A proposed 10-mile backcountry loop trail at Mount Rushmore National Memorial is one of 201 proposals National Park Service Director Mary Bomar and Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne announced at a news conference in Yosemite National Park on Thursday to celebrate the 91st anniversary of the NPS.

This backcountry loop trail is one of nearly $370 million in proposals eligible for matching funds from the National Park Centennial Initiative.

The trail would provide visitors a chance to see one of the largest stands of old-growth ponderosa pine trees in the Black Hills, now rarely seen by the public, according to a news release from Mount Rushmore.

"The centennial challenge is a critical element in the National Park Centennial Initiative put forward by President Bush and unveiled by Secretary Kempthorne one year ago," Bonar said. "The full centennial initiative is a potential $3 billion investment in our national parks, two-thirds of it a public-private partnership of matching money."

Mount Rushmore Superintendent Gerard Baker said partners, including the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society, have committed matching money for the backcountry trail. Other partners include the Lakota Nation, which would help tell the cultural history of the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, Baker said.

The trail would be named with the assistance of South Dakota elementary school children, Baker said.

Other South Dakota national parks including Badlands National Park, Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument also would benefit from some of the national proposals.

Several of the projects affect multiple parks including a national incentive to boost the Junior Ranger program. Other incentives would increase research in the biological inventories and take an ecosystem-wide look at the number and diversity of species in a park.

The President's Centennial Challenge is $100 million per year of federal mandatory funding to match $100 million or more in cash donations to the National Park Service for centennial projects and programs.

Part of the President's Centennial Commitment is an additional $100 million per year for 10 years in federal spending to bolster basic park operations. These funds would be used to hire 3,000 more seasonal national park rangers, guides and maintenance workers; repair buildings; improve landscapes; and enroll more children in Junior Ranger and Web Ranger programs, according to a news release.

"Visitors to local NPS units such as Jewel and Wind Caves could see the benefit from additional seasonal employees this winter," said Todd Suess, Superintendent of Jewel Cave National Monument. "These funds will improve our education efforts and allow us to increase the protection of resources such as our roads and trails and historic structures."

Along with these service-wide projects, Badlands is also planning for future projects that may be eligible for additional funding. "Our park has a Centennial vision and a strategy to implement that vision," Badlands Superintendent Paige Baker said. "This program aims to bring together Native American and Anglo students from communities adjacent to the park in order to examine world issues through dialog and cooperative projects."

On the Web:

The full list of centennial challenge-eligible proposals is available online at www.nps.gov/2016.