News Release

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Gets a Sister

Date: September 11, 2017
Contact: Sandra Snell-Dobert, 970-641-2337, ext. 227

On Monday, July 12, 2017, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Superintendent Bruce Noble signed a Sister Park Agreement with Tara National Park in Serbia. The agreement was signed in Belgrade, Serbia in the presence of US Ambassador Kyle Scott and Stana Božovi, the State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection. Tara National Park Director Dragi Karakli was also an integral part of the signing ceremony.  Through this agreement, Tara National Park and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park have committed to a five-year arrangement to assist each other in preserving these special places.

Superintendent Noble, along with members of the US Embassy staff in Serbia and Hungary, were led on a three-day familiarization tour of Tara National Park and the nearby town of Bajina Bašta. His visit also included a lecture to the Forestry Department at the University of Belgrade and a round-table discussion with faculty and students in the Biology Department of the same university.  “The common link between Black Canyon of the Gunnison Natural Park and Tara National Park in Serbia is that both places exhibit great natural beauty with fantastic canyons as their central feature," Noble commented.  He continued, "We greatly look forward to working closely with our new sister park and our adjoining gateway communities to help each other build on our mutual areas of interest.”

The Sister Park partnership seeks to promote further cooperation, including information exchanges, personnel training, scientific research, control of invasive species, recreation and ecotourism management, and education.  

Several National Park Service sites have established “sister park” partnerships in the last few years with national parks in other countries. These partnerships facilitate information sharing and direct park-to-park contacts to share best practices in park management and address many of the common issues facing parks and protected areas around the world. Funding for these partnerships is typically provided by the State Department or other non-NPS sources. For more information on NPS Sister Parks, see 
 https://www.nps.gov/subjects/internationalcooperation/sister-parks-program.htm