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Pagosa Springs News:
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| Mesa Verde Wins Development Grant |
| Mike Saccone | 5/30/12 |
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U.S. Senator Mark Udall congratulated Mesa Verde National Park on receiving a grant from the National Park Foundation to support the park's new winter exploration program, which aims to help visitors appreciate the park's winter-time outdoor opportunities by creating snowshoe and ski trails to outlying areas of the ruins.
Mesa Verde will receive $9,765 through the foundation's Active Trails program, which gets people involved in parks through trail work, special events and community activities.
Mesa Verde National Park was the very first national park created primarily to protect our cultural heritage, and its irreplaceable cliff dwellings are a major tourist draw for the surrounding areas," Udall said. "This Active Trails grant will help open up some of the remote areas in this special historical resource for people to enjoy even with snow on the ground. Developing more recreational opportunities during winter - what has traditionally been the shoulder season for national parks - will help attract tourists, spur economic development in Montezuma and surrounding counties, and inject much-needed revenue into the local economies during slower months."
 In Montezuma County alone, Mesa Verde helps generate around $70 million each year in tourism-related revenue, which helps support about 1,000 local jobs. As chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee's National Parks Subcommittee and co-chairman of the bipartisan Senate Outdoor Recreation Caucus, Udall has supported many efforts to engage Americans with the outdoors, including his National Kids to Parks initiative, for the conservation and economic benefits it brings to the surrounding communities.
Now in its fourth cycle, the National Park Foundation's Active Trails program promotes national parks as venues for community engagement, and encourages healthy living through various forms of recreation and volunteer service on land and water trails. |
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