Public can support new national park with donations

You now can show support for the new Manhattan Project National Historical Park at Hanford with cash.

The Benton-Franklin River Heritage Foundation, administered by Visit Tri-Cities, has stepped up to serve as a philanthropic agency for the new national park until a formal “friends of the park” group is established.

Paying for national parks takes a three-leg stool of federal money, fees and philanthropy, said Tracy Atkins, interim superintendent of the park.

“All are extremely important for visitor experiences and protecting resources,” she said after an agreement was signed this week between the heritage foundation, Visit Tri-Cities, the National Park Service and the Department of Energy.

Fees are not expected for a long time at the Hanford portion of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes B Reactor and sites at the nuclear reservation that help tell the story of the people who lost their homes and land during World War II to a secret project to produce plutonium for atomic bombs.

But donations can be collected now.

There is no shortage of ideas about how money may be used, from installing a temporary exhibit in the Tri-Cities to buying Junior Ranger booklets to covering the cost of transportation to allow more school children to tour the reactor, Atkins said.

Other projects might include volunteer coordination, historic preservation activities, improving public access, adding interpretive trails or publicizing the park with social media, said Visit Tri-Cities.

The park superintendent or interim superintendent can make a request of the foundation for money for a specific project. Or a community-based advocacy committee that has been formed for the Hanford portion of the park may raise money that is earmarked for specific projects, said Kris Watkins, president of Visit Tri-Cities.

With fundraisers now possible, Colleen French, DOE national park program director at Hanford, expects a week of activities at the end of September linked to the centennial of the National Park Service and the 72nd anniversary of the startup of B Reactor.

The reactor was the world’s first full-scale production reactor, ushering in the atomic age. It produced plutonium for the world’s first nuclear explosion as the United States raced to develop an atomic weapon ahead of the Nazis. It also produced plutonium used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, helping end WWII.

“This is one more building block to put the park together,” French said. Free tours of the reactor or pre-Manhattan Project sites in the park are open for registration at www.hanford.gov or by calling 509-376-1647.

The Benton-Franklin River Heritage Foundation was set up in 2002 as an interim fundraising tool to incubate projects. It has been used in the past to help start the Reach Center and for Lewis and Clark bicentennial events.

The National Park Service plans to help establish a friends group for the park after a permanent superintendent has been named and it is more familiar with the Tri-Cities community.

During a workshop in February, park service officials emphasized the importance of local communities to national parks.

National parks would not be what they are today without partnerships and philanthropy, said Ray Murray, chief of the park service partnership program for the Pacific west region.

The park service has a maintenance backlog of nearly $12 billion, about half of which is for transportation projects, and there will never be enough money for projects that would benefit the parks, he said.

But local communities are having success raising money for specific parks projects that have public interest, he said.

Tax-deductible contributions for the Manhattan Project National Historical Park should be made payable to the “Hanford Unit Fund” and may be mailed or delivered to Visit Tri-Cities, Attn: Hanford Unit Fund, 7130 Grandridge Blvd., Suite B, Kennewick, WA 99336.

Contributions directly support the national park, with no administration costs going to the foundation or Visit Tri-Cities.

For more information, call Visit Tri-Cities at 509-735-8486.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 7:29 PM with the headline "Public can support new national park with donations."