CRI听力:100 years of America's National Parks

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATIONAL PARK SERVICE!!!"

These fourth graders from Randle Highlands Elementary school in Southeast Washington are some of the folks excited to celebrate 100 years of the National Park Service.

And as part of the celebrations, they can do something special.

Mike Litterst is a spokesman for the National Park Service,

"We are attempting to create the world's largest living national park service arrowhead. The arrowhead is the distinctive logo of the National Park Service, so we've got 1,000 of our closest friends, we're passing out colored umbrellas, and we're going to arrange them on the grounds of the Washington monument.

And take lots of pictures.

Those pictures - and those taken by famed naturalist photographer Ansel Adams helped fuel a vision first set forth first 100 years ago by President Theodore Roosevelt
Who said

"The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as it does protection."

It's a message repeated by U.S President Barack Obama today.

"As we look ahead, the threat of climate change means that protecting our public lands and waters is more important than ever. Rising temperatures could mean no more glaciers in Glacier National Park. No more Joshua Trees in Joshua Tree National Park. Rising seas could destroy vital ecosystems in the Everglades, even threaten Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty."

The newest park is in Maine,

the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument.

More 87,00 acres, including the East Branch of the Penobscot River.

Visitors will be able to sail, hike, fish, and even snowshoe.

Pat Hierl can't wait to travel to this newest park.

She's part of a group that makes it a mission to visit ALL of the national parks and monuments.

"Now we have to plan trips to Maine!"

43 members of National Park Travelers Club have made it to platinum level - visiting all of the parks and getting inked stamps in their national park service passport books to prove it.

"Cuz the national parks have all the best stuff. I started at Rocky Mountain, when I first started getting vacations, when I got a real job. And i quickly discovered that the National Park Service has really interesting places, place to go and things to do, as opposed to shopping or..."

Some national parks are big - such as the Grand Canyon.

Some national parks are small - such as the Civil War Nurses memorial - just outside my office building. It's a sculpture with a small flower bed.

There's something for everyone, says Glorious Broughton –

Her exercise class meets on the National Mall.

"You can take in a lot of the sights, like the Washington monument. There are so many things that you can see while you are exercising so it fits in quite nicely, I think."

And those very excited fourth graders?

If they go to every kid in a park dot OH-R-GEE - they can get a free pass to visit any national park during the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.