WASHINGTON –Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, National Park Service (NPS) Director Mary Bomar, NPS Regional Directors and several NPS Superintendents will be available to the media to discuss the recently announced budget and NPS Centennial Initiative. Media are invited to call in with questions based on the schedule listed below.

The President’s $2.4 billion National Park Service budget for Fiscal Year 2008 calls for the largest increase in park operations funding ever proposed and leveraged public-private investments that could generate as much as $3 billion to help the parks prepare for their 100th birthday in 2016. It is the largest increase ever for park operations, that category of the budget that pays employee salaries, utilities – the money it takes to keep parks open for visitors. This increase in operations ($100 million identified for the National Park Centennial Initiative) funding means 3,000 new seasonal employees, or what the public sees as Park Rangers: 1,000 for interpretation, 1,000 for maintenance and 1,000 for resource protection. The FY2008 budget proposal is the first financial infusion for the President’s Initiative to ready America’s parks for the 2016 Centennial of the National Park Service.

WHO:	Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior Mary Bomar, Director, National Park Service Regional Directors, National Park Service (See complete list below) Superintendents, National Park Service (See complete list below)
WHAT:	Media/Press Call-In
WHEN:	Tuesday, February 6, 2007 According to the time-zone you are in, please call-in during the following session schedule at (888) 566-5778 and use the corresponding pass code for that session:
All Sessions are listed in Eastern Standard Time Eastern Time Zone Call-In 2:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Pass Code: 2230 Central Time Zone Call-In 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Pass Code: 2453 Mountain Time Zone Call-In 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Pass Code: 3304 Pacific Time Zone/Alaska Call-In 5:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. Pass Code: 4154
Regional Directors and Superintendents available on calls in the following time-zones:

Eastern Time Zone (2:00pm – 2:30pm) Northeast Region: Dennis Reidenbach Southeast Region: Pat Hooks National Capital Region: Joe Lawler Great Smoky Mountains NP: Dale Ditmanson Colonial NHP: Dan Smith	Central Time Zone (2:30pm – 3:00pm) Midwest Region: Ernie Quintana Cuyahoga Valley NP: John Debo, Jr. Apostle Islands NL: Bob Krumenaker Mammoth Cave NP: Patrick Reed
Mountain Time Zone (4:30pm – 5:00pm) Intermountain Region: Mike Snyder Glacier NP: Michael Holm Yellowstone NP: Suzanne Lewis Zion NP: Jock Whitworth	Pacific Time Zone & Alaska (5:00pm – 5:30pm) Pacific West Region: Jonathan Jarvis Alaska Region: Marcia Blaszak Denali NP&P: Paul Anderson Yosemite NP: Mike Tollefson