President Obama and his family arrived late Friday at the Yosemite Valley National Park as part of a weekend tour to celebrate the 100 anniversary of the creation of the US national park system. “You’ve got to come here and breathe it in yourself”.
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The passes – available to any fourth-grade student – are part of the “Every kid in a park” promotion to get more families to visit national parks. “That changes you, you’re not the same after that”.
He spoke of seeing nature firsthand, from bears and falcons to deer and bobcats.
In 2015, more than 305 million people visited US national parks, a record, and spent an estimated $16.9 billion in nearby communities, according to the White House.
Obama said his administration, which he noted has helped save 265 million acres of public land – more than any other president – is encouraging more people to visit national parks annually.
Obama said: “We can’t treat it like it’s someone else’s problem, it shouldn’t lead to careless suggestions that we don’t get serious about carbon emissions or that we scrap an worldwide treaty that we spent years putting together to deal with this”.
Kristi Davis, an Oakland resident who works for an environmental nonprofit, said it was special for her to see the nation’s first black president in the first national park she ever went to as an eighth-grader. The allure of this treasure, as with all our national parks, fuels a powerful economic engine for communities surrounding the park.
“Thank you!” the president said.
He described the threat posed by more intense wildfires with climate change, and noted that soon there could be no more glaciers at Glacier National Park, and no more Joshua trees at Joshua Tree National Park. “And let’s never forget how much good we can achieve simply by loving one another”. Obama noted studies that showed spending $1 on park maintenance, renovations and projects, brings in $10.
Some Republicans have criticized Obama for expanding the National Parks Service by designating new monuments and protected lands, even as existing facilities face budget challenges.
The president touted the Every Kind in a Park initiative, launched early previous year to help elementary-school children visit national parks for free in his remarks and earlier, while interacting with a crowd of children. Boots and tents and snowmobiles, the outdoor industry supports 6 million jobs and generates $650 billion in spending every year.
Obama said he wants to look to the next 100 years.
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“He said he’s really anxious to learn about the role of Buffalo Soldiers”, Costa said, adding that the black Civil War-era soldiers were the original park stewards.
