It may seem like National Parks, Monuments and Historic sites never change, when in fact there are several exciting opportunities to protect new treasures! We've been asked by our partners at National Parks Conservation Association to create designs for several special places that could become our next national park sites. If you're looking for a landmark to illustrate that doesn't have any other designs yet, here's your chance:
The Castle Mountain National Monument would protect some of the finest Joshua tree, pinon pine, and juniper forests in the California desert. This spectacular area also encompasses a native desert grassland with a distinctive variety of plants, including many rare species. The stunning vistas of California and Nevada desert mountain ranges include Nevada’s Spirit Mountain, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and revered by numerous southwestern Native American tribes.
The Castle Mountains also offer unparalleled opportunities to study wildlife movements between varied ecological habitats. Golden eagle, Swainson’s hawks, and prairie falcons soar above the area’s rocky peaks. Desert bighorn sheep, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, jack rabbits, desert woodrats, and a variety of mice make their homes in remote canyons and on steep slopes. •
The national park site has not yet been established, but there is Congressional support as well as a call to President Obama to designate Castle Mountains National Monument. More information can be found here.
The events around Stonewall in 1969 have come to symbolize the birthplace of the modern lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights movement.
While the series of events between June 28 and July 3, 1969, were not the beginning of the LGBT civil rights struggle, they marked a major change, as LGBT people began to demand their rights vocally and assertively. The events have had a demonstrable effect on the lives of millions of Americans, and American society in general.
Our national parks belong to all of us – a fact that is particularly important as we look towards the Park Service’s centennial in 2016 and its next 100 years. As America’s storyteller, it is commendable and appropriate for the National Park Service to incorporate the history and significant events of our entire diverse population. More information can be found here.
Within the wilderness of the Maine Woods lives an array of wildlife as unique as the Canada lynx and wood turtle, and as grand as the moose and black bear.
In addition to providing a safe and natural habitat to a variety of species (including endangered Atlantic salmon and Bicknell’s thrush), the woods contain miles upon miles of rivers, streams, and wetlands, as well as the headwaters of five major rivers—the Allagash, Aroostook, Kennebec, Penobscot, and St. John.
The towering trees create a peaceful sanctuary full of gorgeous sights and exciting wildlife at every turn. The landscape of striking green is paired with cascading waterfalls and rising mountains to create a view that inspired Theodore Roosevelt and Henry David Thoreau.
As the last remaining portion of the North Woods—which originally stretched from Minnesota to Maine—the Maine Woods protects the unique ecosystem of a great old-growth forest, accented throughout with clear waters, spectacular wildlife, and a rich cultural history. More information can be found here.
The Sewall-Belmont House & Museum, located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, was the home and headquarters for women’s suffragist, human rights activist, and founder of the National Woman’s Party Alice Paul. It’s where Ms. Paul worked tirelessly towards equality of all women and led the women’s suffrage campaign.
The Sewall-Belmont archival collection that documents the work of the National Woman’s Party is one of the finest, most complete collections of the suffrage and equal rights movements in our Nation. The Florence Bayard Hilles Research Library that houses the archival collection was the first feminist library in the nation and is sought out as a repository for primary documents by many noted scholars, academics, and students.
Women’s history is woefully underrepresented in the National Park System with less than a dozen of our 407 national parks dedicated to these incredible stories.
The Sewall-Belmont House has stood strong on Capitol Hill for more than two hundred years where early occupants of the house participated in the formulation of Congress, witnessed the construction of the US Capitol, and the Supreme Court. In 1929, the National Woman’s Party purchased the house, and it soon evolved into a center for feminist education and social change.
For more than sixty years, the trail-blazing National Woman’s Party utilized the strategic location of the house to lobby for women’s political, social, and economic equality. Today, visitors from across the United States and many other countries tour the house and explore the collection for inspiration and to learn about how American women influenced social change.
The national park site has not yet been established, but there is strong Congressional support.
