Tourism Cares: Vote to Save Our Sites

Vote to Save Our Sites
Tourism Cares welcomes the public to vote for a site in need

Canton, Mass. (March 29, 2010)- Tourism Cares, the premier charity in the travel industry dedicated to preserving the travel experience for future generations, announced the opening of the Save Our Sites grantee voting on the Tourism Cares website, www.tourismcares.org. The program, in its second year, invites the travel industry and traveling public to vote for a site in need of care they would like to see supported with grant funding.

The Save Our Sites program gives travellers an opportunity to make donations while on vacation to give back to preserve and enhance natural, historic and cultural sites around the world that are important to save for future generations. Multiple voting rounds will take place in 2010, with the first having a focus on US National Parks. Tourism Cares is pleased to announce the following five organizations eligible for the latest Save Our Sites voting:

Glacier National Park Fund: Trails Forever Fund
Glacier National Park offers a seemingly endless summer playground for visitors and is known for its soul penetrating trails. Each year, more than two million visitors experience the majesty, serenity and variety of the Park, hiking 700 miles of trails amid the spectacular glaciated landscape; watching mountain goats, bighorn sheep and other indigenous animals; learning of the Park’s heritage and history; and appreciating one of the largest intact ecosystems in the lower 48 states. Over time the Park has experienced nature’s rampage with record snowfalls, avalanches, floods and forest fires all of which have taken a toll on the trail systems. The regular, consistent maintenance that has been the hallmark of the trail program for many years is not keeping pace and needs help.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association: Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center (CVEEC)
Cuyahoga Valley National Park encompasses 33,000 acres over 20 miles between Akron and Cleveland and is recognized as one of the top environmental education centers in the country. Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center (CVEEC) provides innovative education programs that offer children the opportunity to discover the wonders and magic of learning in and about the outdoors. Located on 500 acres within Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the CVEEC offers residential environmental education programs to more than 3,000 children each year from all over northeast Ohio, serves more than 9,000 children in total each year through its residential, day camp and urban outreach programs, and is an award-winning model within the National Park System.

Voyageurs National Park Association: Volunteer Rendezvous for Preservation of Wildlife Habitat and Visitor Use Sites
The Volunteer Rendezvous is a vital native habitat preservation project held in Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota bordering Ontario. Former developed sites along this park’s 655 miles of glacier‐carved lakeshore have left gaps of uncharacteristically deforested land. The purpose of the Volunteer Rendezvous is to help Voyageurs National Park Service staff restore these areas to their wild, natural state in order to improve both visitor enjoyment and wildlife habitats. Voyageurs’ shoreline ecosystem is critical habitat for wildlife such as common loons, wolves and Canada lynx as well as a prime visitor destination for camping and hiking. Volunteers plant about 1,000 native trees and wildflowers, remove destructive nonnative plants, and collect seeds for greenhouse propagation.

Friends of Acadia: Restoring the bog in the Wild Gardens of Acadia
Maine’s native azalea and other shrubs of the heath family, several species of cranberries, and fantastic rare orchids – of the more than 30 species found in the Acadia National Park area, can live only in bogs or other peat lands. This project is working to re-establish the Wild Gardens bog, a delight to birdwatchers, amateur botanists, ecology classes, photographers and visitors in general. Being created is a natural berm to keep out flowing water, to re-excavate its basin, and to replenish the peat moss that is the crucial substrate for most bog plants. Then, the area will be replanted and a low boardwalk will be built through this wetland to help visitors get into and around the bog.

Joshua Tree National Park Association: Key's Ranch Restoration
In the high desert country that was to become Joshua Tree National Park, rugged individuals tried their luck at cattle ranching, mining, and homesteading. William F. Keys and his family are particularly representative of the hard work and ingenuity it took to settle and prosper in the Mojave Desert.

For 60 years, Bill and Frances worked together to make a life and raise their five children in this remote location. The ranch house, school house, store, and workshop still stand; the orchard has been replanted; and the grounds are full of the cars, trucks, mining equipment, and spare parts that are a part of the Desert Queen Ranch story. This project seeks to preserve the historic buildings which tell the amazing homesteading story of the Keys family. They require stabilization and restoration to prevent them from deteriorating into the desert.

To vote for a site in need, visit www.tourismcares.org/save-our-sites. Voting ends May 14, 2010.

Tourism Cares is a 501c(3) non-profit public charity that benefits society by preserving the travel experience for future generations by awarding grants to natural, cultural and historic sites worldwide; by presenting academic and service-learning scholarships to students of hospitality and tourism; and by organizing volunteer efforts to restore tourism-related sites in need of care and rejuvenation. For additional information about Tourism Cares, visit www.tourismcares.org.

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