00:00:05:04 - 00:00:20:07 Unknown What opportunities do you see ahead for Cuyahoga Valley National Park for the next few years when you think about your leadership and so many wonderful things already happening in the park? What do you see as the greatest opportunities? Well, there are very many of them. 00:00:20:08 - 00:00:44:04 Unknown That's that's the fun part of this. You know, I have said in the past that I am stepping into the role at a time when everything is looking up. I came into this, you know, I'm coming into this after the successes of previous superintendents. 00:00:44:11 - 00:01:05:18 Unknown I don't really have to....there's not a lot to fix. You know, there's not a lot to big changes to be made or anything like that. What is exciting is we have so many new opportunities happening right now, and I really am looking forward to kind of getting to that next level. 00:01:05:18 - 00:01:25:06 Unknown You know, we are almost 50 years old, 50 years old in 2024 will be our anniversary of becoming a national park unit. And the change in that 50 years is so remarkable. But we have still more potential. 00:01:25:17 - 00:01:52:06 Unknown We're at a great time in the history with, in one case, the sort of historic passing of the Great American Outdoors Act. So Congress has really done us such a good service to be able to finally address some of the serious backlog in the condition of our resources and our infrastructure. 00:01:52:06 - 00:02:20:08 Unknown You know Cuyahoga Valley is a, you know, set in an urban context. We have a lot of infrastructure in this park and it's infrastructure that is difficult to maintain. So, for example, the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath trail, the Valley Railway, so the scenic railroad very, very difficult, both of them traveling along a winding river and 00:02:20:08 - 00:02:47:18 Unknown difficult to actually maintain and make that sustainable. So Congress has really helped the National Park Service and other land management agencies by giving sufficient funding to be able to address those serious, that serious backlog, as well as really bolstered the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is really important for us on so many levels for protection of land and 00:02:48:01 - 00:03:06:07 Unknown protection of resources which you're intimately familiar with. And the Conservancy is helping us with a critical land acquisition project in the former Brandywine golf course that is going to be a true feather in the cap of this park. 00:03:06:14 - 00:03:28:19 Unknown It is, and it's very exciting. It's going to make huge changes for the visitor experience, the condition of resources and the ability of this park to provide economic benefits to the communities around us to provide better, higher quality services to the public. 00:03:29:07 - 00:03:44:00 Unknown And so it's really a key piece coming up in the near very near future. And those are opportunities the Conservancy has been highly engaged with and will continue to be involved with. I am so grateful to our members. 00:03:44:15 - 00:04:01:07 Unknown You know, we advocated for several years and worked very closely with Senator Portman's office to advocate for the passage of Great American Outdoors Act. And we're already with our colleagues or other friends groups having conversations about advocating for the next version to the Great American Outdoors Act. 00:04:01:21 - 00:04:14:16 Unknown And, of course, having permanent funding for Land and Water Conservation Fund truly is a game changer for national parks. And without groups like ours working on the advocacy level, you know that would have been harder and harder to have this passed. 00:04:14:16 - 00:04:29:22 Unknown So we're really happy to see the park investing there and we find with Brandywine Golf Course this chance to have new people at the table for park building purposes, people who maybe historically weren't engaged, who kind of had a sense here in this park of build it, they will come. 00:04:30:02 - 00:04:42:03 Unknown And now we're engaging the community. I know through your community access planning and through the community engagement that we'll be doing as well. So this is those are really wonderful opportunities for us working alongside the National Park Service. 00:04:42:04 - 00:04:48:23 Unknown Absolutely, absolutely. It's a critical partnership that we wouldn't be able to reach any new potential without.