This task of stewardship requires our support, and President Bush and this Administration are determined to provide that support. We're especially concerned about the daily care and maintenance of the parks, which for some years has received low priority in the federal budget. The President has called for significant new funding to eliminate the maintenance backlog throughout the Park System. We're going to work with Congress, and they will begin providing those funds this year. We believe in the National Park Service and its values ' values which are, of course, all gathered together in the person of the park ranger.
People expect rangers to know just about everything, and they usually do.
The typical park ranger works as a historian, resource manager, law enforcement officer, curator, teacher ' and sometimes paramedic and rescuer. Park rangers do all this and more because they love their jobs. And speaking as the son of a man who spent his career working for the U.S Department of Agriculture, I know that people in your line of work aren't in it for the money. But thanks to the dedicated rangers throughout the Park System, this nation is conserving its great natural and cultural resources, and building appreciation for that heritage among each generation of Americans. In presenting this award to Hunter Sharp, we do not say 'Park Ranger of the Year,' because it stands for much more.