Celebrating Our National Parks on Earth Day

On Tuesday, April 22nd – Earth Day – I will be celebrating our National Parks and the immeasurable treasures that they bring us: wild, expansive, and historical.

The National Park Service is responsible for many of our nation's most  treasured places. Efforts to restore ecosystems, recover imperiled species, enhance visitor infrastructure, and protect night skies are all important to preserving our parks for the benefit of present and future generations.(https://www.nps.gov/subjects/climatechange/in dex.htm)

From a feminist perspective, the history of women in the National Park  Service is marked by exclusion and inequity. However, women have had increasingly vital roles in the preservation, study, and operation of parks. I urge you to read the referenced article, Breeches and Blouses, which focuses more on uniforms, but recognizes the inequities that women had to endure regarding clothing while performing the same duties as their male counterparts. It is also important to note that our beloved National Parks include a darker and more distressful history:

Part of the history of the National Park Service also includes men, women, and children dispossessed of their homes and property (including Native Americans and Japanese Americans), as well as those excluded from park areas and programs because they were Black. (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/historic-women-of-the-nps.htm)

For so many of us, the National Parks system represents a wealth of beauty in nature and history that cannot be measured by Wallstreet and stock indices. As our family discovered on our tour of National Parks in the Southwest for spring break, beauty is found in the natural world that has been preserved at each park. The expanse of the Grand Canyon does not translate to words or viewed in pictures (although I did include some). The Joshua Tree, many with branches that have seen more years than me, are more spectacular in person. The park boasts rock formations placed as if they were part of an art exhibit. Despite my efforts to include a panoramic (360) view of Zion National Park, it is impossible to portray the magnificence of the canyons that appear in every direction. Mesa Verde holds the history of people who were here long before the colonists and conquistadors. These are nature’s art exhibits!

The worth of these National Parks cannot be calculated in terms of our current monetary system, their value is so much higher than what can be calculated in those terms. As I stand with our National Parks and the people who serve them, I want to share my experience of awe and concern as we see these environments threatened. Earth Day is meant to celebrate things like these incredible wild resources, and I, for one, intend to defend them.

Please continue to reach out to me personally or professionally as we continue our work to make NFBPWC a better organization, because together we are stronger.

Megan Shellman-Rickard
Immediate Past National President
immpastpresident@nfbpwc.org