Olasee Davis has seen huge changes in St. John since he first visited as a child.
"Every summer I used to come to St. John," Davis told the 100 or so people gathered Sunday for the Friends of the Park annual meeting, held at Cinnamon Bay Campground’s T’ree Lizards Restaurant.
Davis, a noted environmentalist and a professor at the University of the Virgin Islands, cut his environmental teeth at a young age. He now passes that information along to 7,000 to 10,000 school children a year from his base on St. Croix.
He spoke extensively about the late George Seaman, an environmentalist who Davis said was not happy about the lack of attention paid to the environment by the government.
"If George Seaman was alive today, he’d be pleased that V.I. National Park has friends," he said.
Park Superintendent Mark Hardgrove provided an update on current and future park projects.
A North Shore Road shuttle to take visitors from Cruz Bay to the North Shore Road beaches is in the works. Utilizing the services of taxi drivers, Hardgrove said he expects the shuttle to begin operating shortly.
"It will run hourly for five or six months during the winter," he said.
Next year the park plans to begin a "voluntourism" program working with cruise ship passengers who will pay for a visit to either park facilities on St. John or Hassel Island. They will do tasks like cleaning up beaches, maintaining trails and stabilizing ruins.
"In most cases, these volunteers will be transported by local taxis, having a positive impact on the economy. Shopping and lunch time will also be included," Hardgrove said.
Work is under way on the resurfacing of the North Shore Road and adjacent areas. Hardgrove said the contractor is currently working on the road’s base layer. And, the park is in the planning stage of a bike trail to run through the park, Hardgrove said.
According to Hardgrove, the park puts about $11 million a year into the local economy through salaries and other expenditures.
Friends President Joe Kessler outlined the Friends group’s accomplishments during the past year and projects planned for this year. He said an accessible trail will be built at Cinnamon Bay and an archeology museum developed.
Both Hardgrove and Kessler spoke about the importance of volunteers. Kessler said more than 1,000 people volunteered for about 8,500 hours with Friends’ activities during 2009. Hardgrove said that including the Friends volunteer efforts, the park gets about 15,000 hours a year from volunteers.
Dave Thompson, who spearheaded efforts on building the Francis Bay accessible trail, received the Friends Volunteer of the Year Award. Jeff Miller, a biologist with the National Park Service’s inventory and monitoring program, received the Friends Partnership award. Winter residents Kent and Paula Savel received the park’s Volunteer of the Year award.
And Jeff Chabot, who as a volunteer runs bush clearing crews for much of the year, received the park’s Volunteer Extraordinaire award.