HELP PARK SERVICES PRESERVE NATIONAL TREASURES

The National Park Service in the United States and the National Park services in many other countries are facing enormous challenges that threaten the animal and plant life in the parks they protect. While the good news is that more and more people are enjoying these national treasures, the increase in human activity in and around the parks is causing significant damage to the ecology of these natural sites. In some US western National Parks, for example, more than a dozen mammalian species have disappeared due to human impact, according to the National Park Service.

"Our Nation's Parks were given to us as a gift with the expectation that we would safeguard them for future generations," says Vin Cipolla, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation. But the responsibility to properly maintain the parks and protect the animals and environment within them is often overwhelming for park personnel. In the United States alone, more than 84 million acres are under the control of the United States National Park Service, and this includes 388 National Park sites. Worldwide, there are more than 1,200 National Parks. With so many millions of acres to care for and limited financial resources to meet their goals, the need for volunteers to help preserve these parks is critical and ongoing.

Volunteers are needed, for example, to perform important maintenance and surveying tasks, such as restoring trails, planting trees, documenting wild animal migrations, protecting threatened plant species, assisting visitors, and repairing park structures. When volunteers perform these and other tasks for National Park services, they allow park rangers and other park personnel more opportunities to protect and preserve the natural and cultural heritage of our National Parks.

Approximately 137,000 people contributed 5.2 million volunteer hours to the United States National Park Service in 2005 and saved the organization more than $91 million. The benefits to the environment were priceless.

On your next vacation, you could be a part of the global effort to preserve National Parks. Here's how.

• The American Hiking Society offers hundreds of National Park volunteer vacations across the United States, with opportunities to help construct or rebuild trails, preserve natural resources, and build shelters. Trips range from easy to strenuous and last from one to two weeks.
• The United States National Park Service has a Volunteers-In-Parks program that offers opportunities of varying time periods. The activities available depend on the needs of each National Park, and may include trail maintenance, weed and invasive species control, archaeology site monitoring, assisting visitors, or documenting animal and plant species.
• The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society has opportunities for people of all ages in the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador. Volunteers help to record and track animal and plant life, including species that are endangered or threatened, and monitor protected areas for signs of changes or threats to the park.
• Join the effort to conserve lions, elephants, and other wildlife in some of the Africa's National Parks, including Tsavo-West National Park and Amboseli National Park, both in Kenya. The two- to four-week volunteer vacation opportunities are offered by Working Abroad.
• Conservation Volunteers of Australia offers National Park conservation vacations both in Australia and around the globe. You can choose to stay one week or longer and assist with tasks as varied as doing wildlife surveys, building hiking trails, monitoring baboon activity, or caring for nursery plants.
• British Trust for Conservation Volunteers sponsors conservation vacations in Britain and 23 countries around the world. You can build footpaths in an Icelandic National Park, construct natural fencing on a nature preserve in Estonia, or help conserve a National Park in Portugal. Stay one week or longer, depending on where you choose to volunteer.

National Parks belong to all of us. Your volunteer efforts can help make sure they stay that way.