Photo Set
Photos: America’s Great Outdoors Beaches
June 7, 2012
President Obama has declared June as National Oceans Month. This photo gallery highlights just a few of America’s “best beaches” that are found on Interior lands as millions of travelers plan their summer vacations. These lands include 85 marine and coastal parklands, 180 marine and coastal wildlife refuges, and 1,100 miles of the California coast administered by Interior agencies. In addition to beautiful scenery, these areas help local tourist economies. In 2010, coastal national park units alone contributed an estimated $3.5 Billion to local economies, while refuges contributed at least $900 million.
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Image 1 of 23Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on the Virginia end of Assateague Island includes more than 14,000 acres of beach, dunes, marsh, and maritime forest. Within a workday’s access to millions of people, Chincoteague Refuge received 1.36 million visitors in 2010. Adjacent to Assateague National Seashore, it has a great view of Assateague Lighthouse. Visitors to this and other Virginia coastal refuges contributed an estimated $60 million to local economies in 2010.
FWS Photo
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"Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was named by Parents Magazine in 2011 as one of the Top 10 Family Beaches in the United States. In addition, in National Geographic's 2011 book entitled The Ten Best of Everything, Indiana Dunes is named as among the top ten national parks for Beaches, Wildflowers, Wetlands, and Urban Escapes.Located 30 miles from Chicago and accessible by commuter train, Indiana Dunes offers beautiful beach and views like this one from West Beach, in which he the skyline of Chicago is visible. 2.1 million visitors spent $44 million in 2010 and supported 658 jobs in the local economy.",
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"West Beach Indiana Dunes",
"Costa Dillon"))
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"The great outdoors is just a subway ride away. Visitors to Gateway's 26,000 acres can bike, fish, kayak, go to the beach, camp overnight under a starry sky or explore Civil War-era forts and historic aircraft. See why over 325 bird species come to Gateway. Find out what's happening this week and this season on Staten Island, at Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn and Queens and at Sandy Hook, New Jersey.",
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"jacob riisbeach, Jamaica Bay site of Gateway",
"NPS - Jacob Riis"))
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"Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, Hawaii is a sanctuary protecting ancient temples as well as the beaches where sea turtles climb ashore. ",
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"Pu`uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park ",
"NPS Photo"))
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'"Good Morning America" viewers voted Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan as a the most beautiful place in America. It is one of 4 national lakeshores and 10 national seashores.',
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'Sleeping Bear Dunes Lake Michigan Beach at Esch Road',
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"California Coastal Islands National Monument, Calif. Located off the 1,100 miles of California coastline, the California Coastal National Monument comprises more than 20,000 small islands, rocks, exposed reefs, and pinnacles between Mexico and Oregon. Its scenic qualities and critical habitat of this public resource are protected as part of the BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System. Establishing and supporting a series of 12 “CCNM Gateways”-- sections of the California coast that serve as focal points and visitor contact locations for the national monument-- has proven to be a very effective way of involving California’s coastal communities in the management and protection of their local coastal resources and helping with the enhancement of the local economy and geotourism. The small gateway community of Trinidad, shown here, has always been dependent on its coastal resources and the rocks and islands of the California Coastal National Monument. Before Euro-american settlement, the inhabitants of the Yurok village of Tsurai fished and collected from the rocks, small islands and seastacks -- each offshore rock has a Yurok name. Today, Trinidad is a tourist community. Visitors come to view the spectacular coastal scenery, walk its windswept beaches, and view some of California's largest seabird colonies on the offshore rocks and islands of the CA Coastal National Monument. ",
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"Trinidad Beach in Oregon",
"BLM - Robert M. Wick"))
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