WASHINGTON — The National Park Service is starting the process of preparing a Foundation Document for planning and management of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, a unit of the National Park Service. The trail has invited the public to join in this effort.

A Foundation Document involves revisiting a national park unit's core purpose and significance, most important resources and values, and the interpretive themes that tell the park's important stories. Although the Foundation Document is not a decision-making document and does not include actions or management strategies, it describes a shared understanding of what is most important about the park. In this capacity, the Foundation Document will reestablish the underlying guidance for future management and planning decisions at Appalachian National Scenic Trail. Because many of the trail's original planning documents are out of date, preparing the Foundation Document is the first step for considering the park's future planning and study needs.

The National Park Service invites the public to play a role in charting the trail's future by sharing your thoughts on what is most important about the Appalachian National Scenic Trail and to help identify its most pressing threats and its greatest opportunities. Your feedback will allow the park to take your thoughts into consideration as they prepare the Foundation Document.

You may submit your feedback at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/appafoundation through January 9, 2014 by responding to five questions about the park's significance, threats, and opportunities.

The Appalachian Trail is a 2,184 mile long public footpath that traverses the scenic, wooded, pastoral, wild, and culturally resonant lands of the Appalachian Mountains. Conceived in 1921, built by private citizens, and completed in 1937, today the trail is managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Appalachian Trail Conservancy, numerous state agencies and thousands of volunteers. For more information, please visit www.nps.gov/appa.

More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America’s 401 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities.

Published December 21, 2013