There are no national parks on Martha’s Vineyard, but Islanders still can help the National Park Service.

“You have micro-habitats here that are really important,” said park service director Jonathan Jarvis in a brief interview with the Gazette Monday. Mr. Jarvis was on the Island to attend a private fundraiser and build support for the park service’s upcoming centennial celebration in 2016. “Local stewardship is really important, and so is having local pockets of conservation across the nation regardless of whether the park service is involved or not,” he said.

Organizations such as Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and The Trustees of Reservations are already doing some of the work that the park service might do elsewhere related to conservation and preservation of historic sites. Nevertheless, Mr. Jarvis said: “The park service still has an opportunity to assist the people of Martha’s Vineyard with land and water conservation grants and facilitation projects. In fact we just recently gave a grant to Waban Park [in Oak Bluffs].”

He continued: “There’s the micro and the macro. The micro is Martha’s Vineyard and the community in which you live, but there’s certainly the capacity to go beyond that.”

That includes building local support at the grass roots level but also philanthropic support for the National Park Foundation, which is charged with more than 100 projects ranging from sustainability initiatives to educational programs for the parks.

“This community has a lot of second homes and a lot of wealth,” Mr. Jarvis said. “And we want to try and tap that to help fund some of these projects.”

He took special note of the Island’s strong track record when it comes to land conservation.

“Certainly Martha’s Vineyard stands out among communities in America that have done a good job of protecting its resources through a variety of actions, both planning zoning development as well as creating open space and setting up land trusts,” Mr. Jarvis said. “All of this results in a fantastic place for people to live and visit.”

He said the national parks are also getting their share of visitors. The parks system saw 292 million visitors last year, surpassing Disney and combined attendance at major sports events. Peak periods include late summer and holidays, but even within highly-trafficked parks such as Yellowstone, there is potential to explore away from the crowd.

“I could have you by yourself in 10 minutes,” Mr. Jarvis said, speaking about the nation’s most popular parks.

He said irrelevancy poses a far greater threat than overcrowding by tourists.

“If the public ultimately thinks that the parks are their grandfather’s issue, then we go by the wayside,” said Mr. Jarvis. “Building relevancy translates into connection that translates into support.”

So what can an average citizen do to support the park service? Mr. Jarvis advised that the best course of action is simply to get involved. Currently, he said visitors and supporters of the National Park System are out of sync with the overall demographics of the country in terms of race and age, a potential problem when it comes to future political, financial and philosophical support for the parks. To combat this, the park service has launched a social media campaign to convince young people to “Share Your Story” about the parks to draw attention to these public resources.

At the end of the day, however, Mr. Jarvis views engagement as the primary vehicle to build support for the National Park Service. Take a trip to the Cape Cod National Seashore, for example.

“Invite friends, particularly millennials, to participate,” he said. “Pick a project, pick something you’re interested in. And then engage.”