|
|
Behind the Scenery “We have to help each other or we would never make it through. Everything is a team effort.” It is tempting to think of national parks as self-sustaining islands of our rugged, natural heritage. But the care and protection of the natural and cultural resources entrusted to the National Park Service require the talents of a wide range of professional staff and volunteers. You may envision a federal or university researcher or an NPS biologist working directly with park natural resources to learn about, restore, and manage them on a daily basis. However, the following articles celebrate a different group: a committed cadre of NPS staff and partners who work “behind the scenery,” providing, in many cases, indirect support of the NPS science and preservation mission. These profiles are neither comprehensive nor inclusive of all who carry out worthwhile and important functions, but represent the collective contributions of the many unsung but essential support staff. Profiled are contracting officers, a computer programmer, the International Affairs Office, a federal attorney, and volunteers who donate their free time to improving national parks through inventory and monitoring data collection and building public awareness about resource stewardship, among others. Many of the activities needed to ensure that park resources thrive can only be accomplished with the help of this focused and knowledgeable staff who operates behind the scenes.
NPSFACT
Volunteers to the National Park Service donated 955,787 hours, valued at $16,429,979, in FY 2004 related to natural resource management projects that ranged from ecological restoration and data gathering to resource monitoring and wildlife management. Natural resource management is the second largest category, behind interpretation, for NPS volunteer-hours.
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
