Obama’s family trip meant to put focus on national parks

President Obama and the first family are spending their weekend enjoying Yosemite National Park in California in celebration of the 100th anniversary of US national park system.

“How gorgeous is this thing?”

The President also touted the economic benefits of the national parks, saying over 305 million people visited the parks in 2015 and for every one dollar the tourists spent, a further six dollars was generated in the area’s economy, supporting millions of jobs. “You can’t capture this on an iPad, or a flat screen, or even an oil painting, you just have to breathe it in yourself”.

“That changes you”, he said.

The president touted the Every Kind in a Park initiative, launched early past year to help elementary-school children visit national parks for free in his remarks and earlier, while interacting with a crowd of children.

“Rising temperatures could mean no more glaciers at Glacier National Park. And I want to make sure that the whole world is able to pass on to future generations the God-given beauty of this planet”. The president, first lady Michelle Obama and their teenage daughters, Sasha and Malia, got a glimpse of the parks’ appeal as they toured an underground cave at Carlsbad and took a helicopter ride into Yosemite Valley on Friday.

“That’s not the legacy I think any of us want to leave”, he said. “And there are things like that all over the Park Service”. “We bring 35,000 kids in the park a year”.

“Make no mistake”, President Obama said. “So along with those famous sites like Gettysburg we can also see monuments to Cesar Chavez or Pullman Porters in Chicago”. But those protections don’t always come without controversy, as local residents and politicians frequently become leery of federal interference with their lands.

“In August we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service”, he said.

During a visit to Yosemite national park, Obama said climate change was “no longer a threat, it’s a reality”.

The crowd watched as the first family greeted a line of Yosemite Park Rangers who were also waiting to see them.

The combination of drought and the bark beetle, which devour pines, has had a major impact, said Rep. Tom McClintock, the Republican whose 4th Congressional District includes Yosemite.

Obama spoke near Yosemite’s Sentinel Bridge, where views of Half Dome, a well-known rock formation in the park, and Yosemite Falls created a picturesque background behind him under a sunny, blue sky.

“All of that excess timber comes out of the forest one way or another”, he said.

The president’s conservation drive has extended across the Golden State, where he has protected 1.8 million acres of desert and 331,000 acres of mountains and hillsides north of Lake Berryessa over the past two years. The service said glaciers could be completely gone from Glacier national park by 2020, park facilities in Alaska are sinking due to thawing permafrost and archaeological sites are under threat from sea level rise.

The president then gave a rousing speech at Yosemite that urged Americans to “get out into the great outdoors”. “It was awesome”, he said.

The first lady asked the kids, “How are you going to scare bears away?”