President Obama and the first family to visit Yosemite National Park
The National Park Service is turning 100 in August this year and to celebrate the vast beauty of America’s wildlands, the first family will tour Yosemite this weekend.
President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, will be arriving in Atwater, Calif., on Friday evening. The next day, Obama will deliver remarks at Yosemite National Park.
“I want to make sure that the American people are able to enjoy the incredible national parks, the incredible beauty, the mountains, the oceans that have been one of the greatest gifts that we have ever received,” Obama said in a Facebook video last week about the trip. “I want to make sure that the whole world is able to pass on to future generations the God-given beauty of this planet I want to make sure that the whole world is able to pass on to future generations.”
The family’s visit is one of two stops on a summer trip that is focused on America’s outdoors and national heritage. The other stop will be at Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.
During Obama’s presidency, 22 sites have been added to the national parks system under the Antiquities Act, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The new sites not only “helped diversify” the parks system, but also protected sites “that are critical components of the American story but for too long have been under-represented in the system,” according to Eric Bontrager, spokesman for the National Parks Conversation Assn.
“With these designations, our National Park System is more inclusive, and better reflects the diverse, important history of our country and the visitors to our parks,” he said. “But more work remains before our national parks tell the complete American story.”
The organization called for the designation of a park site that recognizes the history of America’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.
More work remains before our national parks tell the complete American story.
— Eric Bontrager, spokesman for the National Parks Conversation Assn.
In May, Obama was preparing to approve a proposal that would make the Stonewall Inn in New York City the first national monument honoring the LGBT community. The inn is the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement.
Earlier this year, Obama declared three sites in Riverside and San Bernardino counties national monuments. The Snow National Monument, Mojave Trails National Monument and Castle Mountains National Monument helped connect protected wilderness in the area that stretches hundreds of miles.
About 443 million people visited national parks, national wildlife refuges, national monuments and other public lands in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Economic Report for Fiscal Year 2015 released Friday.
The department supported $106 billion in recreation, water, conservation and renewable energy investments and more than 860,000 jobs.
“Much of the value of our lands and historic sites cannot be expressed in dollars,” Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement. “Beyond their contributions to clean air, clean water and wildlife habitat, many are priceless treasures that belong to all Americans and help define our cultural heritage for present and future generations.”
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