THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 68, April 5, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
NATIONAL HERITAGE AREAS: WAR OVER WORDS
By Cheryl K. Chumley
FULL STORY:
Based on the testimony of A. Durand Jones, the Deputy Director for the National Park Service (NPS) at a March 30, 2004, congressional
hearing on National Heritage Areas, it would appear private property owners should now rest easy if their lands become targeted for a
National Heritage Area declaration. That, however, would be folly.
First, some background. Since 1984, the NPS and partnering state and local entities have created 24 NHAs encompassing 160,000 square
miles of mostly privately owned lands. Advocates say NHAs are needed to preserve areas of cultural, historical, natural, and scenic
significance. The claim is that the federal government does not retain authority over the declared lands; that it is retained by the
individual property owners.
This claim holds true only if you believe private property rights are guaranteed by the United States Constitution and cannot be
arbitrarily taken away or tampered with. Some might add they are God-given. NHAs, however, pose a grave threat to these
fundamental rights.
The implementation of NHAs is said to create a supposed friendly partnership scheme between local, state and federal entities to
identify and manage lands, where interested parties -- be they environmentalists, non-government organizations, individuals, or
bureaucracies -- suggest to Congress properties that should be preserved for some supposed benefit of our nation. Congress then
helps fund these NHAs via NPS appropriations; partnering NHA entities are responsible for matching these federal contributions.
Repeated, reiterated, and emphasized by NHA advocates is that the main role of the federal government is as consultant to the other
involved entities; that private property owners retain their private property rights. The NPS controls the purse strings for federal
disbursements.
See the incompatibility? Those with the power to fund also hold the ultimate power to decide the circumstances under which the
funding will be granted. In other words, if the federal government wants zoning laws or land use plans changed in a particular NHA
area, it has a powerful means of enacting this agenda via the threat of withheld funds.
Another facet of NHA history is that declaring an area worthy of preservation depends entirely on individual interpretation of what
constitutes “national significance.” This specter of a phrase could ostensibly lead to the argument that every acre of property in the
United States is historically or culturally important and must be preserved, i.e. publicly managed for the greater good of our country’s
heritage.
For a worst-case scenario usage of this ill-defined term, just look to Tennessee. The entire state is a declared NHA! That bears
repeating: The entire State of Tennessee is a National Heritage Area and has been since November 12, 1996. Taxpayers from every
other state help preserve the “national significance” of Tennessee to the tune of $10 million, spread over a 13-year period.
“The Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area covers the entire state, but is focused on the museums, historic sites, and
communities located along eight major mid-19th century transportation corridors associated with the Civil War and Reconstruction
era,” according to a website describing the NHA.
Virginia saw some heavy Civil War action. Should this state, too, be a declared NHA, in its entirety? Or better yet, to defray
accusations of favoritism or discrimination, how about the entire 12-state geographical region of the South, along with the handful
of other lesser-known states involved with our nation’s most controversial battle? Surely, we can’t leave the fate of these
“nationally significant” Civil War areas to the selfish whims of private property owners who might one day take it upon themselves
to construct homes or buildings, completely ignoring the devastation their self-centered actions could wreak upon the scenery of
the historic sites in the process of land use and development.
And this is just about the Civil War. Let’s not forget to honor the Indians who spanned pretty much the entire nation and are
no doubt deserving of historical footnote via land preservation. Given the entire State of Tennessee and its NHA status, wondering
where the boundaries to NHA declarations are set should be disquieting.
Now fast-forward to the March 30 congressional hearing which was supposed to clarify and address some of these NHA questions.
The kick-off to this subcommittee hearing, attended only by Senate National Parks Chairman Craig Thomas (R-WY), was a recent
General Accounting Office report that found the present system of creation and oversight of NHA lands lacking in several key areas.
“GAO recommends that the Park Service develop consistent standards and processes for reviewing areas’ management plans, require
regions to review areas’ financial audit reports and develop results-oriented goals and measures for the agency’s activities, and require
areas to adopt a similar approach,” the report summarized.
Most alarming was this GAO point: “No systematic process is in place to identify qualified candidate sites and designate them as
national heritage areas.”
That means NHA’s can be declared at whim, using an ill-defined eye-of-the-beholder approach to interpret and decide “national
significance.” This is but one of a few points that didn’t escape Senator Thomas, who peppered some witnesses to explain why the
language used to declare NHA’s was so loose, why the federal government should continue its endless stream of funding for certain
NHAs that had already reached the pre-set sunset dates for NPS appropriations, and whether the NHA label now affixed Tennessee
could be repeated in other states?
This was the assurance private property owners were offered. “We have a formal recommendation for determining significance,” said
NPS Deputy Director Jones, predictably testifying in favor of NHAs.
This “formal recommendation” comes in the form of a draft piece of legislation, just released, that promises to both clarify the means
by which NHAs can be declared and to protect the rights of private property owners. This promise is empty, as analysis of the draft
text reveals.
While the proposed legislation admits “a unified national process as well as certain standards for designation of NHAs needs to be
established,” it does not provide any uncontested, inarguable means of proving a land area is worthy of public oversight. Suggested
criteria include determining if an area “has an assemblage of natural, historic, or cultural resources that together tell a nationally
important story” or “represents distinctive landscapes and aspects of our American heritage worthy of recognition, conservation,
interpretation and continuing use.”
What area of our nation doesn’t?
Here’s another guideline: if the area “reflects traditions, customs, beliefs, and folk life that are a valuable part of the national story.”
Again, what area of our nation doesn’t?
Yet another: if an area “provides outstanding opportunities to conserve natural, cultural, historic, and/or scenic features” or
“provides outstanding recreational and educational opportunities.”
One more time: what area of our nation doesn’t?
With criteria like that, even the least experienced Green could come up with a feasibility study proving the socalled necessity for
NHA declaration. Once that study is completed, the road to land control is paved and it’s a fast-moving, convoluted, bureaucratic
race that ensues.
Interior Department Secretary fine-tunes and approves this feasibility plan; Congress identifies a local entity to develop a
management plan for the Heritage Area identified in the feasibility study. Thereafter, the local entity -- a generic term for radical
environmentalist or non-government organization – works with a slew of like-minded property-hungry individuals and groups
(including the NPS) to complete this land management scheme. Then this final plan goes back to the Interior Secretary for approval.
Once approved, according to the draft text, the money really starts to roll, in increments of $1 million annually up to $10 million total
for each Heritage Area.
As for the private land owner, “nothing in this act shall be construed to abridge the rights of any property owner, whether public or
private, including the right to refrain from participating in any plan, project, program, or activity conducted within the NHA,” the
draft states, one of six socalled landowner protections.
Still, where’s the language guaranteeing private property owners the right to be notified their land is being considered for NHA
status? A 1992 Interior Department investigation of Heritage Area declarations in Maine concluded the NPS “may have violated the
property rights of over 2,800 private landowners” for failing to inform them their lands were the focus of a NHA study.” The
powers-that-be might want to rethink this omission from this draft legislation, the same document now being touted as favorable to
private property interests.
If private property owners don’t know their lands are being sought for NHA classification and public control, how can they fight it?
The NPS and other NHA advocates can say what they will in terms of promises to uphold landowner rights: History speaks louder.
Considering the known deceitful practices of NPS, the status of Tennessee, the loose wording of this draft proposal that purports to
limit federal oversight of NHAs, even while it gives this level of government the authority to fund and advise the partnering entities,
perhaps we should counter this trend of infringements with a return to our true national history?
The Founders did not intend that property rights be traded among special interest and government groups at whim, but were to be
protected by the Constitution against the grasp of radical Greens and pandering politicians.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Cheryl K. Chumley is an Associate Editor with the American Policy Center, a grassroots activist think tank in Warrenton, Virginia.
The American Policy Center maintains an Internet site at www.americanpolicy.org. Cheryl Chumley may be reached directly at
cchumley@americanpolicy.org.
Copyright 2004 American Policy Center
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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