The national parks deserve a prominent place in any forward-thinking initiatives emerging from the Obama Administration-sponsored White House Conference on America's Great Outdoors, which convenes on April 16 to address the challenges, opportunities and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans and American families to the outdoors.

It is very important to insure that public lands initiatives prominently feature national parks, strengthen their protection, and enhance the unique capacity of the National Park Service to help build strong, livable, healthy communities. Towards this end, the National Parks Conservation Association, a leading advocate for the parks, has recommended these four policies:

• Improve opportunities to use our parks to inspire and teach our children about our heritage, to engage in service efforts like trail repair or replanting native vegetation, and to get kids into active, healthy, outdoor activity that will help them lead long, healthy lives.

• Evaluate areas that deserve more protection and promote better policies to ensure that future generations of Americans can breathe clean air, hear the sounds of nature, and enjoy scenic views for years to come.

• Fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund to enable the Park Service to buy private land within park boundaries from willing sellers.

• Strengthen capacity for federal, regional, state, and local agencies and private landowners to work collaboratively in order to protect parks and the wildlife, plants, and rivers beyond park borders.

Proponents rightly claim that these goals are rooted in values held dear by the vast majority of Americans and central to our hopes for leaving this country to the next generation in better shape than we received it. Let’s hope that the policy- and decision-makers participating in this conference see it that way too.