Donate Here By Secure Server
Posted on 04/04/2004 11:06:16 AM PDT by farmfriend
Interior Department Seeks Legislation for Establishing a National Heritage Area Program
WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced today that the Bush administration is proposing legislation to promote and enhance community and regional heritage conservation efforts and to establish a National Heritage Area program. Testifying before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on National Parks, Deputy Director of the National Park Service Randy Jones asked that Congress consider establishing criteria for future proposed National Heritage Areas--a requirement that must be met before the Secretary of the Interior recommends their creation.
"To be successful, National Heritage Areas must be guided and supported by local communities and the people who live in them. These areas also must work closely with all partners in the region, including federal land-management agencies," Jones said. "This is of particular importance in the West, where a National Heritage Area boundary may encompass federal land designated for many uses."
Jones noted that the National Heritage Area strategy is about fostering a partnership culture at every level of government, with each level having appropriate and complementary roles. The National Park Service should be the lead partner only when the resources within a proposed heritage area are of national importance.
"To ensure a constructive partnership, our legislative proposal requires the consultation and concurrence of federal land-management agencies within the boundaries of a proposed National Heritage Area," Jones testified. "In addition to clarifying respective missions, this process of consultation will help identify potential partnerships as envisioned by the administration's recent Preserve America Executive Order. Under this initiative, local communities and public land partners will collaborate for the promotion of local economic development and heritage tourism through the preservation and productive reuse of historic assets."
According to a draft GAO report, no criteria have been adopted for determining the significance or importance of National Heritage Area proposals. The department's legislative proposal addresses this concern by limiting involvement to regions that have a collection of resources that together tell nationally important stories based on our country's heritage. The proposed legislation presented to Congress today would require a feasibility study be conducted for a proposed new National Heritage Area to demonstrate that the area contains the important components that tell a nationally important story.
Successful National Heritage Areas embody locally driven partnerships that emphasize local control of land use and blend education, cultural conservation, resource preservation, recreation and community revitalization. Jones noted that at its best, the collaborative approach of the National Heritage Area concept embodies Secretary Norton's "Four Cs" - Communication, Consultation and Cooperation, all in the service of Conservation.
"Recent studies and our own experiences have shown that the National Heritage Area approach links people and place, nature and culture, and the present with the past. National heritage areas capitalize on the unique role local communities play in caring for their heritage and telling their stories, Jones said. "Our legislative proposal respects these principles. It also recognizes the need to target our assistance to those areas where there is a national interest and where the local partners meet established criteria for success.
National Heritage Areas are intended to preserve nationally important natural, cultural, historic and recreational resources by creating local, state and federal partnerships. While the federal government through the National Park Service provides technical and financial assistance, National Heritage Areas are locally initiated and managed areas that do not impose any new federal regulations or involve any federal land acquisition.
There are currently 24 National Heritage Areas in 18 states. More information on National Heritage Areas is available online at http://www.cr.nps.gov/heritageareas/
Thank god we didn't elect a big government liberal for President.< /sarcasm >
Sometimes it doesn't matter which political party controls Congress - let's call them the Republicrat Party.
The newly Republican-controlled United States Senate is working off the same agenda as the Democratic-controlled Senate in one important way: MORE LAND GRABS.
Incredibly, the Republicans held a hearing this week to consider "Heritage Area" land grabs. A Heritage Area is a designation in which the National Park Service gains control over local zoning by making promises - most false - about federal funding and economic development.
FORTUNATELY, grassroots property rights activists are always on the alert, and one of us testified in favor of local control and private property rights and against the same old leftwing agenda of more Big Brother.
Here are excerpts from the statement of Mr. Peyton Knight, Legislative Director of the American Policy Center. - THANK Mr. Knight for standing up for all of us!
One of the biggest fears that both residential and commercial property owners have about Heritage Areas is that they will effectively lead to restrictive federal zoning and land-use planning. Why do they fear this? Because funding and "technical assistance" for Heritage Areas are currently administered through the National Park Service - an agency that, unfortunately, has become synonymous with lost property rights.
Indeed, section 6.1.6 of the management plan for the National Coal Heritage Area in West Virginia, a management plan that was created with funding and technical assistance provided by the Park Service, states:
"Southern West Virginia counties, like rural areas across the United States, lack land-use controls completely or else have controls that are weak or ineffective. The visual landscape that results is cluttered and frequently unattractive."
This, of course, is a blatant move towards increased restrictions on development and stringent zoning controls. Nearly every Heritage Area has a management plan or statement of purpose that calls for restrictive zoning regulations, under the auspices of more environmental protection, more open space and more historic preservation. This typically results in more infringements upon the property rights of landowners located within the boundaries of Heritage Areas.
When the Augusta Canal National Heritage Area in Georgia was in its developmental stages in 1994, the National Park Service refused to accept the management plan put forth by Augusta Canal Authority until zoning regulations were made stricter.
Private property rights advocates are also worried that National Heritage Areas will effectively become part of the National Parks program, despite attempts by proponents to assuage these fears. Unfortunately, these fears are well founded.
The Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, located in southwestern Pennsylvania, states boldly on its website:
"Rivers of Steel is spearheading a drive to create a national park on 38 acres of original mill site - Bills have been introduced before the U.S. Congress to make this urban national park a reality."
Thus, here is an example of a National Heritage Area, funded and guided by the National Park Service, taking the initiative in lobbying Congress for land acquisition and the creation of yet another National Park.
If the Heritage Areas program is allowed to proliferate, experience shows that it will become not only a funding albatross, as more and more interest groups gather around the federal trough, but also a program that quashes property rights and local economies through restrictive federal zoning practices. The real beneficiaries of a National Heritage Areas program are conservation groups, preservation societies, land trusts and the National Park Service essentially, organizations that are in constant pursuit of federal dollars, land acquisition and restrictions to development.
Since the mid 1980’s, ALRA has been warning its members about UNESCO’s (United Nations Environmental, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage programs, now 25 years old.
To date, 20 World Heritage sites and 47 Biosphere Reserves have been designated in the US. Despite the fact that almost 43 million acres have been designated as Biosphere Reserves in the US, the Interior Department operates this program without any legislative direction and no authorization from Congress.
The 1995 designations of Glacier National Park in Montana and the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico as World Heritage Areas, preceded by the 1989 designation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem as a Biosphere Reserve, were made with no public or Congressional input.
Federal agencies and non-governmental organizations, such as the Sierra Club, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the National Parks and Conservation Association are using these designations to support their efforts to get rid of inholders, buy up private land, limit mining (they stopped the New World Mine in Montana and hundreds of new jobs by calling in the United Nations), oil and gas, tourism, grazing, logging, farming, and development. Example, ALRA helped lead the fight to defeat the 1990 Greater Yellowstone Vision Document.
The Interior Department and the National Park Service, which actually runs the programs, say they get their authority from treaties. In the case of World Heritage Sites, it is the Convention on World Heritage and was ratified by the Senate in 1972. As we said before, there is no treaty and no authorizing legislative authority for Biosphere Reserves.
A treaty can override acts of Congress. This means that despite legislation that is made with public input and many compromises, the Park Service feels it may ignore that legislation and any guarantees of property rights included in it by relying on the authority in a treaty which was completed with no public input.
By definition, Biosphere Reserves are to have a legally constituted core protected area of sufficient size and minimal human activity plus a buffer zone around the core where non-compatible uses are limited. In the case of the New World Mine, the UN recommended a 50 mile buffer zone after their inspection.
Congressman Don Young (R-AK) introduced the American Lands Sovereignty Protection Act late in 1996 and expects to reintroduce it in January. This bill would require Congressional oversight of federal agency actions involving World Heritage Sites and Biosphere Reserves. Any "buffer zones" would have to be approved by Congress. The Young bill would preserve the sovereignty of the US over its own lands as well as state sovereignty and private property rights on surrounding non-federal landsbefore designations are made.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.