From wire and correspondent reports

Private donors are ready to hand over millions of dollars to spruce up some of the nation's most cherished parks in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said this week.

Congress has yet to approve the Bush administration's plan to celebrate the park system's centennial by leveraging taxpayers' funds to attract philanthropists' money for repairs and upgrades to the country's wildlands.

But corporations, nonprofits and visitors' groups already have pledged more than $1 million for projects in Yellowstone and $25,000 in Grand Teton, according to a list of 201 priority anniversary projects unveiled Thursday.

All told, the announcement tallied commitments for matching funds of nearly $216 million from partner organizations as part of an ambitious $2 billion, 10-year discretionary funding plan.

The Yellowstone Foundation has teamed up with Toyota and Canon USA to partially fund several projects under the Centennial Challenge program. Yellowstone has just over $1 million in private commitments under this program.

Among the Yellowstone projects eligible for matching funds:

* The "No Child Left Inside" initiative, designed to help better connect school-age children with the natural world by giving them firsthand experience with the outdoors. This would include special programs for visiting school groups and underserved youth in the region, and expanding the Junior Ranger program. Total cost of the project for 2008 and 2009 is $325,000. Federal funds would be matched from a multiyear $507,000 donation from the Toyota USA Foundation to the Yellowstone Park Foundation.

Diane Chalfant, chief of interpretation for Yellowstone, said the Centennial Challenge money would allow another 10,000 regional children to visit the park during the next two years.

* A virtual Greater Yellowstone Science Learning Center designed to integrate the work of the park, academic and scientific communities in collaborative efforts to gather and use information to better protect and manage places including Yellowstone. A $250,000 grant from Canon USA to the Yellowstone Park Foundation would be used to match federal money to fund the $445,000 project in 2008 and 2009.

* Yellowstone's Heritage Research Center would receive $160,000 from the Yellowstone Park Foundation, including a $85,000 grant from Canon USA to help preserve 40,000 artifacts.

Foundation help

The Yellowstone Park Foundation has been Yellowstone National Park's official nonprofit fundraising partner organization since 1996. The foundation has raised more than $42 million in contributions from individuals, foundations, and corporations to support more than 135 projects in Yellowstone.

Paul Zambernardi, executive director of the Foundation, said the above projects have been part of Yellowstone's list of priority projects for years.

"Our job is to raise private funds to augment federal funds," he said. The park has a thoughtful process where it determines what needs to be done and sets priorities, he said.

Canon USA has long been supportive of science, education and wildlife conservation projects, said Zambernardi, while Toyota has great interest in sustainability issues.

The foundation has raised $15 million toward a $27 million Old Faithful Visitor Center. "If we can raise more money through this campaign, we'll put some exhibits back into the visitor center that were taken out earlier," Zambernardi said.

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Grand Teton

Grand Teton National Park is eligible for $25,000 in matching funds to support a project that will educate park visitors and employees about potential exposure to the West Nile virus and avian influenza.

The Park Service picked the mosquito and bird flu project from a list that included funding for a pathways system that would allow nonmotorized travel to and around the park, the restoration of the White Grass Dude Ranch and the restoration of more than 4,000 acres of former rangelands that have become infiltrated by invasive species.

Sharon Mader, Grand Teton program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said she would have preferred that a "more exciting project" had been chosen for Grand Teton.

"But the initiative is really going to provide great opportunities for Grand Teton and other parks in the future," Mader said.