U.S. National Parks Receive Record $100 Million Donation
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The official nonprofit organization of the National Park Service is set to receive the largest grant in its history, a $100 million gift that the fundraising group has described as transformative for the nation’s national parks.
The National Park Foundation, created by Congress in the 1960s to support national parks, will receive the gift from the Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. The park foundation described the donation Monday as the largest grant in history to benefit U.S. national parks.
The money will be used to address the needs of the country’s more than 400 national parks, said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.
The foundation hopes to announce the first round of grants from the donation later this year, Shafroth said.
It remains to be seen exactly how the money will be used, but one of the foundation’s priorities is restore coral reefs at Biscayne National Park in Florida, Shafroth said, while another priority is the restoration of Trout Species in Western National ParksThese are part of the foundation’s recent investments.
In addition to funding initiatives to protect fragile ecosystems and species, Shafroth said the money will also be used to create opportunities for young people to visit national parks.
“This grant will allow us to strengthen our efforts to ensure that our national parks are accessible to all, for generations to come,” he said.
The system’s hundreds of units include national parks, memorials, monuments, historic sites and other places. It includes iconic national parks such as Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Yosemite National Park in California, as well as beloved sites like the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. It also includes unspoiled areas that are less accessible to many people, such as Buck Island Reef National Monument in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The National Park Foundation is currently conducting its $1 billion National Parks Campaign to support the parks. Lilly Endowment made this gift to support that effort, said N. Clay Robbins, president and CEO of Lilly Endowment.
“We believe the National Park Foundation’s campaign will enhance programming and foster the future vibrancy of our nation’s wonderful system of parks, monuments and historic sites,” Robbins said.
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