House Democrats' top natural resources lawmaker and the leaders of the black and Asian-Pacific American caucuses today are calling on President Obama to take specific steps to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of public land visitors and managers. Timed to coincide with the National Park Service centennial celebrations, the "inclusive vision for the next 100 years" from Democratic Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina and Judy Chu of California and a coalition of nearly 30 outside groups has three guiding principles. The coalition wants public lands -- including national parks, forests and monuments -- as well as the people who protect them to "reflect the faces of our country," show "respect for all cultures" and have a "responsibility to actively engage all people." "Our National Parks System remains one of the best ideas America ever had. But a lot about this country has changed since the Park Service was founded 100 years ago, and a lot more is going to change over the next 100 years; the agency and the story it tells need to keep up," Grijalva, the ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. "Our national parks face enormous challenges and we need the broadest possible coalition of dedicated supporters to meet those challenges head on." The coalition includes the Hispanic Access Foundation, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Outdoor Afro and the National Urban League. The groups and lawmakers outlined dozens of specific policy recommendations for the Obama administration to help implement their diversity goals. The president should issue an executive order appointing an "Action Committee/Ombudsperson across the land management agencies" to promote diversity and accountability on public lands, they said in a policy document. Obama also should create a senior-level position at the White House Council on Environmental Quality that would have a mandate to coordinate efforts to increase outreach to "culturally diverse communities." The president should order the Office of Personnel Management to examine land management agencies' recruitment and hiring of minorities, find ways to improve it and issue annual reports on their progress, the coalition said. The policy document names five areas the groups and lawmakers believe Obama should designate as national monuments: Bears Ears in Utah, the backyard of Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah), a prominent critic of public lands; Gold Butte in Nevada, where the Bundy family illegally grazed their cattle for years; Stonewall, a New York City landmark for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality movement; the Greater Grand Canyon Heritage Area in Arizona; and Castner Range in Texas. Another priority for the coalition is finalizing the Park Service's plant-gathering rule for Native Americans. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has opposed the proposal, which the watchdog group says has no scientific basis (Greenwire, Aug. 13, 2015). Some of the other suggestions in the policy document have already been put forward or embraced by the Obama administration. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, for example, has already issued an order streamlining permitting for youth groups to camp on public lands and has committed to finish a master leasing plan for Moab, Utah, before leaving office -- both of which were "additional opportunities for action" spelled out by the coalition.