Gettysburg

Photo: Gettysburg pajama pants. Historic military battle pink plaid fleece pants are funny to me.

If some of the people in this photo look extra Parks-y, it's because that's the Director of the National Parks Service, Jon Jarvis (beige hat), with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (middle) and The Conservation Fund team.

On Friday I attended work at a golf course. However, no golf. Instead, we celebrated The Conservation Fund's accomplishment of assisting Gettysburg National Military Park in acquiring a 95-acre golf course/country club located on an important historic site of Day 1 of the battle, one of the largest remaining unprotected parcels.

In March 2010, it appeared that the property was headed for a worst-case scenario in terms of battlefield preservation: a developer bought the property and created a development concept plan for over 200 housing units on the site.*

The Conservation Fund worked to successfully negotiate an option with the developer to acquire title to the land, and subsequently conveyed it to the Park Service. National Park Service intends to restore the landscape to its historic 1863 setting, in preparation for the upcoming anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

For more about this project see this link and for more about battlefield protection, see this link.

Photo: Robert E. Lee word searches, gift shop