RAWALPINDI, Jul 13 (APP):Chief of Staff, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Jody Lyle on Thursday said women’s role in nature conservation and national park service as active and competent guardians of nature was gaining pace in the United States which was a role model for the societies and other countries to take inspiration.
The U.S. Embassy organised an event to interact with young students and media here at the Fatima Jinnah Women University to discuss her journey and achievements while serving at different national parks at home and abroad which will be serving as a source of motivation for young girls and university graduates intending to pursue their careers as nature guards and conservationists.
Addressing the gathering at the Lincoln’s Corner Library, FJWU, Jody Lyle said the US National Park Service was a civilian agency established in 1916 which includes almost 20,000 employees across the US with a budget of $3.48 billion. The protected areas or national parks comprised 423 sites with a total area sprawling over 30 million hectares.
In the US, she said there had been several parks focussing different areas including fossil reserves, architectural and historic parks, science parks including the famous Thomas Edison lab, the Women’s Rights National Historic Park,
Cesar E. Chavez National Monument and among others Yosemite National Park famous for unique rock formations.
Lyle said throughout her career she had focussed on environmental education and awareness of people of different age cohorts and races. There was great gender diversity in the US’ national park service as Yellowstone National Park in 1925 had 7% women and 93% men in its workforce whereas the entire agency at present possessed 40% female and 60% male staff and it was also the same in the leadership as well.
She underlined that the Park was right next to Hollywood whereas the movie history of the national park was also preserved which includes around 80 workers at the Park team to manage patrolling, law enforcement, conservation and education and survey. She said, “We employ both men and women and racially diverse people.”
Lyle highlighted that recreation was a big challenge as 180 million people lived next to the national park. However, the national park service used to hire trail crews for maintenance of the forest area and trails. In 1978, a backbone trail was conceived and started in Santa Monica Mountains National Park which was completed in 2016.
She added that the Park was mostly funded by government finance. “However, we generate revenue through permits and leasing largely for filming and still photography. Hollywood producers still come to us and pay the fee for film shooting.”
The Wildfires, she said another challenge as due to climate change wildfire regimes were changing rapidly and it demanded new regimes to cope with the risk.
She said, “The national park service at Santa Monica works closely with sister agencies to put out fires in time. We have shared information on social media and in the press along with the Park rangers who used to hold online lectures for students and also arrange trail hikes for school students under the public programmes through which hundreds of volunteers participated to chip in the plantation and afforestation efforts.”
The Wildlife Research and Action, she said was another intervention of her department and its most famous work was the Carnivore Study under which Mountain Lions were ear tagged and tracking collar belts were installed to study its habitat and nature, she added.
Lyle said, “Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project is in the pipeline which is inspired by the P-22 Mountain Lion who had trespassed the freeway and travelled to other areas which was not its living place. After the wildcat passed away due to aging a memorial service for expressing love for the lonely animal was held in Los Angeles.”
She mentioned that the National Parks and conservation help promote environmental, social, health, economic and diplomatic benefits. “The national parks are vital part of US economy and help drive a vibrant tourism. Some 297 million tourists and visitors visited protected areas in 2021 and spent $20.5 billion during their fun activities that helped in creating jobs for the local communities.”
Responding to various queries of the University, she said women were having a collaborative role in national park conservation as they had started joining law enforcement area which was traditionally for men only whereas they had been making inroads in science as well and would make the gender ratio to 50-50 in the future.
While responding to media persons queries, she said her purpose of the visit was to focus on Margalla Hills National Park and held interactions with the management of the Park and discussed different areas of interest.
Chairperson, Department of Biotechnology, Fatima Jinnah Women University, Prof. Dr. Azra Yasmin in her welcome remarks expressed her gratitude to the visiting delegates. She also briefed the guests on the faculty and facilities of the varsity and environment provided to the students to flourish as promising graduates.