During his visit, the president also thanked Yosemite National Park Superintendent Don Neubacher, all the rangers and staff for hosting him and his family in Yosemite and praised them for the great job they do at the park.
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President Obama speaks at Yosemite National Park.
He promoted the initiative to allow military personnel and their families into the parks for free and started a new campaign this year that gives every fourth-grader in the nation a free pass to explore national parks.
During a visit to Yosemite national park, Obama said climate change was “no longer a threat, it’s a reality”.
Such accomplishments had their root in his young life. The first time we drove over a hill and suddenly there was a field full of deer. The first time I saw a bear and her cub. “It changes you by being here”.
McClintock, who attended Saturday’s commemoration at Yosemite, faulted Obama and Senate Democrats for refusing to greenlight logging in nearby national forests, which McClintock said had reached a “crisis level” from of overgrowth.
“The parks belong to all of us. Because the beauty of the national park system is it belongs to everybody”.
Yosemite is among the national parks that have looked into efforts to encourage more people from minority groups to visit.
Since Obama took office, 22 sites have been included in the national parks system under the Antiquities Act, according to information from the U.S. Department of the Interior. He called the national parks the envy of the world. “Over the next 100 years, protecting (open) spaces is even more important”.
Before the speech, the president and first lady gathered with schoolchildren from Livingston and San Francisco.
Obama talked with the schoolchildren about the importance of visiting national parks.
Congress allocated $2.85 billion to the national parks this year – short of the $3 billion Obama requested, and far short of what the agency actually needs.
Dressed casually in jeans and short sleeves, Obama and his wife then walked to the Marine One helicopter, which carried the couple and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, east toward the Sierra.
“To me, there is little point in conserving lands or allowing the federal government to acquire even more land if we are not going to take proper care of them”, Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said previous year.
The family outing is reminiscent of one the Obamas made in 2009 to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. “That changes you. You’re not the same after that”, he said. “There’s something sacred about this place”. “He’s very interested in the threat of climate change on public lands and on the planet”. He said the best way to preserve natural treasures like this is to fight climate change. The President and his family took in the tourist spots on the valley floor and we’re told they got to do some hiking in the backcountry, away from it all.
White House officials are encouraging people to get into the park before 8 a.m.
Anyone heading into the mountains sees scores of dead, red pine trees standing out in stark relief to the still-alive green trees that remain. “So I was hoping he addressed that, but he didn’t”, said Wheeler.
McClintock said it’s not possible to declare a federal state of emergency for the dying forest. The study said only 1 percent of respondents identified as African American or black; 1 percent as American Indian or Alaskan native; 1 percent as native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and 11 percent as Asian. Obama has also protected over 260 million acres of land and water, more than any other president.
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Katz was among scores of people who gathered at the former Castle Air Force Base to see the giant Boeing 747 known as Air Force One land shortly before 7 p.m. “This park holds a special place in my heart”, she said.
