2022 Annual Report

Thanks to support from NPF and the George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, leveraged with state and private donations, as well as a land value donation from the McLaws family, Zion National Park Forever Project purchased an easement on 37.7 acres of land outside Zion National Park’s eastern boundary as part of a larger initiative to create an eastern gateway for the park. This means that this vulnerable land will be protected from development, while creating recreational opportunities and providing much-needed relief from overcrowding in other areas of the park. NPF also supported the construction of a 24.5-mile section of the East Zion Mountain Bike Trail System, which establishes a world-class recreational experience on the new eastern gateway.

An NPF grant to the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative helped to more than double the size of Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, located in Macon, Georgia, protecting the natural wonders of the Ocmulgee River and floodplain. This NPS site preserves the homelands of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and tells the story of 17,000 years of continuous human habitation. Thanks to a collaboration between NPS, NPF, tribal partners, and nonprofit partners, this acquisition is just one piece of a larger effort to add privately-owned land to the park and to protect and steward important cultural and natural resources.

The Mellon Foundation granted NPF over $13 million to provide funding for 30 new humanities postdoctoral fellowships in national parks across the country. An expansion of the NPS Mellon Humanities Fellowship program, the new cohort of Fellows will begin their work in the fall of 2023. From expanding understanding of the impact and legacy of people of African descent during the revolutionary period to documenting punk and go-go music in Washington, D.C., the Fellows will explore new facets of park history and help parks share those stories with visitors.

Funding from NPF enabled Indigenous scholars and artists to produce new art installations at Yellowstone National Park, coinciding with the park’s 150th anniversary. Several tribal nations and organizations partnered to install the All Nations Teepee Village, with teepee lodges and signs to represent the 27 affiliated tribal nations of the Yellowstone area. Teepee Village provided an immersive and tactile experience for visitors and a new way for the park to highlight Indigenous history and presence, as well as strengthen its relationship with tribal communities.

Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood is home to several meaningful historic sites, including Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site and Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site. Through funding from NPF, local middle and high school students were educated on the histories and significance of these places and trained to act as NPS docents at the sites, helping share these important stories with visitors. The students also traveled to civil rights sites in the South as part of their educational experience, and were encouraged to reflect on the contemporary relevance of these NPS sites through a documentary that will feature their time with the program.

As part of NPF’s Women in Parks program, a postdoctoral fellow is conducting research around women’s stories tied to parks in the Pacific West region. Dr. Nicole Martin’s research covers stories with connections to over 50 national park sites, amplifying the work and legacy of women who were involved in the early advocacy of public parks, conservation, and science. Dr. Martin’s research and collaborations with park interpretive staff will culminate in a new online exhibition centered on ideas of home and homelands.

As a remote park, Big Bend National Park is using its abundant sunshine to help power its Panther Junction Visitor Center. In 2022, an NPF grant helped the park design shade structures to protect the parking areas around the visitor center and the park’s administrative offices. These shade structures will then allow the park to install a 42-kilowatt solar panel array, which, when completed, will supply 100% of the electrical needs of the park’s main visitor center.

By increasing its number of water refill stations, Petroglyph National Monument is decreasing its impact on local landfills. With Hydro Flask and NPF funding, the park installed water refill stations at its visitor center. The water refill stations provide visitors a place to refill their own water bottles – reducing waste in the park while promoting hydration. 

Monocacy National Battlefield in Maryland encompasses several centuries of history, some of which is preserved by exhibits that do not meet accessibility standards. Through a grant from NPF, the park is designing, fabricating, and installing new museum exhibits – featuring items such as a fiber optic storytelling map and a preserved 19th century flag – that will provide an inclusive experience for all visitors. 

Many parks do not have recent – or any! –  data about their visitors. Thanks to a $1 million grant from NPF, NPS’s Socioeconomic Monitoring Program (SEM) will be able to provide 24 parks with up-to-date information about their current visitors, including their pre-trip planning efforts, motivations for visiting, trip characteristics, and experiences while in the park. These survey findings will help park managers learn directly from their visitors. At a national level, as more and more parks participate, the SEM Visitor Survey will allow NPS to track trends and perceptions of our parks.