The purpose of my speech is to inform the public about the diversity collectively seen in national parks. By the end of my talk the audience will know which breeds are predominantly found in our national parks and which breeds are underrepresented in the parks. They will also know what the NPS and other organizations are doing to increase user diversity within national parks. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay National parks are an important part of American society, they are scenic or historic areas of land that are set aside and protected by the government to “ conserve the landscape, natural and historic objects, and wild life therein and provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as to leave them intact for the enjoyment of future generations” (NPS Organic Act, 1916). These parks are financed with the money of American taxpayers, making each citizen a partial owner of the park that any citizen of any race is welcome to visit these parks, yet the NPS is experiencing a dramatic lack of diversity throughout the national park as a whole. This lack of diversity among users has been an issue that the NPS has attempted to resolve since the 1970s with very little luck. There is a lack of diversity in all national parks in the United States. In 2014, the national parks had a total of 292.8 million visitors. Nearly 80% of these visitors were white, while only 22% of visitors were minorities (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/diversify-our-national-parks. html?_r= 0). This lack of diversity has been a problem within the park system since the 1970s. Researchers are finally noticing the factors that contribute to this trend and are starting to focus on encouraging more minorities to visit national parks. There are 405 national parks in the United States and according to the New York Times these parks had 292.8 million visitors last year. This might seem pretty impressive until you look at the data more closely. Of all these visitors, 78% were white while only 22% represented minority groups such as African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and American Indians. This is a disappointing trend that the National Park Service has noted with little change since the 1970s. To change this trend and bring a more diverse group of visitors to these parks, researchers need to understand what is causing this lack of diversity in National Parks. To understand why minority groups are less likely to visit National Parks, we must first look at who is actually in the parks. To understand this, the NPS conducted 2 surveys, CSAP1 conducted in 2000 and CSAP2 conducted in 2008. These surveys contained the same questions so their results could be compared to each other to track changes in park usage and users . The first question on the survey was “Have you visited a national park in the past 2 years?” and these were the results. *Insert Table 2 from http://www.nature.nps.gov/socialscience/docs/CompSurvey2008_2009RaceEthnicity.pdf. This table shows the ratio of the percentage of each race in the total population to the percentage of people of each race who have visited a national park in the last 2 years. This shows whether race is underrepresented or overrepresented within the parks. The two races where this is of concern are African Americans and people of Hispanic origin. Apart from visitors belonging to minorities,there is also a diversity issue with park staff. “According to a 2013 report by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, 80 percent of NPS employees were white. And the 22-member board of the National Park Foundation, whose mission is to support the NPS through fundraising, has only four minorities” (http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/7/heres-why- americas-national-parks-are-so-white.html). There is a clear lack of diversity within the park that can be demonstrated with hard data, both among visitors and rangers. The question for the NPS then becomes “why”? Well, the second set of questions in the CSAP2 survey (shows data from CSAP2 only because a Spanish-language option was not available for the survey in 2000) asked non-visitors why they haven't gone to a national park. The 3 main reasons between African Americans and Hispanics are the same. The top reason is “I don't know much about NPS units,” the second reason is “Hotel and food costs in National Park System units are too high,” and the last most common response is “It takes too long to reach any NPS unit from my house.” This means that there is a lack of knowledge about national parks, money and costs could be a big part of the NPS diversity problem minorities just don't feel welcomed. There are stereotypes that plague their race, like "black people don't do nature" and even jokes about "expect whites only signs at national park entrances." although we are now beyond the days of segregation, they have had a long-term effect on people and African Americans still fear racist treatment from white park rangers After conducting research and examining data on diversity in parks and why certain races After having avoided national parks, the NPS and other organizations began working toward a common goal of bringing minorities into parks. This is an important goal because national parks are cultural and historical sites important to the history of the United States and thrive through education and appreciation by the people. The Census Bureau predicts that by 2044 the United States will have a majority non-white population. If this is true and the parks fail to get more diverse breeds visiting, then the NPS may be in trouble or cease to exist in the future. One of the main reasons for the lack of diversity is that people simply don't know about parks. This means that the NPS can target different areas and promote itself or hold environmental education classes in these locations. Individual leaders of different races are helping the park service by also reaching out to their communities to address new audiences of visitors. For example, retired NFL player Darryl Haley was asked to speak at the Grand Canyon Black History Month celebration in 2013. This effort was so successful and fun that he continues to host awareness events at many national parks. Park rangers said Darryl is “one of the pioneers carrying forward what has been delayed, reconnecting people of color with our public lands that will keep our public lands relevant, sustainable, protected and preserved for generations to come ". technology plays an important role in society today, NPS has started to reach the public through media. The NPS and the National Park Service created a program called Find Your Park. This is a campaign launched on March 30, 2015 to connect people to parks through social media, educational events.