Volume_29_Issue_3

8 Volume 29, Issue 3 Preservation & Progress By Lewis H. Rogers Jr., Acting Deputy Superintendent* FROM THE PARK We’re having a busy summer here at Gettysburg National Military Park (GETT) and Eisenhower National Historic Site (EISE). Working closely with Gettysburg Foundation staff, we opened the David Wills House for free from June 9 through August 12. A new photographic exhibit at the Museum and Visitor Center called “America’s Best Idea: A Photographic Journey Through Our National Parks” is helping increase the visibility of GETT and EISE as units of the National Park System. We kicked off the summer during National Pollinator Week, and declared our commitment to providing critical habitats for pollinating species that are vital to healthy ecosystems and the supply of diverse foods. Here are some updates on these and other major projects happening this summer. I hope you had a chance to come see the action in person or that you’ll visit soon to experience the national parks that you help care for. Thanks for all you do to help preserve and protect the parks through the Friends of Gettysburg! OPERATION BUTTERFLYWINGS On June 20 Gettysburg Foundation, the Dwight David Eisenhower Society, GETT, and EISE held an event during which we signed a pollinator resolution to support Operation Butterfly Wings, a large landscape conservation project. Operation Butterfly Wings is about the protection of the world’s precious pollinators using the monarch butterfly as a flagship species. We are very pleased that the Foundation and the Eisenhower Society are co-sponsors of the pollinator resolution, which now includes more than 25 community organizations who have also signed on. PHILANTHROPIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT In February, the park prepared a draft Philanthropic Partnership agreement for Gettysburg Foundation for comment. The new agreement is mandated by NPS Directors Order 21, Donations and Philanthropic Partnerships and will be extensively reviewed by the NPS regional and Washington offices. Park HAPPENINGS S umm e r 2 0 1 8 National Park Service, Gettysburg Foundation, and Dwight D. Eisenhower Society representatives sign the Pollinator *Lewis Rogers arrived as the acting superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site on July 24. He will serve until late November. Rogers’ regular position is superintendent of Petersburg National Battlefield which includes a 2,700 acre Civil War battlefield and the Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Virginia.