RSS
Home
National Park Service releases overview of the public lands bill
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Photo Credit: NPS
From the National Park Service on April 3, 2009:
New parks, wilderness and trails highlight public lands bill
Omnibus bill also adds new wild and scenic river designations, saves battlefields
WASHINGTON–A waterfall that helped power the Industrial Revolution, a battle that became a turning point of the War of 1812 and a presidential birthplace in a place called “Hope” will soon be added to the National Park System. The new parks are just part of a wealth of public lands protections made law this week in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. “We are in a time of deep uncertainty and economic pain, but for Americans, moments of crisis are opportunities to rebuild, renew and restore the places we cherish,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “With a stroke of his pen, President Barack Obama has ensured that treasured landscapes and places of historical and cultural importance will be protected and honored as part of our National Park System.”
- America’s first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton saw the 78-foot high Great Falls of the Passaic River for its natural beauty and as a way to secure economic independence from British manufacturers. In 1791, Hamilton helped found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures. Paterson, which was founded by the society, became the cradle of the industrial revolution in America. When land exchanges are completed, the area will become Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park.
- River Raisin National Battlefield Park will interpret one of the worst defeats Americans experienced in the War of 1812. Battlefield areas near Monroe, Michigan, will be donated for the park. The Battle of River Raisin unfolded on January 22, 1813. It was a blood bath. Five hundred British troops and 800 Indian allies overwhelmed the 650 Americans who, two days earlier drove a small Canadian force out of Frenchtown, a village on the River Raisin. The battle became a furious rally cry for the rest of the war when, on the day after the battle, 60 of 85 wounded American prisoners of war were slaughtered by Indians after the British withdrew.
- The American four-square home at 117 South Hervey Street in Hope, Arkansas, will be the William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace National Historic Site. The Clinton Birthplace Foundation has cared for the home since 1993 and will donate it to the National Park Service.
Dan Wenk, the acting director of the National Park Service, said in addition to three national park units more than half a million acres of new wilderness designations in the Act are set for five national park units:
- Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan, 11,700 acres
- Joshua Tree National Park in California, 36,000 acres
- Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, 85,000 acres
- Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado , 249,000 acres
- Zion National Park in Utah, 124,000 acres
Wenk said, “Congress also made additions to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, created new national scenic, geologic and historic trails and reauthorized the American Battlefield Protection Program which provides grants to protect and interpret Civil War battlefield sites.”
Here is a brief look at more National Park Service provisions. The Omnibus Public Lands Act:
- Adds the Snake River Headwaters, Wyoming, and the Taunton River, Massachusetts, to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
- Establishes the Arizona National Scenic Trail, the New England National Scenic Trail, the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail; the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail and adds additional routes and land components to the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail.
- Creates National Heritage Areas in Colorado, North Dakota, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Alabama and Alaska.
- Establishes the “Votes for Women History Trail Route,” to link sites that tell of the struggle for women’s suffrage. This section of the law authorizes a National Women’s Rights History Project to focus on the increasing number of sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places associated with women’s suffrage as well as a National Women’s Rights History Project and Partnerships Network for interpretive and educational programming.
The public lands bill also directs the National Park Service to look to the future with “special resource studies” of a dozen sites for possible inclusion in the National Park System as new units or additions to existing units. The sites:
- Walnut Canyon, Arizona
- Tule Lake Segregation Center, California
- Estate Grange, U.S. Virgin Islands
- Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Maine
- Shepherdstown Battlefield, West Virginia
- Green McAdoo School, Tennessee
- Harry S Truman Birthplace, Missouri
- Battle of Matewan, West Virginia
- Battle of Camden, South Carolina
- Fort San Geronimo, Puerto Rico
- Butterfield Overland Trail in various states
- A Cold War sites theme study
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
