President Barack Obama and the first family visited Yosemite national park over the weekend to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
The Obamas took in the sights of the popular park as part of a two-day stay, including hiking to Glacier Point.
Obama himself gave a short speech in front of the Yosemite Falls saying preserving the national parks for future generations is a huge task.
“As we look back over the last 100 years, there is plenty to celebrate about a national park system that is the envy of the world. But as we look to the next century, the next 100 years, the task of protecting our sacred spaces is even more important. And the biggest challenge we are going to face protecting this place and places like it is climate change,” Obama says.
Obama also stressed the need to have more children experience the outdoor spaces preserved by the park service with the every child a park promotion that allows fourth graders into the park for free.
He says that is why he has added more land and water to the system.
“We have protected more than 265 million acres of public lands and waters. That’s more than any administration in history. Now it does include this big body of water out in the Pacific Ocean but we have also already done the second most public lands of any administration in history,” Obama says.
Obama also played up the economic benefits of national parks, saying for every dollar spent on the parks it creates ten dollars in economic activity.
