Dear Friend,

We are finally welcoming cooler weather and planning our fall foliage road trip. This is the best time of year to explore many of our favorite national parks in the Mid-Atlantic. We’re working hard to protect these special places and have gathered some updates that I'm excited to share with you.

We're one step closer to two new national parks in the region. Last month, legislation was introduced in Congress to establish the Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools National Historical Park, which would include protecting the San Domingo School in Maryland. This new park unit would commemorate the legacy of Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish American business executive and philanthropist who partnered with Booker T. Washington and African American communities to build thousands of schools across the South.

We’re also celebrating the proposed Chesapeake National Recreation Area, which is advancing in the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and would create a new park expanding public access and interpreting the history of the Chesapeake Bay.

You can help by writing to President Biden and urging him to establish a new national park unit to commemorate the legacy of Julius Rosenwald and Rosenwald Schools.

An important victory in Virginia. A few weeks ago, we helped mobilize fellow park advocates in Virginia to urge the Caroline County Board of Supervisors to reject a proposal to build an 855-acre data center complex. The potential development threatened to bring a massive industrial landscape to the pristine North Anna River corridor directly adjacent to part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park. I’m excited to report your advocacy worked—for now.

This win is the first of many steps needed to permanently protect national parks in our region from the exploding data center development’s environmental and climate impacts. Virginia is the epicenter of this growing industry, and we need your help. Urge the Virginia lawmakers to put guardrails around data centers in Virginia to protect our national parks.

National Parks along the Delaware River are becoming more accessible for everyone.

We're supporting a new plan at First State National Historical Park in Delaware that would enable NPS to build new trails and help fix crumbling existing trails within the Brandywine Valley that are suffering due to increased erosion and frequent use. The new trails network would consist of shared-use trails for hiking, bicycling, and equestrian use, and serve as a vital recreational space for visitors while protecting the park’s natural resources. We also worked closely with NPS over the summer to conduct a bilingual survey and better understand the experience and needs of Latino visitors to the park.

Gearing up in Philadelphia. Our blog also recently highlighted the Philly Gear Library, a new initiative launched by a park advocate with help from NPCA and other groups breaks down the financial barriers to the outdoors.

New staff in our Mid-Atlantic Regional Office. In June, we welcomed Jayda Hayman (above left), as our new Delaware River Field Representative. Her work includes strengthening community relationships in the Delaware River watershed, advancing equitable access, and building support for national parks. Based in Newark, Delaware, Jayda is a recent graduate from the University of Delaware, where she served as the Co-President at the university’s UNICEF chapter and as a speaker at TEDxYouth. She conducted research in Environmental Health Science at the Yale School of Public Health and was previously NPCA's Clean Air Intern.

Madison Hicks (above right) is also joining us this fall as our West Virginia Outreach and Engagement Intern, a recent graduate of Western Carolina University where she specialized in Parks and Recreation Management. Madison will be assisting in statewide projects such as West Virginia's Bridge Day and our Plastic Free Parks Campaign.

📖 What we’re reading this month:

• "Bay Journal" highlighted the Indigenous Conservation Council working to ensure that Tribal knowledge is incorporated as a part of stewarding national parks and ancestral lands.

• "Sierra" magazine profiled our campaign to protect Manassas National Battlefield from data center development.

• Go fish: NPCA's blog included Shenandoah National Park as one of the four best national parks for wetting a line.

• Construction starts to restore the National Mall's Tidal Basin seawall, funded through the Great American Outdoors Act's Legacy Restoration Fund.

Meet us in the national parks. Last month, we were honored to join Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park for the Footsteps to Freedom Festival celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act and Harriet Tubman Emancipation Day. On October 19, you can find us at Bridge Day, taking place just outside the boundaries of one of America's newest national parks, New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in West Virginia. Bridge Day is the largest, single-day festival in the Mountain State and last year brought over 140,000 spectators to watch experienced B.A.S.E. jumpers dive off of the longest single-span steel arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere. NPCA will be encouraging visitors to take action to support our national parks—we hope to see you there!

You can always learn more about the Mid-Atlantic parks on our webpage, attend an upcoming NPCA event or take action to protect parks.

Thank you for being an advocate for your national parks!

Sincerely,

Michaela Pavlat
Indigenous Partnerships Program Manager