personnel tracking system and she is very excited about her involvement. The new personnel tracking system is designed to meet current hiring objectives. Crystal said, "I think that once everyone is familiar with the system it will make hiring and reporting processes easier." Crystal was hired as a student employee under the Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) and converted to an appointment under the Student Career Experience Program (SCEP). All previous park positions have been within the National Capital Region over an 8-year span. Assignments included Visitor Use Assistant, with the George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP), specifically at the Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial (1999-2002), Human Resource Assistant at GWMP headquarters (2002-2005). Crystal was promoted to a Human Resource Specialist at GWMP. Crystal was born in Washington, DC. She holds a B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Contact: Toni Braxton, 202-619-7174.
African Burial Ground, Carter Woodson Home Added to Park System
On Monday, February 27, President Bush, using his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, signed a proclamation establishing the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan. The site was re-discovered in 1991 when construction began on a federal office building. Building planners were aware that the site once held a cemetery, but assumed there would be no vestige of the past still to be found. Instead, 20 feet below the surface, lay the remains of free and enslaved Africans. In October 2003, the remains of 419 were re-interred. The African Burial Ground is part of an original, 7-acre final resting place for an estimated 15,000 people, making it the largest and oldest African cemetery excavated in North America. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2003. In April 2005, Rodney Leon was chosen to design the memorial. In addition to the new monument, the Carter G. Woodson National Historic Site was also added to the National Park System this month bringing the nationwide total of parks to 390. Established by Congress in 2003, the site is the home of Dr. Carter G. Woodson who was instrumental in establishing African American history as an academic discipline and is best known for establishing Negro History Week in 1926, now recognized as African American History Month or (Black History Month).
Web site: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060227-6.html.
Prime Time to Experience Alaska
(Alaska) -- March may bring early spring in parts of the country, but in Alaska the lengthening days (we're gaining 5 minutes a day!) and late winter snowpack make it prime time for exploring the winter side of Alaska's parks. The Iditarod Sled Dog Race begins the first weekend in March, with mushers and dog teams going 1,049 miles to Nome -- also the headquarters for Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Cross country skiers and mushers also are out in Denali, using the trails heading out into the park from the headquarters area. Denali has the only working sled dog team in the NPS -- a tradition that stretches back to the establishment of the park in 1917. And, as April approaches, mountaineering season in the Alaska Range and Denali National Park begins. More than 1,200 climbers are expected to try for the summit Mount McKinley, America's tallest peak, before the season winds down in July. Contact: John Quinley, 907- 644-3512.
Podcasts Being Tested; Cross-Country Ski Page Launched
(Montana) -- Glacier National Park officials announced that two features have been added to Glacier’s web site: Podcasts and a newly launched cross country ski page. The public will play a valuable role in shaping the success and direction of these enhancements. There are four test Podcast files currently available online. Podcasts are audio and video files that can be downloaded from a Web site and uploaded to an MP3 player with video capability such as an iPod. With this technology, users can now take part of the Glacier Web site with them, away from a computer. Visitors without these players can still access and view these files using home computers. Glacier staff encourages feedback from users who can provide comments via a link on the Podcast test page. Based on visitor comments, the content and frequency of Podcasts will be determined. Glacier’s new cross-country ski page is the first page on Glacier’s site to offer a new feature allowing people to share their own experiences and impressions of the ski routes. Using a map-based interface, website visitors can view maps and detailed information on the most popular ski routes in the park. Information from park staff and fellow visitors will be included. These public comments are achieved through a "submit" feature on the trail page. When the "submit trail report" button is clicked, it opens a new window where visitors can submit their trail comments for inclusion on the trail information page. The Podcasts test page is available online now at: http://www.nps.gov/glac/podcasts/podcasts.htm. The cross country ski page is available at: http://www.nps.gov/applications/glac/ski/xcski.htm. NPS contacts: Melissa Wilson, 406-888-7895; Bill Hayden, 406-888-7927.
Lincoln Lesson Plan
To celebrate Presidents Day, the National Park Service's Teaching with Historic Places program posted its latest online lesson plan: Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial: Forging Greatness During Lincoln's Youth. Through these lessons, students meet the people and learn of events that influenced the development of Abraham Lincoln's character and personality as a youth on the Indiana frontier. This is the 126th TwHP lesson plan in the series.
Web site: http://www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/126libo.
Caverns to Host "Stars in the Parks"
(New Mexico) -- Carlsbad Caverns National Park, in partnership with the National Public Observatory’s "Stars in the Parks" program, will host an evening of stargazing on Saturday, March 18. John Gilkison, president of the NPO, will provide a tour of the night sky at 7:00 p.m. Afterward, a telescope will be available to view planets, nebulae, open clusters and galaxies. The park is perfect for viewing the wonders of the night sky due to its location away from the lights of the local communities. Long ignored as one of Carlsbad Caverns’ resources, the dark skies recently gained public attention when the park held its first annual overnight astronomy event in conjunction with its annual Bat Flight Breakfast. On Saturday night, the NPO will provide an opportunity for visitors to see for themselves what is visible in the night skies of southeastern New Mexico and just what an extraordinary resource this truly is. NPS Contact: Bridget Litten, 505.785.3024; Elaine Sevy, 202-208-6843.
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