VOA慢速英语2019--印第安纳沙丘获批为美国国家公园

Indiana Dunes¹ Is America’s Newest National Park

More than 3.5 million people visit a sandy, hilly area called Indiana Dunes each year. It sits along the shores of Lake Michigan, about 80 kilometers southeast of Chicago, Illinois.

Visitors to the area swim and sail on the lake. They watch birds in the wetlands. They study plant life in the forests of oak and maple² trees.

Now, the 6,000-hectare site is the newest national park in the United States. It became Indiana Dunes National Park in February.

Among the first to visit the new park were Bill and Betty Smith. They traveled from Connecticut to the state of Indiana, where the park is located. The two said they had already visited all 60 of the country’s other national parks.

Bill Smith said he was excited to see the sand dunes in person. He also wanted to explore some of the park’s 80 kilometers of hiking paths. “I just want to get a sense of the place,” he said of America’s 61st national park.

Strong winds from Lake Michigan -- one of America’s five so-called Great Lakes -- created the park’s sand dunes over time. Some dunes are still forming today. The winds create the dunes by dropping loose sand onto land. Some of the dunes here look partly round. Others take the form of long, narrow hills.

The smooth sands of the dunes and lakeshore make an almost musical sound when people walk on them. The sounds can sometimes be heard several meters away. Visitors like to say that the sand dunes “sing.”

A surprise name change

It has been a long, hard fight to get Indiana Dunes designated as a national park. The park’s superintendent³, Paul Labovitz, said the process was “103 years in the making.”

The idea was first proposed in 1916 -- the same year the National Park Service was established. But World War I and the need for steel mills on the lakefront to support the war effort delayed such plans for the park. Later efforts to get the national park designation were halted by industrialization of the nearby Port of Indiana, the largest commercial port on Lake Michigan.

More recently, Indiana lawmakers presented the idea to Congress in 2017 and 2018. But no action was taken.

It took the longest-ever government shutdown in American history to bring about change for Indiana Dunes, says Lorelei Weimer. She is the park’s director of tourism. She said that one Indiana congressman⁴ was able to include the measure into the new legislation in January.

U.S. lawmakers were rushed to pass the funding bill in order to reopen the government.

Weimer said, “The fact that (the Indiana lawmaker) was able to get it into the budget bill was a huge win for us.”

The designation came as a surprise to Weimer and many others. She said, “None of us knew that was going to happen.”

The designation does not come with any new rules or big financial changes for Indiana Dunes. It does, however, give the area the same recognition as more well-known national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite.

The U.S. National Park Service system includes more than 400 parks, monuments, historic sites and other protected areas. For many years, Indiana Dunes was a national lakeshore within the park system. ?

‘An international attraction’

Park Superintendent Labovitz called the park one of the most ecologically mixed places in North America. Indiana Dunes has about 1,500 different kinds of plants, he said.

The Dunes are also along a major migration⁵ path, and birdwatching is a big reason visitors come to Indiana Dunes each year. The area is home to more than 300 species of birds, including waterbirds such as loons and herons, as well as birds of prey⁶ like bald eagles and hawks⁷. Several species of songbirds also live there.

Weimer said people from about 50 countries visit the park each year. The park offers guidebooks in 12 languages. “This is not just a local attraction,” Weimer said of the park. “It’s an international attraction.”

I'm Caty Weaver⁸.

And I’m Ashley Thompson.

Words in This Story

hike - v. to walk a long distance especially for pleasure or exercise

designate - v. to officially choose (someone or something) to do or be something : to officially give (someone or something) a particular role or purpose

superintendent - n. a person who directs or manages a place, department, organization, etc.

commercial - adj. related to or used in the buying and selling of goods and services

tourism - n. the activity of traveling to a place for pleasure

ecology - n. ?a science that deals with the relationships between groups of living things and their environments

1 dunes   

沙丘( dune的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The boy galloped over the dunes barefoot. 那男孩光着脚在沙丘间飞跑。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat. 将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

2 maple   

n.槭树，枫树，槭木

参考例句：

• Maple sugar is made from the sap of maple trees.枫糖是由枫树的树液制成的。
• The maple leaves are tinge with autumn red.枫叶染上了秋天的红色。

3 superintendent   

n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长

参考例句：

• He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
• He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。

4 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

5 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

6 prey   

n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨

参考例句：

• Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
• The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。

7 hawks   

鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物

参考例句：

• Two hawks were hover ing overhead. 两只鹰在头顶盘旋。
• Both hawks and doves have expanded their conditions for ending the war. 鹰派和鸽派都充分阐明了各自的停战条件。

8 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。