Prairie Public Broadcasting

Birthday Wish List For Northwest National Parks SEATTLE, WA (KUOW) - National Park superintendents from the Northwest and park lovers are drawing up birthday wish lists. The occasion is the 100th birthday of the National Park Service.

Correspondent Tom Banse reports the Interior Secretary just visited Seattle to listen to requests for a party that doesn't come until 2016.

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Some of the wishes might be complicated to fulfill, so planners are getting a very early start.

Mt. Rainier's superintendent wishes for a shuttle bus system. North Cascades National Park hopes to document its disappearing glaciers.

All the parks across the region want to do more education and outreach.

Interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne notes that people say they love their National Parks, but it's becoming a bigger challenge to get them to visit.

Dirk Kempthorne: "You can't say to a child, you must now put down that computer or that Ipod and you go outside. But you can be creative and figure out, could we connect?"

Olympic National Park hopes their boss judges the pending removal of two big dams on the Elwha River to be sufficiently exciting.

The park is asking for a centennial gift to pay for Elwha River education activities.

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