The National Park Service is set to receive the largest grant in its history from the Indianapolis-based foundation Lilly Endowment Inc., the Associated Press reported.
The $100 million donation will be received and handled by the National Park Foundation, the official nonprofit wing of the National Park Service. The money will be used to address needs at the more than 400 national park sites in the United States.
"This grant will allow us to supercharge our efforts to ensure our national parks are for everyone, for generations to come," said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.
Shafroth identified restoring coral reefs at Biscayne National Park in Florida and restoring populations of trout species in western national parks as two areas of immediate concern that portions of the money could go toward addressing.
The National Park Foundation is in the midst of a massive fundraising effort, which has already proved successful in that it inspired the donation from the Lilly Endowment.
"We believe the National Park Foundation's ['Campaign for National Parks' fundraising push] will enhance the programming in and promote the future vibrancy of our country's marvelous system of parks, monuments, and historic sites," said N. Clay Robbins, chair and CEO of the Lilly Endowment.
As evidenced by the damaged coral reefs and depleted trout, national parks are facing more challenges than ever because of pollution and the overheating of our planet and resulting changes to climates. National parks have suffered directly from overheating, which has bolstered wildfires, among other extreme weather events.
One National Park Service ecologist warned that "it's certainly possible that the parks could lose the iconic feature for which they've been named," such as Montana's Glacier National Park and Florida's Everglades National Park.
Hopefully, this huge charitable donation will give our parks some of the resources needed to continue to fight against these growing challenges.
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