 Hello, hello everyone, welcome to today's Nature Boost. My name is Christy. I'm with the San Francisco Public Library here in San Francisco, California on the traditional ancestral and unceded land of the Romitush-Aloni peoples. Wherever you're tuning in from, we're glad that you're with us today. Join us in the chat and let us know where you're from. We'll be monitoring the chat throughout this program and bringing your questions to our special guests today. So Nature Boost is a proud partnership with our library, the San Francisco Public Library that is, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the National Parks Service, and the Presidio Trust. We are so proud to be in partnership with our local national parks and this triad agency doing so much for the public land and making it accessible to everyone. And we thank our friends at the San Francisco Public Library who are always behind every program that we present to our public. Today, Ranger MJ, you know her from Smory Storytime, Nature Boost, maybe she's come to visit your class. You've definitely seen her in our libraries pre-COVID time. She's gonna join us to talk about Every Kid Outdoors, a free park pass program for all fourth and fifth graders and their entire families. It's an amazing program. A couple of years ago when my child was a fourth grader, we were so excited for him to partake in this program. We planned our vacations and trips so we could go see Yosemite for free, Lassen National Park for free, and we had saved all our pennies and dimes so we could go to Hawaii and went to Maui and it got access to Haleakala, an amazing majestic place. And we hiked the jungle trails in a bamboo forest, made memories, sang songs together. And we also hiked the other side, which was a volcanic, it looked like Star Wars. To this day, we still talk about these fun memories that we made together as a family. The way it is my pleasure to welcome National Park Service Ranger extraordinaire, Maria Jose Alcantara. We call her Ranger MJ. She is one of our team members and we adore working with her and we value everything that she brings to our community. So MJ, can you join me on screen and take it away? Hi. Hello, Christian. Hello library friends. Thank you so much for welcoming me to your screen wherever you find yourself. Happy New Year, everyone. Today I'm going to share with you the very exciting program called Every Kid Outdoors. And this special program has been extended throughout this year to include fifth graders, not only fourth graders as it has in past years. So we are so excited to share this news with you if you haven't heard it yet. So if you're a fourth grader, fifth grader, an educator, or maybe you know someone who's in fourth or fifth grade, or you just want to get to know what kind of parks are out here in the Bay Area or what national parks you could possibly explore with a national park pass, then this is the program for you. So before we get started, let's go to the next slide. Let's go over our overview of what today's program is going to look like. I'm going to introduce myself really quick. We're going to learn about your local national park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. So it's a series of smaller national park sites within our Bay Area. After that, we'll go beyond the Bay Area to our national parks, beyond the Bay. And then we'll find out how to claim your very own pass. So let's go to the next slide. So that's me wearing the gray and green and my fancy hat. I'm not going to wear it today because I've got my space buns today, but that is me. I am a park ranger at your national park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and I have worked in this national park since 2008. So I grew up in the national parks here in the Bay Area. My parents took me since I was very, very little to explore Redwood Forest. They took me to explore Chrissy Field. We wouldn't even go bike riding in Golden Gate Park on the weekends. So parks have always been a part of my life thanks to my parents. If you don't believe me, let's go to the next slide. That's Baby Ranger MJ with my mom in a Redwood Forest long, long time ago. And when I was in fifth grade, I was so lucky to have been a part of a backpacking trip with my elementary school. So I went to West Portal Elementary School in San Francisco and they partnered up with, I think it was the PAL Police Department program and they took us backpacking for the very first time. So I didn't know what backpacking was as a kid. I'm like, so we just take our backpack and go everywhere. But they gave us these ginormous backpacks that were bigger than myself. And we went to Point Reyes National Seashore and that was my very first backpacking experience in my national park sites. I would have never imagined back then that I would then enter the future beyond me become a park ranger. So let's go on to the next slide. So what is a national park to begin with? So I mentioned a few different parks that I used to visit when I was a kid, but what makes a difference between a city park like Golden Gate Park and a national park? So you might notice I'm wearing this emblem on my uniform. I am wearing a uniform. Let's check out the next slide. We'll get a close-up for you of what that emblem looks like. So the National Park Service is a government agency that has been created in 1916. So that's more than 100 years ago. We just celebrated our centennial, our 100-year anniversary in 2016. So that's already a long time ago. But when you see this arrowhead, you know that you are visiting a site that has been protected for different reasons. Let's find out what kind of reasons those might be in the next slide. So when you see this emblem, either on someone's uniform, a hat, maybe you'll see it on a maintenance truck passing by. Maybe you'll see it on a trail's head sign. Maybe you'll see it in the trailheads that are in your library. I know I've seen them in there in the library branches. So when you see that arrowhead, the arrowhead itself, the shape represents the cultural history of the parks. We also have the sequoia tree, which is one of the natural aspects of the sequoia tree is like an iconic tree that represents one of the natural aspects of our parks. We have the bison, which is one of our animals that you can see in the park sites. Maybe we'll see a bison later on our slides today. And of course the mountain and the lake. So the National Park Service has been established to protect natural and culturally historic places. And now we even have even more park sites that have been preserved and protected for social justice reasons, civil rights reasons. We have so many. I wonder how many we have. Let's find out in the next slide, how many park sites could there be in the United States? Oh my goodness! So the last I checked, we might even have more at this point. But the last time I checked, we had 422 national park sites. Could you believe it? I've only been to maybe like 20. That's even a big guess. But let's check out the next slide. That's a whole bunch of park sites. But since we're close to home, we want to go over the Bay Area National Park site. So the Golden Gate National Recreation Area is just one piece of the different park sites that you can visit in the Bay Area. We have Port Chicago over in Martinez. We have John Muir National Historic Site close to there. In Richmond, California, we have Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park. Oh my goodness! It's so cool to go and see the waterfront trails there and they have the shipyard that has also different way sides you can learn about what it was like for the Rosies, for the women in World War II working there. And then we have Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site. And then of course we go to the western side, the left side of our screen shows Point Reyes National Seashore. That's where I went backpacking for the first time. And the last time I went backpacking there, let me tell you, it was not the same as it was when I was in fifth grade. It was much harder as an adult. Let's go to the next slide. Backpacks get heavier when you grow up. All right, Golden Gay National Recreation Area, my favorite park, cause it's my park. So we have our different park sites there that we can see in the green. So I know it's kind of a blurry image, but you can find this map on our website and we'll include some links to that in the chats too. So Golden Gay National Recreation Area, it includes many of those famous park sites you may have heard of. So Alcatraz Island, Mirror Woods, Fort Point, the Golden Gay Bridge basically bridges all of our park sites together. We have the Presidio. We have Ocean Beach, Fort Funston. We go all the way down to Pacifica. We have Moray Point, Malaga Ridge, Sweeney Ridge. Oh my goodness. We even have a place down that didn't fit in the map, Fleger Estate, almost by Redwood City. But we extend from Redwood City basically up to Belina's Lagoon up at the beginning of Point Reyes. So let's check out the next slide. Get a little bit more zoomed in. We see our beautiful Golden Gay Bridge in the center. And I used to work in the Presidio in person, but I am working from home now. I am in my home studio at the moment, but I get to share our national park sites and you can still visit safely, and you can recreate responsibly to check out these park sites right now. But let's find out a little bit more than just looking at a map. What places could we explore in our park? Oh, Chrissy Field. Chrissy Field, we have our beautiful restored marsh that volunteers help to recreate what the marsh may have looked like in the time before time before San Francisco was ever established in the time of the Ohlone people. So we have Chrissy Field is a popular place to go on a walk, go walk your dog, go on a bike ride, catch some birds. What other place do we have in our park? Let's see. On the next slide, Alcatraz Island. Oh my goodness, one of the most famous sites probably of our GGNRA. Alcatraz right in the center of San Francisco Bay. It is a historic federal prison, but we also have a much greater history as a part of that. If you notice in this picture, right below the prison, we have a very cool thing. Maybe you can take a guess before I reveal what that is in the center of your screen. It's a white triangular shape. In Alcatraz, we just celebrated the anniversary of the Indian occupation on Alcatraz over 50 years ago. So Indians of all tribes gathered on Alcatraz and they fought for their rights as well, let their voices be heard. And they're still being heard to this day. So sometimes we have representations like this teepee on Alcatraz Island to let people know, remind them that Indians are still welcome on Alcatraz, Indians of all tribes. Let's go to the next slide. What else can we find in GGNRA? Mirror woods, the tallest trees in the whole wide world. We have our redwood trees up in Mill Valley on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Let's check out the next slide. Moran Headlands. Oh, this is probably my most favorite of all of GGNRA. I actually lived there for a short time while I was working in the Moran Headlands. But Moran Headlands, it's just beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. You'll see the hills across from San Francisco on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge. You see the hills and behind there, there's this beautiful lagoon. There's a beach. There's natural and historic features there. It's an excellent place to go bird watching. Next slide, please. And when you're back on the San Francisco side underneath the Golden Gate Bridge, you have a historic Civil War fortress fort point. You're going to get some exclusive views there of the bay and of the Golden Gate Bridge when you're there. So let's find out what's on our next slide. The Presidio. We have beautiful trails and a lot of our different forests in the Presidio that you can check out too. This is our installation called Woodline. You can barely see that there's some logs sneaking down the trail. All right, next slide, please. So now that we got to see a little glimpse of what the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, your national parks look like, let me know in the chat, what would you like to explore in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area? Next slide, please. So every kid outdoors. You don't need an every kid outdoors pass to visit most of our GGNRA sites. Some of them you could, for example, mere woods, but let's explore beyond the Bay Area. So once you have your every kid outdoor pass, you can visit the places that we're going to explore in these next slides. Next, please. All right, so Yosemite National Park, one of our most iconic national parks of the NPS, you can visit. It is in California. So you can check out that one if you're up for a road trip. Next slide, please. Another place that you can visit is Cesar Chavez National Monument. So remember, there's natural cultural history that is preserved and then this is a more recent cultural history in our national park system. So this is also in California. You can go check about the social justice movement around the rights for labor workers in California. Next slide, please. Another cultural historic significant park in California is Manzanar National Historic Site. So in this one, there's so many stories that need to be heard about the internment camps that were right here in California when war was happening in our country. There was a lot of people who were sent mandatory to these places just because of their background. So we have a lot of our Japanese American history that is very significant here in California. And even the order that sent all these people to these camps started in the Presidio in San Francisco, believe it or not. So it's a very rich history that is worth taking the time to go learn. And it's just here in California. Let's go beyond that. Next slide, please. All right, we're gonna go a few states down. You can go all the way to Arizona, the Grand Canyon National Park. I actually worked there. It was my very first job as a park ranger when I was 17 years old. I got to work at the Grand Canyon. So another famous park you can visit. Next slide, please. That's our natural aspects. Martin Luther King Junior Memorial. So we're gonna take it all the way across country now. You can go to Washington, D.C. and check out these amazing monuments. Again, not all places require the parks pass, but some places you could use it there. So imagine standing there, facing up at this giant statue of Martin Luther King Junior Memorial. I haven't been there yet, but I would love to explore it. Next slide, please. Okay, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. We're gonna see a lot of parks in Wyoming in these slides. So again, the cultural history, keeping that culture alive, people in modern times telling us that parks are still alive, the people are still alive, sharing our culturally significant stories. Like in this picture here, we have some indigenous tribe in their regalia taking part in some kind of ceremony at that national park land. So that's very special. Sometimes it's so special that you can even be a part of that and be able to witness that. Next slide, please. Mount Rushmore. Oh my gosh, I get this question a lot. Have you been to the park with the faces on the rock? I have not. So Mount Rushmore National Park. It's one of the other iconic American parks out here. I've never been to it, but also I can imagine staring up at that. I'd have to go all the way to South Dakota for that though, but you could check it out if you have a park pass. Let's check out what else is on our list here of iconic parks. Stonewall National Monument in New York City. So again, another modern example of the newer additions to our national park system. So this one is definitely social justice related. This was recently added to our national park system because of the civil rights uprising that happened at that very place in a bar in New York City. So you never know within your own lifetime, we're not just creating national parks 100 years ago, we're creating national park sites today. So I would love to know also what kind of places you would like to see part of the national park system. Let me know. Next slide, please. All right, so all these places we can go visit, we can look up online, plan our adventures, but what can you even do or see in your national parks? Let's find out how to get started with that in our next slide. So once you are able to safely get out to your national parks, you can start always at the visitor center. A lot of these park places have an entrance station that will give you some information when you go in, but because of current times, it is unsure, but if they are open, you can always check ahead of time before going to a national park site to see if they're open to begin with, what facilities are available, but if they are open, you can start at their visitor center. Next slide, please. And then you can check out their exhibits if they are available to you. You can grab a trail map and then choose your adventure from there. The park trail map usually has not just the trails, but a lot of the history and the significant places that you can visit in the park. This is North Cascades National Park. They had a really cool like 3D map of their park that's up in Washington state. Next slide, please. You can go to places like Sequoia National Park and enjoy a beautiful hike among the trees. Next slide, please. What else can we do in our parks? Of course, enjoy the views. Like this family here is enjoying at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Next slide, please. You can also take a stroll. We have some really cool trails. So if you're not a hardcore hiker, I was in the time before time, but I get really tired when I go on a hike in recent times. So you can go and take a casual stroll, bring your little friends with you too on literally a stroller if you want to and see what's in your national parks. Next slide, please. These families are having fun in the parks. You can also become a junior ranger. So junior ranger is one of my personal favorite activities to do. I know I'm not a junior ranger. I am a big grown-up park ranger now, but I still love to take part in that. You get to learn so much. You get a free booklet that tells you a little bit about the history about the park and you get to answer questions as there's a lot of trivia activities you can do and you can earn your very own wooden or plastic junior ranger badge and you can collect them all. So you can do that if the parks are offering that. Next slide, please. You can learn, of course, about the natural and cultural history. We have awesome exhibits. So this is the most recent exhibit we had in Alcatraz Island. I think it's still there. You can learn about the Indian occupation or... Oh no, this actually, I'm correcting myself here. This was the previous exhibit we have. We have exhibit right now about the Indian occupation on Alcatraz right now, but this was future IDs. It was about formerly incarcerated peoples in modern times, an exhibit of their voice being heard today on Alcatraz. So that was a couple of years ago. But next slide, please. See, these exhibits are changing all the time. We don't even know. Another thing I love to do, you can go camping in the outdoors, of course, right now. Camping is not available everywhere, but in the places that there are, make sure to check it out. If you have never gone camping before, if you're terrified to do so, if I can do it when I was in fifth grade, when I was as a baby, I recommend you take your family out and at least experience it once. It's so cool to be able to camp outside. You get to hear different sounds that you don't normally hear when you're sleeping at home. But just the thrill of it, getting to put a blanket over yourself and hang out with your family in the dark and look up at the sky. Well, here in the Bay Area, it's so hard to look up at the night sky with the fog, but I highly recommend camping. Next slide, please. Or you can try doing some other outdoor recreation activities like our high school interns in this photo here. They went all the way to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area in California. It's in Northern California. They went kayaking for the first time, a lot of them. So you can try other things to do. That's another recreation area. So next slide, please. And of course, you never know what you might see in your national park. So if you're gonna stay locally, you could probably see our coyotes in the Marin Headlands. This photo is taken back in May. It was a quiet morning in the Marin Headlands at the Golden Gate Bridge, Vista Point. And I happened to stop by and snap this picture from a distance, of course. But what other wildlife could we see? Let's check out our next slides. Ooh! Now this, if you're like me afraid of snakes, you might freak out. But the San Francisco Garter Snake is this beautiful. It's probably the most beautiful snake you can see. And we don't get to see it quite often because it is an endangered species. So you can learn about them in your national parks. You might see photos of them. But if you're super lucky, you might be able to encounter your endangered species in the national parks because they are protected in there. So I've never seen a San Francisco Garter Snake. If you do, be careful, see from a distance. Maybe snap a picture and send it to me. Next slide, please. Or you can see some of our endangered species that are maybe not so endangered anymore. Or maybe their park rangers and park staff in the parks are doing the effort to take care of them. Like our California condor. We have these very special gigantic birds with the wingspan that's like way bigger than my body that fly over California. And they even fly over at the Grand Canyon. And you get to learn about them from our park staff. And of course, you can see them from a distance. If you go to Grand Canyon or you're at pinnacles, you might see them flying above your head. Next slide, please. Oh my goodness! You can also see wildlife up close. Remember I said we might see a bison in our slides. This is the bison. This is not my photo. I got this photo from our park website, but this is Yellowstone National Park again in Wyoming. And you never know who you might encounter in your national parks. You might see the bison up close while you're in your car. I would be very nervous to be in this vehicle right next to these giant bison. But if you wanna see some bison and maybe you can't go to Wyoming right now, a little secret, you can just go to Golden Gate Park and check out the bison at the bison pad. I can go to the Gate Park in San Francisco. That might be a little safer too. Next slide, please. I feel more comfortable seeing them that way. But I have this ginormous question for you. So we went through the national park sites that are right here in the Bay Area. We went through the national park sites that you could potentially visit. If you go with your every kid outdoor pass or your general national park sites pass. But who do the national parks belong to? Now, this is a huge question that I love asking, but let me know who do the national parks belong to? Who do you think they belong to? Next slide, please. All right, so let's talk about every kid outdoors for real. How do we claim your pass? How do we claim your pass so that you can go and visit these places that we just talked about? Next slide, please. The first most thing you can do is go to the website everykidoutdoors.gov. So that's everykidoutdoors.gov for government. And when you go to that website, you're gonna see this page and it's gonna have this giant every kid outdoors, hey, fourth graders, let's check it out. And the big button that says let's go. So we're gonna go over that process right now. But if you take note on the top left corner, it says, hey, fifth graders, there's a blue banner that has a link to the fifth graders. But we'll get back to that in a minute. So let's pretend that we're clicking this website saying, let's go, fourth graders. So we pretended to click it. Next slide, please. It's gonna take you to some questions. So it's gonna say, dear diary, today I used my free pass to explore the United States. At first I was nervous because there were so many options. There were parks, forest, seashores, wildlife, habitats to visit. I had to decide what I wanted to do. So when you click start, it's gonna give you a series of questions and you get to choose your own adventure. So you can pick whether you wanna go see a historic feature, if you wanna go see Petroglyphs, or if you wanna go visit Martin Luther King's house, you get to choose those. I can't remember which questions I chose, but let's go to the next slide. After you choose those questions, it's only three questions. It says, woohoo, you did it. Claim your pass. You're gonna get your paper pass on the next screen. Please print it and keep it in a safe place. Remember to take it with you on your trip. So right here, just to get your pass, you're gonna enter your zip code. That's the mailing code from your home, from your address, your neighborhood. If you don't know your home one, you could probably ask a parent or guardian, or you can ask your teacher, your educator, and ask them what the zip code is to your school and use that one instead. So let's go to the next slide. Ta-da, you're gonna get your pass that looks like this. So once you have that PDF version of your pass, it is called a voucher. So you have your park voucher. You can print that out or you can show it on your phone when you take it to the National Park sites. And that will be basically your free ticket to go visit those National Park sites. So let's go to the next slide. What about that fifth grade pass, huh? So again, when you're on that main page, you can click on that blue banner on the top. It says, get your voucher for fifth graders. And the fifth grader one is a little different because it only lasts until August, 2021. So August of this year, we have like eight months to take use of this. So fifth graders, get on it. Let's see what that one looks like. So when you click that one on the next slide, you're gonna see a video. Please watch the video. Find out more about the fifth grade pass. And then there's a link that you can click there and that will open your fifth grade voucher. So they look similar. They're a little different. Let's see a side by side. Next slide, please. Oh, I think there was another page. Let's go one slide back. So yeah, fifth grade voucher again, it does expire August 31st of 2021. That is this year. So on these PDF vouchers, there's also all the official rules where you can get it, where you can redeem it. All of that is on there and on our website too. But let's go back to that side by side. Next page. We have our two different vouchers side by side. So the fourth grade voucher, that one will last all of the year that you are in fourth grade. And it'll go to the end of this year if you're in fourth grade right now. So congratulations during your pass. It's orange. The fifth grade voucher again, only till August 31st, 2021, but still please go use it. That one is mostly green and it has that little mountain. It almost looks like my arrowhead that we went over in the beginning, but next slide, please. All right, you did it. You got your pass. You can go to places like Lassen. Like Christy went with her family. But of course, I'm sure you're asking yourself like, what if you don't have a pass? What if you can't go to these spaces? What if you're not a fourth grader? I have some answers for you. But let's go to the next slide. So let's say you did get your pass. You can get out there, take your family with you. You can visit places like Arches National Park in Utah. Next slide, please. You can explore with your family, take the whole family with you. So when you do have this pass, your voucher will grant access to everyone who is in your vehicle if you go into a park that includes, like there's an entrance station and you can drive there. So if you can fit your whole family in your car, my family is kind of big and we have an eight passenger vehicle. So if you have a fourth or fifth grader in the car with the pass, you can bring your whole family with you. Next slide, please. All right, so remember I said, all right, what if I'm not in fourth or fifth grade? What if I don't have a pass? What else can I do? What if I'm 31 years old and no longer in school anymore? You can visit your national parks for free on these six very special days that the park service has reserved for you and your family. So we have fee free days in 2021. So the one coming up real close is January 18th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We're so excited to welcome you to your national parks on other days like April 17th, August 4th. And we have the link for that on the bottom here in ps.gov slash plan your visit slash fee free parks. It's a long link, but we'll include that for you too. So in the little picture, we have Sequoia National Park. What are the other three days? Let's go to the next slide, please. All right, we have three more dates, August 25th, September 25th and November 11th. So remember six total fee free days that you can go explore the national parks with your family. And hopefully they will be open. Hopefully they will be available and all the features will be available to you. But please, we never know. Check out before you go out there and make sure that you can access those places. But we are projecting, we are hoping that we can visit those on those six free days. So let's go to the next slide, please. And that's basically all there is for every kid outdoors. I want you to find your park and you can recreate responsibly. I know it's very uncertain still because of the pandemic that we are all living through. And we do have some resources available for you to still check out our national parks. You can still go on a hike and enjoy nature and enjoy some fresh air, but please check out our websites to see how you can recreate responsibly in your national parks. But I see that we have a lot of questions rolling and I'm so excited that you're engaging with us. Remember I asked you a big question, who do the national parks belong to? We'll get into that. So thank you for listening to my presentation about every kid outdoors. That was just as much as I can get into that presentation about that, but let's get to some questions. Hi, Christy. Hey, MJ. Hey. Thank you so much for sharing about how we can access our local national parks, giving us a virtual field trip all around America to see these amazing parks. There was so much love on the chat feed, appreciation for animals, plants, parks, camping. And I want to give a shout out to, I think it's the creative arts kids. So we had a lot of kids on chat today, eye kids, sharing their appreciation for this and definitely learning about how they can take advantage of this pass. They've answered a lot of the questions, but one question that came up was, what was that bird with the amazing wingspan? Can you remind us what that is? Oh, the California condor. It looks very similar to a turkey vulture with its red, leathery looking head and the black wingspan, but it is a California condor and they are a very protected species here in California. But oh my gosh, I already forgot how long the wingspan is, but I want to say a turkey vulture is like a four foot wingspan. California condor is like at least twice that size, I think. But if someone knows the correct answer, let me know. But it is a California condor. And if you go to Mirror Woods, at the very entrance before you enter the park, they have this really cool wooden exhibit that has the wingspan cut out in wood of all the different birds. So you can put your wingspan there and see like, oh my goodness, I'm barely the size of a X, Y, and Z bird on that thing. Amazing. Thanks for sharing with us all the fee-free days that are happening this year and one coming up in just a matter of weeks. So that's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Do you have any pro tips for us if you're going to a national park and planning on a hike for beginners? Like what would you bring? Ooh, okay. So if you want to get started, you can visit our more easier places like Chrissy Field if you want to go for a more flat hike. But always when you go to your national parks, make sure you bring some layers, especially here in the Bay Area, you never know when Carl the Fog is going to roll in and it's going to be super cold. It's so foggy, it's almost raining on you. Like it has been in this past couple of weeks, but always bring some sweatshirts, maybe a rain layer. Always bring a water bottle, some comfortable shoes you don't mind getting dirty. You never know if it's going to be rocky terrain, if it's going to be a wooded platform, or if there's going to be mud because of that fog or rain. Always bring a backpack where you can put some different resources in there. A lot of these parks, if you're going to go for a longer day hike, you might not have access to food or a restaurant. So you can always pack a snack or a lunch to bring with your family. And those are the basics I would recommend, but always check out the website to see, okay, how long of a hike are you going to go for? If you're going to go backpacking like I did in fifth grade and like I did two years ago, you're going to need a lot more stuff. But for a day hike, normally I like to bring a small backpack where I can fit a water bottle and extra sweatshirt, make sure I got some comfy shoes on, whether they're my squishy like memory foam running shoes or comfortable shoes, or whether they're my hiking shoes, I'll gauge it on which trail I want to go to. But yeah, thanks for that question. That's awesome. And I think you touched upon this. There's a question that says, how come fifth graders only get the pass until 2021? Do you have any intel on that? Aha, so fifth graders, I know it doesn't sound fair, but fifth graders, you were in fourth grade last year. So because of the pandemic, we're like, whoa, that's not fair. They didn't get to really explore their national park sites when they're in fourth grade. And we didn't really get to promote every kid outdoors while you were in fourth grade. So we're giving you that second chance since you're in fifth grade to let you explore at least through your fifth grade here. So that's gonna end August 31st. And that's not a decision that I made. It's a decision that was made very high above somewhere in the government. But that is the reason why fifth graders were included because normally it is a fourth grade pass. And the government decided to select fourth graders because they figured fourth grade is like, when you're exploring them the most you're learning about natural and cultural histories and all these different subjects in fourth grade. So they thought that would be the perfect time to get out there and explore the national parks too. So that's why fourth grade was selected. But fifth grade was included because they wanted to extend the invitation at least for a little while longer. Awesome, that is so generous of the national park. So thank you. And we have a question that popped in. I think this is a pop quiz for you. How many national parks are there in the U.S.? Oh, well, we tried to answer that question. The park sites was last time I checked 422. It may be more, because I saw an article yesterday morning that some other site was being added, but you never know, there might be a whole list of places being added. I guess we'll have to check it out and find out and stay tuned what other park sites might be added to the list. I think at least in my lifetime, I will be able to see 500 national park sites. I sure hope. But there's different designations too. Like there's different titles that these parks have. So we are a national recreation area here. We have national historic sites, national like seashores, parkways. There's many designations, but they're called park sites. So that's the 422 that I had last checked. That is super cool. Thanks, kids. I'm checking our chat feed to see if there are any other questions that have come in. Yeah, keep the questions rolling. I think there's a lot of appreciation for you, for bringing this information to our library so we could pass it on. This program will be available on the virtual trailhead off of the San Francisco Public Library's website. The URL is in the chat. Oh, one question, really important one. Where can I get my pass? Is it a physical pass? All right, that's an excellent question. So for the fourth grade voucher, of course the paper one is a voucher to get your pass. So depending on where you visit for that first time, they may or may not have a physical plastic pass. So some parks do sometimes don't, in the Bay Area, we're still trying to figure out where we can provide those, but at the moment right now, not all of our park sites are open. So usually you can find them wherever they sell the regular America, the beautiful park passes and where they have the senior pass and the veterans pass. So in our local parks at GGNRA, usually you can get them at our parks conservancy bookstores, like the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point, Muir Woods and Alcatraz, I believe. But at the moment, we do not have a physical pass. But if you go to one of those bigger fancy parks where they do have an entrance station and they usually have more physical passes available, you may get a plastic one. But for the time being, you can hold on to your voucher and keep showing it. Hopefully they can get you a plastic pass, but they may not be available. For the fifth grade one, unfortunately there is not a plastic pass. In place that they just couldn't make one happen for that. But yeah. It's kind of like our library cards right now. You can get a digital library card for free if you live in San Francisco, just complete the online form. And if you're an SFUSD student, you already have a library card. Give us a call if you need reminding of your digits. It's super easy right now. It's a little hard to distribute physical cards right now, just the COVID considerations. Yeah, that's another thing too. So because of that, there may not be the physical pass available, but if you have it on your phone when you have to scan the barcode or if you have that print out, that print out in a special place, maybe leave it in the car if you're gonna be visiting in a car so that you don't lose it. But did anyone answer that one question that I asked everybody who do the national parks belong to? Oh, in the chat, the kids knew. They're like, it's our park. It's my park. That's right. So a lot of times when I ask this question, people say, hmm, the government, the president, the people, you the park ranger. But I love to ask this question because it always starts off with you and me. So national parks have been protected and created for you and me. And I always sing a song. These parks are your parks. These parks are my parks. So the parks belong to you and that's why you should go out and explore your national parks. But yeah. Amazing. Questions. Just doing a final scan. I think we covered all the questions. However, you could always call your library for more information. You can rewatch this program off the virtual trailhead at SFPL and offer YouTube channel. We know we're gonna continue to work with the national park service and with the major in MJ and her whole team. So follow us on social channels and stay in touch. Thank you so much, MJ, for bringing this knowledge to us today and inspiring us to connect and be in our parks. They are for all of us, just like your public libraries. Thanks everyone for tuning in. We will see you next time. Thank you so much, everyone. Go find your park. Recreate responsibly.