Climate change is one of the threats to V.I. National Park, several speakers said as the park’s Friends group met Sunday at Cinnamon Bay Campground’s T’ree Lizards Restaurant for the its annual meeting.
“Climate change is tied to the future of biodiversity,” National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis said in his keynote address to the more than 100 people gathered for the meeting.
Jarvis told the Source before the meeting that he lists coral bleaching, sea temperature rise and the threat of invasive species such as lionfish as the three most significant threats to the park.
Later, Friends President Joe Kessler added irresponsible development of privately-owned land within the park boundaries to the list.
“I encourage those builders to use sustainable building sources,” Kessler said.
In his address, Jarvis spoke about the efforts the Friends made to help conserve the park’s natural habitats. They included the 350 boat moorings installed over the last dozen years across the park to protect sea grass beds and reefs. Kessler said that project will wrap up in February with the installation of the last of the big boat moorings.
Jarvis also discussed the Friends’ and the park’s education efforts to reach young people.
“Bringing kids into the park is really important,” Jarvis said.
Kessler said that in 2012, 2,500 students participated in park-related activities funded through the Friends.
Noting that the park had its start in philanthropic efforts by Laurance S. Rockefeller, Jarvis had high marks for the Friends efforts at conservation philanthropy.
“The park has really benefited from your involvement,” Jarvis told the Friends.
Funding is an issue for the St. John park as well as park’s around the country, Jarvis said.
“The National Park Service budget has been in decline across the system for at least a decade,” Jarvis said.
Anderson had a raft of statistics in his remarks. He said that in 2012, lifeguards at Trunk Bay rescued 132 visitors. He said there were three fatalities, with most of those people dying of underlying medical causes.
Touching on an issue of interest to the St. John community, Anderson said plans to build a public school at Catherineberg are still on the burner, but he said that the local government is currently addressing compliance issues.
“There’s a lot of work to be done before the issue comes to completion,” Anderson said.
He also said the park is working with the local government on a submerged land swap to give the park a wedge of land that sits between sections of St. John’s Coral Reef National Monument. He said this issue will probably be resolved within a year.
The 21,000 hours of volunteer work in 2012 to both the park and the Friends helped the park with its perennial staffing shortage.
As is traditional at the annual meeting, the park and Friends handed out awards in various categories to some of those volunteers.
Weldon Wasson was named the Friends volunteer of the year for his efforts as an Annaberg Plantation docent, as the Friends liaison during its seminar series and for help in building a handicapped-accessible boardwalk at Francis Bay.
Joshua Wells, 18, received the park volunteer of the year award for his work at the Visitor Center during his summers on St. John. He lives the rest of the year in Georgia, but has family roots on St. John.
The park’s education specialist, Laurel Brannick, received the Friend’s partnership award for her work with school children.
Noting that in 2013 the Friends will celebrate its 25th anniversary, Kessler said since its incorporation in 1988, the organization raised $10 million and signed on 17,000 members.
