<u>Answer</u>:
<em>1. "If our future leaders have no relationship to nature, no understanding of how clean air and clean water are produced and what a healthy environment is, they won't have the knowledge, nor will they care about, doing anything about the stewardship of the Earth," said Nita Settina of the Maryland Park Service.</em>
This excerpt identifies children as the future leaders of the country. It states that if children visit parks, they will care about nature, and about keeping it clean and beautiful. Therefore, parks would benefit in the future from children visiting them.
<em>2. Paragraph 2 - Many parks have...</em>
<em>3. by providing quotes and examples of programs that illustrate the goals of the park service.</em>
In this text, the author wants to develop the central idea that it is important to take children to parks and to allow them to spend time in nature. The way the author develops this idea is by providing quotes and examples of various programs that educate what the goals of the park service are.
<em>4. The statistics about the number of parks and annual visitors.</em>
Because the main idea of the paragraph is the relationship between children learning about nature and spending time in parks, and the future well-being of parks, the information that is the least important in the excerpt are the statistics about the number of parks and annual visitors.
