We Love Our Park Rangers and Environmental Stewards!

It takes tens of thousands of people to protect our national parks. Irrespective of the political tide, staff at the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service work in the trenches every day, gathering data, meeting with stakeholders, maintaining our nation’s most precious natural and historic places, and using sound science to make smart decisions that benefit us all.

‘Tis the season to share the #ValentinesDay love! RT to thank @EPA and @NatlParkService staff for working hard to protect parks, air & water pic.twitter.com/DRCix2HBoC

— National Parks News (@NPCA) February 10, 2017

Retweet our Valentine to EPA and NPS staff to share the love!

We have so many of them to thank for making not just our parks, but our society safer and healthier. Here are just a few of the many tasks these employees take on, day in and day out, as part of their jobs.

• Educating visitors to national parks, monuments and memorials on America’s culture and history by interpreting the role of important people and events that shaped our nation
• Keeping visitor centers staffed so you can have your most pressing questions answered
• Notifying communities and tourists when an area is too high in ozone pollution for kids or healthy adults to play safely outside
• Limiting harmful pollution from industrial sources so hazy skies don’t blot out miles and miles of views and so all breathing beings and vegetation are protected
• Limiting toxins discharged in waters so we have safe drinking water and healthy aquatic life, including fish
• Providing search-and-rescue services to stranded, distressed and lost visitors everywhere from paved parking lots to avalanche-prone slopes
• Studying changing patterns in temperature, precipitation, fire, vegetation and wildlife behaviors, to inform policies to help sustain our environment and adapt to these changes
• Leading hikes, boat trips, horseback rides, snowshoe tours and other excursions that help people get to know our parks up-close

Conservation is a deeply rooted American value. As a society, we decided long ago that all of us should have clean air and water, and that being able to enjoy the very best places our country has to offer is not just a privilege of the wealthy but the right of all people. We have built institutions and rules on the fundamental principle that when science shows us there is a risk to our health or resources, it is incumbent upon us to act to reduce those threats. We share a common fate. For decades, Americans have been united in wanting to protect our most meaningful lands and make progress in restoring our air and waters.

We cannot go backward now.

It is almost Valentine’s Day, and the good folks at Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service could use some love. Join me in tweeting one of NPCA’s Valentines (see above) or thanking a ranger at a favorite park. These are the people on the front lines, defending what makes our country special, and I am proud to stand behind them.