Lake Roosevelt National Recreation is "sister park" to South African reserve

The Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area and Spioenkop Nature Reserve in South Africa have signed a five-year “sister park” agreement that will allow the parks to collaborate and exchange information.

The agreement signed Oct. 11 allows for intellectual exchange, international cooperation, sharing ways to enrich visitor experiences, and enhance training of park staff, said a news release from LRNRA.

The relationship also encourages both parks to share first-hand information on a variety of topics, including park management, resource conservation, education, partner organizations, friend groups, and collaboration with gateway communities and local economies.

This may be accomplished primarily through the exchange of managerial, technical and professional knowledge, information, data, technology, training and staff exchanges.

Several National Park Service sites have established sister park relationships in the last few years with parks in other countries. These partnerships increase information sharing and direct park-to-park contacts to address many of the common issues that parks face today, primarily through improved telecommunications technologies.

Lake Roosevelt and Spioenkop share mutual interests in that both parks involve reservoirs impounded behind dams, have rich history tied to the area, and are important resources for recreation, the NPS new release notes.

Over the next five years, Lake Roosevelt and Spioenkop plan to collaborate and exchange knowledge to improve both parks’ potential development and implementation of management and financial plans, management of cultural and natural resources, recreation and nature-based tourism planning and management, interpretation and educational outreach, and developing public and private partnerships for infrastructure development and economic benefits.

For more information, visit http://www.nps.gov/learn/management/sister-park.htm.