NPS Retirees to Hold Media Availability During NPS Superintendents Summit 2008

    SNOWBIRD, Utah, July 15 /EMWNews/ -- The more than

650-member Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) will hold a

media briefing at 3:30 p.m. MDT Wednesday (July 16, 2008) in the Cottonwood

C&D Rooms in the Snowbird Center during the National Park Service

Superintendents Summit 2008.



    The CNPSR session will follow the 10:30 a.m. remarks on July 16th by

NPS Director Mary Bomar and the 11 a.m. address by U.S. Interior Department

Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.



    The NPS Superintendents Summit 2008 will address such key topics as the

upcoming NPS Centennial, efforts to increase the capacity of national parks

and ways to re-engage Americans with the nation's crown jewels.



    The CNPSR media briefing will feature: former Shenandoah National Park

Superintendent Bill Wade, chair of the Executive Council of the Coalition

of National Park Service Retirees; and Phil Brueck, a CNPSR Executive

Council member and former assistant superintendent of Canyonlands National

Park.







    Members of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees are all

former employees of the NPS, numbering over 650 with more joining each day.

As CNPSR explains: "As park managers, rangers and employees in other

disciplines, we devoted our professional lives to maintaining and

protecting our national parks for the benefit of all Americans - both

living and those yet to be born. We know that many more of our former

National Park Service colleagues, who have served under several different

Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, agree with our concerns.

We have served this country well, and our credibility and integrity in

speaking out on these issues should not go ignored. We count among our

members: five former directors or deputy directors of the National Park

Service; 23 former regional directors or deputy regional directors; 28

former associate or assistant directors at the national or regional office

level; 74 former division chiefs at the national or regional office level;

and 155 former park superintendents or assistant superintendents.