From "traveling trunks" and power systems to biodiversity inventories and efforts to develop tomorrow's national park stewards, the 110 Centennial Challenge Projects and Programs that are being funded for 2008 offer a little something for most folks.

A bipartisan coalition of five U.S. senators has introduced legislation that would enable the government to fully fund the Centennial Initiative proposed by the Bush administration in honor of the National Park Service's upcoming centennial in 2016.

Completion of an environmental assessment into the question of returning fishers to Olympic National Park has cleared the way for a recovery program to begin, possibly before year's end.

If nothing else, last week's Leadership Summit on Partnership and Philanthropy hosted by the National Park Foundation demonstrated that some major corporations want to support the national parks. The question that lingers, though, is to what extent?

Thank you Morton Meyerson. In case anyone at the National Park Foundation's Leadership Summit on Partnership and Philanthropy was wondering, giving to the national parks shouldn't be focused solely on brick and mortar projects.

Does Autumn not exist in Austin, Texas? I left drizzle and 45 degrees in Park City, Utah, yesterday morning, and here in Austin it might as well be mid-summer, with the highs approaching 90 degrees. Is that a good atmosphere for incubating "the next century of our parks"?

I've previously written that the Bush administration's proposed Centennial Initiative appears to pay little attention to the National Park Service's ballooning $8 billion maintenance backlog. Some others are beginning to notice that, too.

Fighting mosquitoes is one of the ways the folks at Grand Teton National Park want to mark the National Park Service's centennial in 2016. Really.

Is there really a need for the Centennial Initiative to generate private dollars for the parks? That doesn't seem to be the case for the Yellowstone Park Foundation, which is recently raised $3 million for things like trails improvements, fisheries work, and curatorial work with park archives.

Is the National Park Service's Centennial Initiative as "audacious" as Director Mary Bomar claims it to be? Will it truly prepare the agency for its second century, or is it lacking in its current form some critical aspects that are necessary for the Park Service to attain greatness as protector of arguably the world's best park system?

Among the 201 projects "certified" to meet the criteria for celebrating the National Park Service's centennial in 2016 is one to establish a dual-use, hiking and mountain biking trail in Big Bend National Park in Texas. What seems odd, though, is that this project made the list at a time when the Park Service is in the middle of a five-year study examining mountain bike use in the park system.

I hate jumping to conclusions. But that apparently is exactly what I did when I surmised that the proposed $1.5 million centennial project involving the Alaska Travel Industry Association would benefit the cruise-ship industry more than the parks.

The long list of projects and programs for the National Park Service Centennial Initiative has been announced today. Secretary Kempthorne and Director Bomar shared the details of the plan for a crowd of reporters in Yosemite National Park.

In a move that can be expected to generate some attention from the White House, two prominent members of the House of Representatives have introduced a billion-dollar centennial funding bill for the national park system. Two big differences from President Bush's initiative: no private matching funds are required, and this package has an identified funding source.

One Centennial Initiative idea that is making the rounds, is that a Museum of the National Park Service be constructed to chronicle the history and impact of the agency.