Post on 05-Jul-2020
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WASHINGTON’S NATIONAL PARK FUND
2020-2021
PARK PROJECTSFundraising efforts are underway now through September 2020
Washington’s National Park Fund serves as the primary philanthropic partner to these three parks, raising millions for unfunded projects. The parks present their top priorities to Washington’s National Park Fund and the Fund then invites individuals, foundations and corporations to show their support. Funds raised enables more science and research, improves visitors’ experiences, strengthens volunteer programs and brings more young people into the parks. Each year, more revenue is raised by Washington’s National Park Fund.
Most importantly, more dollars are given to fund important initiatives throughout Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks year after year.
Within this booklet you’ll learn about each parks’ top 8 priorities, in priority order, as well as additional projects that each park would love to pursue given financial support.
Nearly five million people visit Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks each year.
Photo by Parker Tikson
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VISIONParks that are strong and vibrant, youthful and everlasting.
MISSIONRaising private support to deepen the public’s love for, and understanding of, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Olympic National Parks.
Photo by Andy Porter
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 3
MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK
1. Volunteer Program - $50,000
Mount Rainier’s volunteer program recruits more than 2,400 participants each year who donate nearly 70,000 hours to the park – an effort worth an unprecedented $1.8 million – to complete vital projects that would otherwise not happen. Through this immersion, volunteers become advocates for the park and its mission. Funding will help cover the cost of supplies, housing, uniforms and vehicles, as well as interns who help to coordinate the entire effort. Volunteer projects can include backcountry patrol, astronomy and other interpretive programs, geologic research, curatorial and archaeological work, and wildlife surveys.
2. Meadow Rover Volunteer Program - $40,000
The Meadow Rover Volunteer Program continues to be the park’s most popular volunteer activity, drawing in more than 200 volunteers in 2019 who donated nearly 9,000 hours to make close to 200,000 public contacts. Meadow Rovers provide a priceless service to the park by patrolling the subalpine meadows above Paradise and Sunrise to educate visitors about the importance of staying on trails, keeping wildlife wild, and wilderness preparedness and safety. The information shared with visitors helps to minimize damage to the fragile meadow ecosystem while also reducing Search and Rescue incidences. Both metrics continue to improve each year since the inception of the program more than 20 years ago, proving the success and continued need for this program.
Photo by Parker Tikson
Partially Funded
Partially Funded
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3. Emergency Roadside Assistance Volunteers - $16,600
With park visitation on the rise, incidences of visitors
requiring assistance on park roadways continues
to climb. Roadside Assistance Volunteers provide
a critical service to the park by assisting stranded
motorists, helping with traffic control in emergency and
non-emergency situations, as well as assisting rangers
with Search and Rescue incidences when appropriate –
all which frees up first responders so that they can tend
to the most critical of calls. Funding will ensure that this
vital program continues with five volunteers stationed
throughout the park.
4. NPS Academy Program for Underrepresented Youth Interns - $106,600
Aimed at increasing the diversity of National Park
Service staff to better reflect the cultural backgrounds
of visitors, the NPS Academy works to recruit and
train highly skilled interns from underrepresented
communities in preparation for careers in the National
Park Service. Mount Rainier serves a diverse range of
visitors who generally do not find representation among
NPS staff – an issue in public lands across the country.
The NPS Academy is a proactive approach to tackle this
issue. Funding will provide five interns with 12-week
internship positions in the park, as well as housing,
uniform stipends and direct one-on-one support and
mentorship from NPS staff.2020 Spring Dinner and
Auction Fund-a-Need
Featured Project
Partially Funded
Partially Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 5
5. WTA Crew Lead, Latina Outdoors and Volunteer Network Programs - $42,000
Mount Rainier National Park, Washington’s National
Park Fund and Washington Trails Association partner
together year after year. WNPF raises the much needed
support, then awards it to the park so they can hire
skilled trail maintenance leads from WTA. With funding
this year, the park will hire both a WTA volunteer
coordinator and work crew leader. Together, they
will recruit, train and provide leadership to hundreds
of volunteers that participate in trail maintenance.
The park will also be able to expand services to new
volunteers and stewards through Latino Outdoors. WTA
coordinates/oversees the week-long all-girls trail crew
experience for ten Latino Outdoors participants.
6. Bus Subsidies for Local School Field Trips - $10,000
Local teachers report the cost of bus transportation
as the largest barrier preventing them from taking
their students to Mount Rainier National Park. Each
year, transportation subsidies eliminate this obstacle,
allowing for more than 1,000 students in the Puget
Sound and Yakima Valley to visit Mount Rainier
National Park, many for the first time. Through these
field trips, students learn about the geology, ecology
and history of the park and how it connects to their
school curriculum.
Partially Funded
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7. Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration - $25,000
In order to conserve native fish populations and restore
aquatic ecosystems in Mount Rainier National Park,
staff and volunteers work together to implement a
variety of different strategies. These efforts include
the removal of non-native fish, measuring non-native
fish population densities, and amphibian surveys that
monitor the different amphibian species and relative
abundance in lakes. Funding provides trained staff to
oversee volunteers and lead these efforts.
8. Restoring Subalpine Meadows in Paradise - $35,000
Off-trail hiking and historic uses of the upper Paradise
Meadows have left areas disturbed and bare. To restore
one quarter acre of meadow, 40,000 native plants
salvaged from trail improvement projects or grown from
seed will be planted to return the area as habitat for
important meadow fauna and clarify trail boundaries for
visitors. Park staff will work with interns and volunteer
groups to protect and stabilize sites.
Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 7
Create Professional Photography Library Highlighting Diversity of Visitors and Visitor Experiences - $40,000 Mount Rainier’s photo library is inadequate and does not reflect the wide range of age, background and abilities of their visitors. New photos will be taken to begin rebuilding the library to better reflect park visitation in brochures, waysides and general information as part of a larger effort to make all people feel welcome in the park.
Trades Apprentice Program, Masonry - $10,000To protect and preserve Mount Rainier’s historic structures, this project will provide a masonry apprentice to assist the NPS historic masonry crew with repairs on park guard walls, bridges and structures.
Journalism Fellowship - $18,500 A Mount Rainier National Park Journalism Fellow will work with park staff to identify, interview and write material that can be used in a variety of platforms to amplify the stories of the wide variety of people, partners and places that are critical to the park’s operations.
Investigating Microplastic Concentrations in Snow and Water - $18,000 North Cascades National Park recently identified microplastics debris in alpine snowpack, macroinvertebrates and fish at unexpectedly high levels. This project will measure levels at Mount Rainier to determine if the problem is consistent across both parks and to begin identifying possible solutions.
Alpine Mammal Monitoring - $24,000 Areas known as climate refugia provide protection for pika and marmots who are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Data collected while monitoring their habitat since 2007 will be analyzed to evaluate population trends for effective management and planning.
Digitize Park Records Held at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) - $35,000Vital baseline data found in historic records pertaining to the establishment and development of Mount Rainier National Park will be digitized and shared with park management to better manage cultural and natural resources, as well as to make informed management decisions.
Measuring the Vital Signs of Mount Rainier: Elk Monitoring - $35,000Elk are a critical species in Mount Rainier National Park; they play an important and ecological role as architects of plant communities, drivers of ecosystem processes, and sustainers of diverse communities of predators and scavengers. Monitoring will measure and track the presence of elk within the park to identify any issues impacting population trends.
Partially Funded
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Understanding Microplastics in Remote Alpine Environments - $49,400
This project will send park scientists to sample snowpack and lake sediments at four remote alpine sites in order to learn the pathways for how microplastics enter the environment throughout North Cascades National Park. Microplastics are particles smaller than 5mm, originating from the decomposition of larger plastic debris. Studies have indicated that microplastic occurrence is widespread in water, sediment and biota. And North Cascades National Park has identified their presence in alpine snowpack, macroinvertebrates and fish at unexpectedly high levels – levels similar to stormwater runoff in urban environments.
Snowpack analysis will inform the annual microplastics load in snowpack, a suspected primary source of deposition. High alpine lakes are environmental sinks where microplastics may accumulate and be a pathway for trophic uptake.
NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK
1. North Cascades ParkMedic Training - $25,000
Year after year, as visitation increases, rangers are responding to more and more serious life-threatening incidents in areas all over the park. Because of the growing need to provide high quality care quickly, North Cascades National Park developed an Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program to help park visitors and employees during their time of need. These rangers have been able to respond to remote areas and provide life saving care. Because of the initial success of this program, North Cascades National Park is now seeking funds to send three more park rangers to the National Park Service ParkMedic Training.
Photo by Dené Miles
2020 Spring Dinner and
Auction Fund-a-Need
Featured Project
Partially Funded
Partially Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 9
2. Oregon Spotted Frog, RangeExpansion and ConservationOpportunity - $24,400
The Oregon spotted frog (OSF, Rana pretiosa) is an imperiled wetland species that is found in less than 30% of their historic range and are known to breed in less than a dozen locations in the United States.
It is unknown if the Oregon spotted frog occurs in North Cascades National Park Complex. Funding will allow the park to survey areas in the Big and Little Beaver, Hozomeen and Dry Creek watersheds, which contain wetlands that provide suitable habitat. Park field crews will lead volunteers from May to July in 2021 to determine the presence of the Oregon spotted frog, their breeding status and the habitat conditions of the wetlands where they occur. Each survey will consist of water sample collections for environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis, habitat assessment and physical searches for breeding adults and egg masses.
3. Community Resilience throughFood Sustainability and NativePlant Education - $83,200
The Community Resilience through Food Sustainability and Native Plant Education Project is a program that will provide educational outdoor experiences, place-based learning, native plant education, food sustainability and gratitude for what we have for 160 youth participants each year.
Through partnerships between the North Cascades National Park Service Complex, Lummi Nation, Lummi Natural Resources, Lummi Nation School, Sauk-Suiattle Tribe, Darrington School District, the Glacier Peak Institute and 2,000 to 3,500 volunteer hours, youth and volunteer participants and community partners will: rehabilitate one greenhouse on school grounds; construct one greenhouse and multiple garden beds on school and tribal lands; grow and transplant native plants to park and tribal lands; grow and harvest sustainable, healthy food plants; develop and present education programs that meet Washington State standards; place-based learning through multiple field trips to North Cascades National Park Service Complex; develop, plant and install signs for the ethnobotanical garden at the North Cascades Visitor Center in Newhalem.
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4. Bear Rangers: Learning fromBears and Keeping them Wild -$41,000
In an effort to both protect park visitors and the park bear population, North Cascades National Park will station bear rangers in two key areas with high visitation: the Cascade Pass area and the PCT corridor. Both areas see more than 200 people each day in summer, numbers that are increasing each year. And, bears that learn to aggressively seek food from people have to be euthanized. While backcountry visitors coming to ranger stations for permits are informed about bears, most hikers are day users who have not talked to rangers. Bear rangers will be stationed in the field full-time through the summer to educate visitors about bears and bear safety, enforce bear attractant storage and to collect data on human-bear interactions. As a result, the park will learn how many bears are in the area and bear behaviors; to make objective assessments of human-bear interactions and provide real-time guidance for ongoing education; and for proactive, rapid-response management actions to head off problems before they occur.
5. Ranger Wellness Program -$5,500
Hardworking park rangers and scientists need to keep fit. That said, the gateway communities around them have very few options (if any) when it comes to fitness centers. Thankfully, North Cascades National Park recognizes both the need and the benefits of giving employees the opportunity to improve their physical, emotional and psychological health. The only thing lacking is equipment. This priority project will provide the park with supplemental and replacement equipment to fulfill the growing need for maintaining strength and well-being.
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 11
6. Understanding North Cascade’s Rare Carnivores - $10,000
During the last century, the American West lost many of its carnivores, and the impacts of those reduced or extirpated populations can be felt throughout the entire ecosystem. Rare carnivores, such as wolverine, Canada lynx and Cascade red fox, are slowly recovering in the North Cascades, but face uncertainty in a rapidly changing climate. These carnivores occur naturally at low densities in forested and mountain areas of Washington, and are snow-adapted and thus can be particularly sensitive to changing climates. They likely have substantial diet overlap with the more common Pacific marten and the recently reintroduced fisher. NPS is working to collect diet data on these species through fecal DNA analysis to better understand how they coexist and how vulnerable they are due to climate impacts on their prey species. We are doing this using teams of citizen scientists, university students and collaboration with other agency scientists during the summers of 2020-2022.
7. Wildlife Forensics - $3,500
Every year, dead animals are found within the park
complex and park biologists work with the NPS national
veterinarians to determine cause of death. These incidents
allow park biologists access to tissue samples that
provide the first clues toward detecting the emergence or
presence of ecosystem-scale environmental contamination
such as microplastics, PCBs, methyl mercury and lead.
Biologists also occasionally find wildlife scats that suggest
rare species activity, such as wolf presence. Those samples
require DNA meta-barcoding to confirm species identity
and can be used to sequence disease presence. Funding
will support the analysis of the year’s samples, which
ultimately informs park stewardship and management
activities.
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8. Animal Packer (Helper) - $32,500 Funding will provide the use of a seasonal Animal Packer Helper for six months to assist the permanent Packer with parkwide multi-divisional backcountry and front country stock operations.
Rebuild Pyramid Lake Trail - $25,000The Pyramid Lake Trail is severely eroded and lacks sufficient drainage. Funding will support a four-person trail crew, plus supplies and materials, for four weeks to rebuild sections of eroded and unsafe tread located on the first quarter mile of the Pyramid Lake Trail.
Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 13
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK
1. Olympic Fisher Genetic Rescue - $25,000
After successful reintroduction into both the state
and park, approximately 50% of fishers born on the
peninsula can be traced to just three females. Some
models predict that with such genetic losses, the
population may go extinct. However, analysis also
indicates that introducing eight new fishers every 10
years will mitigate that risk. Olympic National Park will
purchase up to 10 additional animals for release in the
park this year to increase genetic diversity and ensure
the species continues.
2020 Spring Dinner and
Auction Fund-a-Need
Featured Project
2. Amphibian eDNA - $15,000
The Lakes amphibian survey will use DNA filtered from
lake water samples to determine which amphibians
are present in up to 75 mountain lakes. This
non-intrusive sampling method is known as “eDNA”.
Olympic National Park is already using this technology
to track the recolonization of the upper Elwha River by
salmon after dam removal and to detect non-native
fish in mountain lakes.2020 Spring Dinner and
Auction Fund-a-Need
Featured Project
Photo by Allison Ganahl
Partially Funded
Partially Funded
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3. Tracking Olympic National Park’s Disappearing Glaciers - $15,000
Working with the NPS, WNPF has played a critical role
in expanding our understanding of glaciers at Olympic
National Park. Support will provide helicopter transport
of scientists to remote field sites. Staff will fly to glaciers
in April, measure snow depth, snow density and place
ablation stakes on each glacier. They will then return in
late fall to determine the amount of snow and ice that
has melted or accumulated that year. Continued funding
will allow the park to determine snow mass balance for
2020 to 2021 and to better understand why glaciers are
declining more rapidly throughout the Olympic Mountains
than in other Pacific Northwest mountain ranges.
4. Adventures in Your Big Backyard - $26,000
Olympic National Park, in partnership with the Boys
and Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula, will offer
engaging recreational adventures in the park for
up to 30 summer camp participants per week from
the clubs’ two facilities in Port Angeles and Sequim.
Each trip will be led by park rangers, with additional
supervision and support provided by club staff. Youth
participants will experience the park, many for the first
time, through hiking, canoeing, kayaking, swimming
and beachcombing, all culminating in a celebratory,
end-of-summer barbecue for participants and their
families. This is a perfect introduction to the wealth
of recreational opportunities available in Olympic
National Park, their big backyard!
Partially Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 15
5. Building Staff Resiliency - $19,000
Park service first responders can’t provide effective
support when they are not well. The COVID-19 pandemic
has added a particularly stressful and dangerous layer to
an already stressful job. Olympic National Park will make
the services of clinical psychologist, Laura McGladery,
available to rangers and provide education and training.
Ms. McGladrey is a leading educator in creating resilience
and developing supportive mental health networks
trained in stress and trauma injury.
6. Middle School Science Program - $14,000
Students from Stevens Middle School in Port Angeles,
WA, will engage in hands-on science—from field data
collection to learning how scientific research and
monitoring are used to manage special places like
Olympic National Park. Stevens’ 7th grade students
will participate in a snow science field trip to Hurricane
Ridge, exploring the effects of climate change on
snowpack and park ecosystems; while 8th grade
student will participate in an Elwha science field trip,
observing and collecting data on the Elwha River.
When they return to the classroom, students will
analyze the data they collected and compare them to
student-collected data from the last 10 years.
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7. Equipping Emergency Response Vehicles - $12,000
Olympic National Park will outfit their Emergency
Response Vehicles to more effectively protect park
resources and the public during emergency incidents.
Funding will provide multiple emergency response
vehicles with radios; buy equipment for responding to
emergencies, such as lights, sirens, signs, etc.; and
ensure emergency vehicles are in compliance with
agency requirements. Vehicles will be outfitted by local
vendors in compliance to agency specifications.
8. Wilderness Volunteer Program - $18,000
The Wilderness and Emergency Services Branch at
Olympic National Park intends to recruit, train and
manage five new full-time seasonal interns and five
to ten new part-time volunteers, in addition to the
eight existing volunteers. Funding will equip these
volunteers and interns with the necessary backcountry
gear, including tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, water
filter, stove, first aid kit and backpack. Additionally, it
will provide all field operating volunteers and interns
with synthetic volunteer uniforms and high-visibility
Gore-Tex rain jackets.
Funded
Partially Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 17
“Conservation from Here” Elk Art Installation - $23,000
Conservation from Here is a traveling, two-part exhibition
with accompanying educational programs that
synthesize art and science. Inspired by President Teddy
Roosevelt, a passionate conservationist, it features
the work of Pacific Northwest artist Joseph Rossano,
whose work is designed to inspire change. Funding
and in-kind donations from the park, WNPF, Discover
Your Northwest and the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center
(PAFAC) will bring Conservation from Here to the park
for the Spring/Summer of 2021, providing extraordinary
park experiences to more than 250,000 visitors.
Olympic Marmot Citizen Science Project - $5,000
The Olympic marmot, a large, ground-dwelling
member of the squirrel family, is found only in alpine
meadows on the Olympic Peninsula. After concerns
about declines in the Olympic marmot population were
confirmed, University of Montana researchers developed
a long-term monitoring program. Using support from
WNPF, the park adapted university protocol and created
a citizen science monitoring program. Each year, this
program recruits 80-100 volunteer scientists and,
following a day of training, sends them out in the field
for three to seven days to collect data on the Olympic
marmot population. The data they collect is used to
assess long term marmot trends.
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ECD (Electronic Control Device) Management for Ranger Protection Division - $7,500The ECD (electronic control device) is an invaluable tool to reduce the risk of injury to the public, assailants and officers involved in any confrontation meeting the threshold for use of force. This project will enhance ranger skill sets and provide needed upgrades and repairs to an aging ECD infrastructure.
Geoscientists-in-Parks Internships - $26,000This project will place two Geoscientists-in-Parks (GIP) interns in the Division of Interpretation, from May to September, at Olympic National Park. The Kalaloch intern will focus on interpreting climate change and its impacts on the coastal ecosystem. The Elwha intern will interpret the ongoing story of the Elwha River restoration project.
Kayaks for Lake Margin Invasive Plant Removal - $14,000Funding for this project will provide a kayak so park staff and their tools can reach isolated populations of invasive, non-native plants around Lakes Ozette, Irely and Crescent and to remove them.
Monitoring Changes to Alpine Plant Communities - $17,500In collaboration with Missouri Botanical Garden and local residents, Olympic National Park will establish alpine plant and temperature monitoring sites and undertake baseline data collection at eight mountain summits. Data will allow the park to understand plant responses to climate change and inform conservation measures.
Rebuilding Swiftwater Rescue - $10,000Funding will provide necessary equipment and training to support Swiftwater Rescue on the park’s extensive and popular rivers.
Funded
2020-2021 PARK PROJECTS 19
1904 3rd Avenue, Suite 400
Seattle, Washington 98101
206-623-2063 | fund@wnpf.org | wnpf.org
Cover photo by Parker Tikson All uncredited photos courtesy of the National Park Service