As the U.S. National Park Service marks its 108th birthday this week, Apple is celebrating with more ways to support and experience America’s parks. Today through August 25, Apple will make a $10 donation to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made with Apple Pay on apple.com, in the Apple Store app, or at an Apple Store in the U.S.1 Additionally, this fall, Apple Maps will make it even easier for users to explore national parks with details for thousands of hikes.
For eight years, Apple has engaged customers in support for the National Park Foundation as part of the company’s long-standing efforts to protect and connect communities to America’s national parks. This includes sharing content and resources across Apple platforms that bring users closer to these treasured places, from the “Nature Awaits” playlist on Apple Music now playing in retail stores across the country, to over 30 Apple Maps Guides curated by the National Park Foundation.
“Every time I visit a national park, I’m struck by their extraordinary beauty and incredibly rich history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “We’re proud to partner with the National Park Foundation to help preserve these natural treasures that inspire so many people. Their important work helps ensure that future generations will be able to experience that same sense of awe, wonder, and reverence for the planet we call home.”
Supporting the Next Generation of Park Champions
The National Park Foundation funds programs across the country that ensure America’s national parks remain a place where nature can thrive and visitors can learn and explore. Programs like Field Science and ParkVentures are creating pathways for youth to engage in immersive learning experiences and explore STEM career paths, while addressing barriers to access and engagement with parks. For example, Apple’s support has helped fund the EcoLogik Institute’s important work to foster the next generation of park champions.
This summer, in collaboration with Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego, California, the organization is supporting young explorers and scientists ages 10 to 16 — empowering them to discover and deepen their connection to nature and see themselves as scientists, engineers, innovators, and leaders who can make a difference. Through apprenticeships and other work experiences, participants gain valuable on-the-ground experience in natural resources science career fields.
For 17-year-old Addison Shapiro, the experience at EcoLogik camp was transformative and evolved into new opportunities to engage in fieldwork and support species monitoring surveys at Cabrillo. “EcoLogik has given me an amazing community,” said Addison in a statement. “I’ve made so many lifelong friends and met inspiring women in STEM who have not only broadened my perspective, but also motivated me to pursue a career in the life sciences.”
“By investing in the interest and passion of young women and girls who want to explore careers in STEM, we can empower them to become the next generation of environmental stewards,” said Will Shafroth, the National Park Foundation’s president and CEO, in a statement. “The EcoLogik Institute’s project is proof that when we nurture a love of science, provide access to national parks, and equip young women like Addison with the tools to succeed, they will see their potential come to life. With the support of Apple, together we’re creating a future where every girl can see herself as the next scientist, park ranger, and other endless aspirations.”
New Ways to Enjoy and Explore National Parks
This fall, Apple Maps will introduce new features to help users explore the world. Across U.S. national parks, users will be able to browse thousands of hikes in Maps — filtered by length, elevation, and route type — and follow along with turn-by-turn guidance. In addition, users across the U.S. can explore topographic maps on iPhone with contour lines, trail details, and more. They can also build custom walking routes to tailor their adventures to their personal preferences, whether for a steep, uphill climb or a leisurely walk in nature. All national park hikes and custom routes can be saved and accessed offline while away from cell service or Wi‑Fi.
This week, Apple users can celebrate the nature, history, and heritage of national parks at home or while exploring. On August 25, Apple Watch users around the world can earn a limited-edition award and animated stickers for Messages by recording any workout of 20 minutes or more.
Apple’s efforts to help people enjoy and access national parks are part of the company’s broader global commitment to support communities and the environment.
MacDailyNews Take: Happy hiking!
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As a Brit, America’s national parks are incredible and a joy to visit. They do America credit.
Don’t tell kent sam bexky and the hater crowd here. They whine incessantly about any collective long-term cooperation and will sky scream “socialism”. How dare that a democratic government protect natural spaces for future generations when the extreme righties want corporations to monetize all the planet’s resources for the benefit of the few shareholders who issue themselves stock awards by the billions.
These asshats would label one of the USA’s finest presidents, Teddy Roosevelt, “woke”.
So it is unfortunate that massively powerful companies like Apple have basically nothing but their leadership’s conscience to impart self control. But for the last 22 years this site and its nastiest posters have taken pot shots at Cook for any sustainable or clean energy initiatives that Apple has invested in. But lo and behold, Apple does financially better than oil companies, pillow manufacturers, and political gossip sites masquerading as social networks or tech blogs.
Apple should take its spare change to buy and preserve additional millions of acres of forestland donated to the National Parks to offset the fire damaged acreage in its home state and everywhere Apple operates. It would be a great legacy to offset the anti-Apple whiners and magats.
The United States of America is not a “democracy.”
The United States of America is a constitutional republic.
“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy.” – Plato
Want to see the effects of a direct democracy? Look at the decline of one-party ruled California.
Triggered much?
Nowhere did I post “direct democracy”. Existence and numbers of political parties has no bearing on government model or efficacy thereof.
And being the hypocrite you are, we can dig up tons of posts where you encourage single party politics, with your party having entire control with no checks or balances. You are so deep in your cult of personality that you can’t even respect ideas or collaborate with people whose experience and interests differ from your narrow greediness.
By the way, California with all its problems remains one of the healthiest, most prosperous, most desirable places to live anywhere in the world. States with high oartisan bickering have objectively worse outcomes, and no I won’t do your homework for you. You can find all the data you need to see that your party has for decades delivered worse financial and health and education and quality of life results on average. That is because the extreme right encourages class divisions and money redistribution to the connected oligarchs. It gas always been this way, only recently you chose an orange manbaby to sell the falsehoods of trickledown policies. We love it that you hate the concept of collaboration. Because it has been proven that a democratic government that professionally manages large civil works delivers better overall outcomes for everyone. Just ask any soldier, teacher, police officer, fire fighter, diplomat, judge, transportation engineer, or a milion other critical workers who in part or in whole rely on the tax support from everyone to keep up the quality of life for everyone. If you want to live better than everyone else by creating fences, then you’re just tilting at windmills. As usual.
Oh, so you’re both “Botvinnik” and, laughably, “Truth.” How many other names do you post under?
California’s Exodus Could Get Even Worse – Newsweek, June 17, 2024
In March the U.S. Census Bureau reported the population of California was 38,965,000 as of July 2023, a fall of 573,000 from 39,500,000 three years earlier. This decline occurred despite the U.S. population growing as a whole, with Florida, Texas and South Carolina recording increases of 1.9 percent, 1.6 percent and 1.7 percent respectively in the year to July 2022.
U.S. Census Bureau figures showed 74,000 people moved from California to Arizona alone in 2022, following 69,000 the previous year.
California is also the epicenter of homelessness in the U.S.
https://www.newsweek.com/californias-exodus-could-get-even-worse-1912942