海角大神

Perhaps no single government agency is so expressive of the US strain of idealism as the National Parks Service. Tasked with preserving and curating the nation鈥檚 great outdoors, the agency stewards not just physical spaces, but symbols of the country鈥檚 identity.

But as the NPS turns 100 on Thursday, it sees a national public in the midst of a profound demographic change. The service is trying to draw in a public that better reflects that change.

"If public lands aren't telling their story, and they don't see themselves reflected in these beautiful places, they may not support them," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told the Associated Press. "They may not recognize that these are their assets and protect them for future generations."聽

The NPS has been slow to the uptake 鈥� alarmingly so, for some. The last survey conducted by the service, in 2011, showed that only 22 percent of visitors were minorities, compared to 37 percent of the population as a whole. The agency鈥檚 workforce is also disproportionately white, at 83 percent of its employees.

David Vela,聽superintendent of Grand Teton National Park,聽is particularly troubled by the lack of diversity in the park attendees.聽He shared his concerns with Todd Wilkinson for a cover story on the National Parks published in 海角大神 last month:

Last month, Glenn Nelson, the founder of a website that encourages diversity in the outdoors, published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for the agency to launch an 鈥渁ll-out effort鈥� to diversify its ranks and boost outreach to potential minority visitors.

鈥淲e need to demolish the notion that the national parks and the rest of nature are an exclusive club where minorities are unwelcome,鈥� he wrote.

The NPS is starting to move in that direction: recruiting minority interns, conducting outreach in schools with large minority populations to encourage children to visit parks, and producing videos and brochures for Spanish-speaking audiences.

Myron F. Floyd, who specializes in race and ethnicity in outdoor recreation at North Carolina State University, told the AP that minorities tend not to grow up making trips to national parks and monuments. For African-Americans, a history of exclusion from those parks is a factor. For other groups, linguistic barriers can be a factor, too.

Another factor may be a longstanding lack of monuments highlighting the contributions of minorities. President Obama has made a point of breaking with that, designating as national monuments sites of historical resonance for women, workers, racial minorities, and the LGBT community 鈥� including, most recently, the site of the Stonewall uprising in New York City, which the president called 鈥渢he first national monument to tell the story of the struggle for LGBT rights.鈥�

鈥淚 believe our national parks should reflect the full story of our country 鈥� the richness and diversity and uniquely American spirit that has always defined us,鈥� he said then.

This article contains material聽from the Associated Press.