Citizen Brand

Beauty and the Beast

One of my favorite blogs to keep tabs on is National Parks Traveler.  Kurt and Jeremy frankly do the best job of any blog when it comes to covering their subject matter - our national parks.  If you don't read it, I encourage you to do so.

I took a virtual hike through NPT tonight and found a story that makes it clear that some people in our federal government simply have too much time on their hands.  It seems our intrepid department of Homeland Security thinks that perhaps Osama Bin Laden may be contemplating a move to one of the American national parks.  I jest of course, but what other reason would they have for dreaming up the concept of making all of us show a new federal Real ID in order to enter any of our national parks.

This Real ID would contain all of your personal information readable by bar code such as social security numbers; addresses; phone numbers; and, some day according to Jeremy, things like retinal scans for easy identification.  I love technology, but I also am a big fan of privacy and this concept is a bit on the big brother side of the equation.  Thank goodness there are about 600 organizations lining up against it including the National Association of State Legislatures, the National Governors Association and the National Library Association.

Check my ID when I get on planes, trains and cruise ships but I think we should be able to move freely about the last places in this country that are still the way they were before there was a Stars and Stripes.

Now to end this on a good note, check out this link to a book of Ansel Adams photographs of our national parks.  Glance at a few of his incredible images from our parks and the thought of a federal ID program to enter these incredible spaces seems ludicrous.

Happy National Park Week

Did you know this past week has been National Park Week?  Neither did I until Kurt pointed it out to us.  As he accurately points out, we should not limit ourselves to one week to celebrate our 300 plus incredible public spaces that preserve some of the most beautiful and unique scenery on this earth.  It's the end of a long week and seems like a good time just to sit back and look at some of that scenery.  Put a favorite song on and enjoy the journey.

Redwood National Park - California

Glacier National Park - Montana

Guadalupe Mountains National Park - Texas

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve - Kansas

Cumberland Gap - Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia

Denali National Park - Alaska

Acadia National Park - Maine

  Rocky Mountain National Park - Colorado

Channel Islands National Park - California

Hope you enjoyed the journey. 

Home Movies

Ken Burns is at it again.  The man who turned the historical documentary series into the original must see TV is going to do the same thing for our national parks that he did for the Civil War, Baseball and Jazz.  Kurt over at National Parks Traveler tells us all about it.

This series will have a special twist.  This series produced and directed by Burns and written and produced by Dayton Duncan is looking for help from all of us.  I will just borrow Kurt's description of what they want:

To help them tell this story, they would like to collect home movies of visits to National Parks by families and individuals for possible use in the film. They are looking for home movies from the time period of the 1920s through the 1980s and are most interested in footage of families and tourists in the parks.

    If your home movies are used in The National Parks, you will receive a DVD of the series. If you happen to have footage of the Yosemite firefall and it is included in the series, you will receive the DVD, plus your choice of one other Ken Burns film. If you have home movies you would like to submit, please follow the criteria listed below.
    * Home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.
    * They are most interested in families and tourists in the national parks, not scenery without people.
    * Do not send original footage: VHS or DVD copies only, please. THE MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED.
    * Clearly mark the tape or disc with your name, address, phone number and e-mail (if available), so they can contact you if your footage is selected.
    * Include a brief description, e.g., the Smith family, George and Martha, Bill and Sally, in Grand Canyon, 1955.
    * Send to the address below by August 1, 2007:
    Anne Harrington
    WETA
    2775 S. Quincy Street
    Arlington, VA 22206

My family visited Rocky Mountain National Park almost every year when I was growing up.  I still go every year now.  And I have the proof in some home movies from the 1950's and 1960's.  Look for the Swenson clan when this series debuts in 2009.

    If your home movies are used in The National Parks, you will receive a DVD of the series. If you happen to have footage of the Yosemite firefall and it is included in the series, you will receive the DVD, plus your choice of one other Ken Burns film. If you have home movies you would like to submit, please follow the criteria listed below.
    * Home movies from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.
    * They are most interested in families and tourists in the national parks, not scenery without people.
    * Do not send original footage: VHS or DVD copies only, please. THE MATERIAL WILL NOT BE RETURNED.
    * Clearly mark the tape or disc with your name, address, phone number and e-mail (if available), so they can contact you if your footage is selected.
    * Include a brief description, e.g., the Smith family, George and Martha, Bill and Sally, in Grand Canyon, 1955.
    * Send to the address below by August 1, 2007:
    Anne Harrington
    WETA
    2775 S. Quincy Street
    Arlington, VA 22206

My family visited Rocky Mountain National Park almost every year when I was growing up.  I still go every year now.  And I have the proof in some home movies from the 1950's and 1960's.  Look for the Swenson clan when this series debuts in 2009.

Another voice for our Parks

My desire to help our National Parks pales in comparison to Kurt's.  His National Parks Traveler website is not only the best voice of advocacy for the budget cuts that are putting our Parks in peril, but it is a truly beautiful blog to read and his photographs are worth a look each and every day.

Since it is almost officially summer and time to hit the road and take in some of the beautiful vistas we have to offer, get revved up by going to Jesse's Life.  He did the "Lost in America" thing, quit his job last year and has been on the road ever since traveling the country and seeing the sights.  He visited one of my favorite places on earth earlier this year - Rocky Mountain National Park.  Here is one of his pictures of the Park.

And here is a photo from one of my recent trips to Rocky Mountain.  This is Long's Peak, a mountain I have yet to climb but have known many who have.  It is an imposing edifice that is so massive.  It is the centerpiece of the Park and is easily visible on clear days even from the eastern Plains of Colorado.

Budget cuts can't hurt Long's Peak.  But they can hurt the ability of the Park Service to do the job they need to do to make the visitor experience the best it can be and to protect the Park for generations of visitors to come.

Read Kurt's and Jesse's blog and then consider writing something yourself about what our National Parks mean to you.

National Parks and Blueprints

What could a national park and a blueprint possibly have in common you might ask?

  The common thread is a new print public service campaign from the National Parks Conservation Association and a pro bono effort from Young & Rubicam, Chicago.  It's a great campaign that has blueprints for Yosemite Falls, the Delicate Arch and a Sequoia tree and the payoff line is "It's not like we can make new ones."

The ad campaign is a continuation of the NPCA's overall campaign to educate the public and put pressure on elected officials to recognize the deteriorating conditions of America's national parks.  The group's effort began with the release of a report in 2005 titled "Faded Glory."  If you have visited even one of our national parks, please take time to glance at this report and think about what you can personally do to convince our elected officials of this need.  If you have children, grandchildren or are contemplating having one or the other, think about what we are leaving them as a legacy if we continue to ignore our parks.

So I am renewing my mission launched in April to respectfully request that each of you make some noise about helping America's National Parks get the proper budget support they deserve.

If our elected officials can't get their act together, then we may have to resort to this idea:  corporate sponsorship of our national monuments.  Thanks to Ernie Schenck for the post.

Our first player

Thanks to Andrea for answering my call to the blogosphere to make some noise on behalf of our National Parks.  She also points us to some other great ways to get involved as we approach another Earth Day.

I have confidence in my fellow bloggers.  If you have visited only one National Park in your life, that qualifies you to enter this conversation and write to your members of Congress and tell them to make our Parks a greater priority than they are today.

Help our National Parks

Okay, I'm on a mission now.  I'm asking everyone who reads this blog and has a blog of their own to take one small step for the National Parks in the United States.  Visit the National Parks Conservation Association website and peruse it a bit.  Go to this link for sure - the State of the Parks.  Select a National Park you have visited and check out what the NPCA says about the problems your favorite park is facing and then write about it in your blog.

We need to take the lack of attention to our National Parks personally and light a fire under our elected officials.  To my fellow bloggers in other parts of the world, if you have traveled to the USA and visited any of our Parks, we want and need your support.  If you are facing similar issues with Parks in your country, please tell us.

Let's test the power of the blogosphere and make some noise about an issue that does matter.  If you don't have a blog, put a comment right here on Citizen Brand about what you want to do to help preserve our Parks.

A Walk in the Park

What does it say about your brand if you put the elements which make your brand unique and desirable in jeopardy?  Case in point:  the brand called the United States of America and what is being done by the "brand managers" in Washington to our National Parks.  Matt Stearns tell us in this Sunday piece from the Kansas City Star.

I visit Rocky Mountain National Park almost every summer and the people who staff our National Parks are not doing so because they want to retire fat and happy.  They run our parks because of their passion for nature and their desire to help preserve something that truly makes America special.  They are continually being asked to carry out their mission without any support from the politicians in Washington.  If you care about our National Parks, it is past time to begin to make some noise.