Courtesy National Park Service PRESERVING BEAUTY—A view of the east side of Conejo Peak in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. A blue-ribbon commission comprising scientists, conservationists, politicians and other community leaders met Aug. 25 and 26 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village to discuss the future role of America's national parks.

The National Parks Second Century Commission met in Westlake because of the city's proximity to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, one of 390 national park sites covering more than 84 million acres in the United States.

The commission is co-chaired by Sen. Howard Baker Jr. (RTenn.) and Sen. J. Bennett Johnston Jr. (D-La..).

It's the first of its kind in a generation to examine the role of the national parks and chart a vision for their future.

The areas include monuments, battlefields, historical parks, scenic rivers and trails—even the White House.

The goal of the commission is to create a report that outlines how park services can be expanded to reflect cultural changes and to establish a 10-year program to repair and enhance the parks through a mix of public and private funding, Johnston said.

The National Park Service, which has a visitor center in Thousand Oaks, is a bureau of the Department of the Interior.

Johnston reminded the commission of the supreme importance of their job, saying that national parks are "not just a mere part of America, but a central part of American culture and the American psyche."

Brainstorming

Commission members were asked to discuss the current state of the parks and give their opinions on what improvements need to be made during the next century.

"Our charter is to anticipate the role of national parks in the second hundred years," said Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association.

Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard University and former assistant secretary and chief financial officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce, called for more park funding.

Commissioner Sally Jewell, a member of the National Parks Conservation Association board of directors, warned of a "growing disconnect between children and nature."

John Fahey, president and chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society, said his organization has a "symbiotic relationship" with parks and that Americans can't be "fully human" unless they "experience nature."

Gretchen Long, trustee for the National Parks Conservation Association and current board member, lives next to Grand Teton National Park in Colorado.

Long challenged the commission to consider how the use of parks is influenced by urban sprawl, legislative mandates and other forces.

Forecasting the future

Paul Saffo, director of the Institute for the Future and a visiting scholar at Stanford University, advised that the commission look far into the future and then work backward to formulate their plan for the next 100 years.

The future of America, Saffo said, will be in the hands of immigrants. He said that by midcentury, 87 percent of the nation's growth will come from other countries.

"Global rootlessness" created by people moving to the U.S. from their native lands will have an impact on how people perceive the need for parks.

"The world is much more transient," Saffo said. "What history do you teach if residents don't buy into the American myth?" he asked.

The new urbanism, he said, will place pressure on parks.

Local issues

Woody Smeck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, discussed the impact of urban growth on parks.

By 2050, Los Angeles will grow to 33 million citizens, half of whom will live within a onehour commute of a national park, he said.

In response to the changing demographics of the region, Smeck said the SMMRA conducted a public "Bio Blitz" in May to count living species in the mountains. Children were bused in from the inner city to work alongside scientists and other students.

Smeck said connecting children to the parks is the first step in creating the environmental stewards of the future.

He characterized the Santa Monica Mountains as an "island of nature."

Simi Valley resident Wayne Fishback attended the symposium because he's worried about the government seizing his private property for parkland.

Fishback owns 500 acres in Ventura and Los Angeles counties and said the Santa Monica Conservancy, a nongovernmental land preservation agency, has longrange plans to purchase private land for permanent open space.

Since the conservancy doesn't have enough funds to buy all the land they'd like, Fishback believes officials will "use all kinds of measures to prevent people in using their land in any way, shape or form."

Fishback, a retired architect who wants to build a horse and cattle ranch in the hills between Los Angeles and Simi Valley, formed a coalition of property owners who together own about 8,000 acres of land. The group plans on taking necessary legal steps to use their land as they believe the law allows. What's next?

The commission is being led by the nonprofit, nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association.

Commissioners will meet at four additional national parks between now and next June as they put together a report, with recommendations, that will be delivered to the Department of the Interior by late 2009.