Bush calls for national parks makeover
Bush calls for national parks makeover By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 25, 6:54 PM ET
WASHINGTON - There's nothing like a big birthday bash on the horizon — even if it's a decade away — to make you want to look your best.
So, President Bush on Friday directed the National Park Service on Friday to set "performance" goals for itself for the next 10 years. The idea is to have as many bragging rights as possible when the park service turns a century old in 2016.
"As havens of enjoyment, recreation, learning and personal renewal, national parks must endure," said Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, while opening a new visitor education center Friday at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana.
To the Park Service, the presidential nudge is tantamount to President Kennedy's call to put a man on the moon.
"This is for us what that was to NASA," Park Service spokesman David Barna said. "At the end of this 100 years, we want things that people will enjoy into the next century. And if you want a good reason to do something, a birthday's a good reason. Everybody wants a birthday party."
Bush asked the Park Service to give him a list of "signature projects and programs" by the end of next May. Those likely would include the agency's efforts to:
_Restore about 30 old, decaying buildings in Ellis Island's South Side Hospital Complex, where nearly 12 million immigrants entered the United States from 1882 until 1954.
_Allow BASE jumping in all national parks and monuments on national holidays.
_Construct a $100 million light rail system to cut traffic around the heavily visited South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, plus "greenways" with biking and walking trails.
Bush said the projects would build on 6,000 park improvements made over the past five years. He requested, and Congress agreed to spend $5 billion-plus for those projects. But his pledge to eliminate a $5 billion annual maintenance backlog remains unfulfilled.