Active vacation specialist Austin-Lehman Adventures (ALA) recently chose the Glacier National Park and the  Glacier National Park Fund for it first “Preserve a Park” program for 2010.  This year, the U.S. national park is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Says Dan Austin, co-founder of Austin-Lehman Adventures,

“Our national park programs have been our most popular, and they also represent opportunities to express our support for safeguarding our great parks.  We chose Glacier National Park to acknowledge its Centennial and we are delighted to name the Glacier National Park Fund as the recipient of our donation.”

Glacier National Park is an UNESCO World Heritage site and the world’s first Peace Park coupled with Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada.  The park preserves over one million acres of glacier-carved terrain with old growth forest, alpine lakes, rugged mountains, wildlife and wildflower meadows.

Known as an adventurer’s paradise, travelers bike, hike and raft through its lesser traveled trails and famous routes, such as the Going-to-the-Sun Road.

“Preserve a Park” is a new, ongoing AHA conservation and educational program that will highlight a different national park every year.  The company will support an organization  aligned with the designated park and feature an educational experience for travelers on the tour company’s “Preserve a Park” trips.

In 2010, ALA will donate $100 per guest from each Glacier trip to the Glacier National Park Fund, an organization focused on the preservation of the park through public awareness and private philanthropy.

The ALA Glacier National Park Centennial trips will include an afternoon or evening with experts from the Fund and local experts on glacier activity, history and wildlife. Travelers will learn interesting facts like this one:  Glacier National Park had 150 glaciers in 1850 and today only 26 remain.

For more info on the “Preserve a Park” program, check out Austin-Lehman Adventures online.

Photo credits: © Dennis Coello