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VOICE ONE:
Millions of people visit national parks in the United States,especially during summer. I’m Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember. America’s National Park System is our reportthis week on the VOA Special English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
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VOICE ONE:
Last year, two-hundred-seventy-seven-million people visitedAmerica’s national parks. They went to walk, swim, climb, or justspend a few days in the open air. They went to enjoy the beauty andwonders of nature.
Visitors have a wide choice ofnational parks. The United States has almost four-hundred protectedareas. These include parks, monuments, historic places, rivers,trails, seashores and lakeshores. They cover almostthirty-four-million hectares.
VOICE TWO:
America’s first national park was Yellowstone, in the westernstate of Wyoming. It was the first national park in the world.Yellowstone was established in eighteen-seventy-two. But the idea ofprotecting areas from human development was proposed years earlier.American painter George Catlin offered the idea during theeighteen-thirties. Once Yellowstone opened, it became a place wherewild animals and other natural resources could be protected.
The government said the park was for all the people to enjoy,then and in the future. Today three-million people each year visitYellowstone National Park, most of them during summer.
VOICE ONE:
Congress established the National Park service innineteen-sixteen. A businessman from Chicago, Illinois, became thefirst director. He retired in nineteen-twenty-nine. This man,Stephen Mather, was very important to the success of the newbornPark Service.
He added ten more national parks and nine more nationalmonuments. The parks covered more than two times as much land aswhen the Park Service began.
Other major expansions took place in the nineteen-thirties andaround the middle of the twentieth century.
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VOICE TWO:
The National Park Service has two main jobs. One is to protectAmerica’s national parks. The other is to help visitors enjoy them.Some people think these two jobs conflict with each other.
They say some of the problems of the parks are the result of toomany people visiting them. For example, the many vehicles innational parks cause pollution and road damage. And the manyvisitors cause water and waste systems to have to work hard.
VOICE ONE:
Some national parks cost money to enter, but not very much. Andparks that charge entry fees must share the money with parks that donot. That means they cannot keep all the money for things likerepairs and improvements.
For years the Park Service has said it does not have enough moneyto operate at its best. Sometimes visitors protest about conditionsin the parks. For example, they say some roads and places to sleephave not been repaired as needed. Critics of the system say manyparks lack enough employees.
VOICE TWO:
The National Park Service is part of the United States Departmentof the Interior. Last month, Interior Secretary Gale Norton reportedto President Bush that the department has made progress in its work.
Her report says America’s national parks need almostfive-thousand-million dollars worth of repairs and improvements. Itsays the president’s budgets have provided almostthree-thousand-million dollars from last year through next year.
VOICE ONE:
The National Parks ConservationAssociation is a private group formed in nineteen-nineteen to helpprotect the park system. It attacked the report by Secretary Norton.The organization says President Bush has failed to keep his promiseto restore and renew the national parks.
It also denounced what it called an “aggressive push” to replacegovernment employees in the Park Service with private workers.
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VOICE TWO:
Money to support America’s national parks comes from the federalgovernment and visitors. It also comes from businesses andindividuals through the National Park Foundation. Congressestablished this organization in nineteen-sixty-seven. The job ofthe foundation is to gather private support for America’s nationalparks.
In the nation’s capital, for instance, the Target Corporationprovided money to help restore the Washington Monument. Anotherexample is Kodak. That company supports photo competitions atnational parks. And there is much to photograph.
VOICE ONE:
The national park system contains beautiful areas of nature.Visitors also can see American monuments and historic areas likebattlefields. They can take part in open-air sports and otheractivities at the parks.
Now, let us take you to a few of America’s national parks. Webegin in the East, in the state of Massachusetts, at the Cape CodNational Seashore.
This protected area is sixty-four kilometers long. It became partof the national park system in nineteen-sixty-one. Visitors canenjoy a peaceful ocean environment. There are no stores or otherbusinesses. Visitors can study the plants and animals in the area.They can swim at many beaches.
One beach is close to where Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconibuilt radio towers in the early nineteen-hundreds. With thisequipment, Marconi was able to send and receive radio signals acrossthe Atlantic Ocean.
VOICE TWO:
Next we travel all the way down along the East Coast, to Florida.That state is home to the swamps of the Everglades. The EvergladesNational Park covers about six-hundred-thousand hectares. That isabout one-fifth of the total area of wetlands.
Saw grass grows in some of the park. Be careful — it’s verysharp, with teeth just like a saw. And it grows almost four meterstall!
Look around and you also see raised areas, called tree islands.These support many different kinds of trees, including royal palms.
A number of animals live in the Everglades National Park. Some,like deer and fish, also live in many other parks. But this is oneof the places where you can also see alligators and crocodiles.These big, lizard-like creatures often look asleep. But they canmove very suddenly and have many teeth. So better keep an eye onthem!
Florida panthers are also fast. This large, light brown cat huntsother animals. But Florida panthers are endangered. Very few remainin the Everglades. Scientists are working to save them.
VOICE ONE:
From Florida we travel to the Midwest. People from all over theworld visit the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. These hills ofsand line the shores of Lake Michigan, near Chicago.
Lake Michigan is one of North America’s five Great Lakes. Thewinds along the water built some of these dunes in ancient times.Others may be forming right now.
Dunes are created when the winds drop loose sand along the shore.Some take the form of long, narrow hills.
The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make music whenpeople walk on them. Some of these sounds can be heard ten metersaway. Visitors often say that the sand dunes “sing.”
People have fun climbing the dunes. They also like to swim andsail in Lake Michigan. But now, it’s time to shake off this sand andhead to the desert, in the American Southwest.
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VOICE TWO:
Of all the national parks in America, one of the most famous andmost beautiful is a huge hole in the ground. The Grand Canyon is inthe state of Arizona. It extends four-hundred-fifty kilometers alongthe Colorado River.
Visitors can stand on top and look over the edge. They can walkdown into the canyon, or ride a mule. Visitors can also fly over inhelicopters or small airplanes. And they can ride boats in thesometimes fast-moving waters of the Colorado River.
VOICE ONE:
Birdwatchers have about three-hundred kinds to watch for in theGrand Canyon. On the ground are beavers, sheep, elk, lizards,mountain lions, deer and — yes — snakes. So be sure to shake outyour cowboy boots before you put them back on in the morning!
The Grand Canyon is a world in itself. Colorful and silent.Peaceful. American composer Ferde Grofe captured this world. Weleave you now with “Cloud Burst” from Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite.”
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VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by CatyWeaver. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.