Subject: U.S. Congress Urged to Buy National Park "Inholdings" *********************************************** Forest Networking a Project of forests.org 8/25/99 OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY BY EE Large contiguous areas of intact forest ecosystems are required to maintain diversity and functionality. National Parks in the United States, though defined more on "monumentalism" than on ecological worth, are nonetheless the United States' last best chance to save representative intact landscapes composed of native species and community diversity. The following article highlights one obstacle to better biodiversity conservation in National Parks--that of "inholdings"--parcels of land within park boundaries that are privately owned. Many of these lands may develop commercially. There is potential for inappropriate and polluting land uses within and adjacent to U.S. National Parks. Any habitat conversion there could fragment and diminish ecological systems. The National Park Trust reports that for a relatively small amount of money, some $70 million, the connectedness and quality of interior areas of National Parks could be maintained and improved. g.b. ******************************* RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE: Title: Park Groups Asks Congress to buy `inholdings' for public good National Parks vs. private land Source: MSNBC, http://www.msnbc.com/news/ENVIRONMENT_Front.asp The Associated Press contributed to this report. Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint Date: August 25, 1999 Byline: Miguel Llanos Mojave National preserve includes dunes among its 1.6 million acres. The National Park Trust wants to see 86,000 acres of privately owned land with the preserve bought for the public good. AUG. 25 - A park preservation group on Wednesday claimed that some 200,000 acres of privately held land within the nation's park system are in "imminent" danger of being developed or resold. The National Park Trust listed 20 "high priority" sites covering 110,000 acres and urged Congress to come up with the estimated $70 million it would take to buy them for the public good. The danger that this land could be sold for development, bulldozing, clear cutting or for other destructive purposes constitutes the single greatest threat to the system of national and state parks," Trust President Paul Pritchard said in a statement released with the report on the 83rd birthday of the National Park Service. The Trust claimed that even though purchases of private lands have increased in recent years, so too have the number of acres of private land in public parks. In the last decade, it added, private property within America's parks rose by 1.6 million acres - a 35 percent increase. Some six million acres within the 84 million acres of the national park system are privately owned, and Pritchard claimed that "on any given day 200,000 acres are under an immediate threat." PLEA TO CONGRESS "... private citizens should demand action at all levels of government," Pritchard added, noting that Congress has been slow to approve purchases even though it has more than $5 billion available through a Land and Water Conservation Fund. The 1965 fund allows some $900 million a year to go towards acquisitions. Still, Congress has been reluctant to come up with money for land purchases. The report said that in 1998 only $23 million was provided for national park land acquisition, a tenth of what the National Park Service had sought. This summer the House and Senate approved about half of the $295 million the Interior Department had sought for its "land legacy" purchases, including funds earmarked to buy private land in and adjacent to federal parks. RESPONSE FROM CONGRESS A staffer on the Republican-run House subcommittee for national parks took exception to the report on several fronts, noting first that the Clinton administration only in the last few years has asked for acquisition funds. As for the threat to parks, the source asked, "What's imminent? Who knows what that means." In most cases, he wagered, "nothing's going on" with the property. The source also noted that inholdings are often property that was there before a park was created or expanded and in those cases "it's not fair to turn around and point the finger at private property." PRIORITIES BIG AND SMALL In its report, the Trust claimed the threat to parks from the development of private land within park boundaries -- known as "inholdings" -- is growing significantly because the value of these lands in many cases has skyrocketed. Logging, energy exploration, mining and subdivisions were cited as examples of what's planned for many of the inholdings. The National Park Service has also identified development of inholdings as a threat to the system. The Trust report cited 110,000 acres of privately owned property in and adjacent to 20 parks, valued at more than $70 million, as being at greatest risk of being developed or re-sold for commercial purposes. The Trust's "top targets" list (see end of story) ranges from 9 acres within the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts to 86,426 acres in California's Mojave Desert. NONPROFIT BUYBACKS While pressuring Congress remains a major strategy, the Trust and other groups are also raising money to buy back land themselves for the public good. Through donations, the Trust recently bought 10,000 acres of tallgrass prairie in Kansas, and will own the land while the National Park Service operates it as a park. In another example, the nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy recently began negotiations to buy 430,000 acres parceled out checkerboard-fashion in and around Joshua Tree National Park and the Mojave National Preserve, both in California. But even here final approval will depend on $36 million coming from the federal government. So far, the Senate has agreed to come up with only $15 million and the House none at all. National Park Trust's Top 20 Targets The Trust identified these areas as their top 20 "high priorities" and estimated their purchase prices. In all, they encompass 110,000 acres and $70 million would be needed to buy them for the National Parks System. * Everglades National Park (Fla.): 17,321 acres, $20 million * Gettysburg National Military Park (Penn.): 99 acres, $5.7 million * Saguaro National Park (Ariz.): 250 acres, $2.8 million * Mojave National Preserve (Calif.): 86,426 acres, $7.1 million * Apostle Island National Lakeshore (Wisc.): 54 acres, $250,000 * Wrangell-St. Ellis National Park (Alaska): 1,000 acres, $1.7 million * Weir Farm National Historic Site (Conn.): 13 acres, $2.5 million * Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (Ohio) 243 acres, $2.5 million * Blue Ridge PArkway (N.C. and Virginia): 40 acres, $225,000 * Anteltam National Battlefield (Maryland): 315 acres, $2 million * North Cascades Complex (Wash.): 225 acres, $1 million * Golden Spike National Historic Site (Utah): 532 acres, $400,000 * Olympic National Park (Wash.): 204 acres, $2.5 million * Stones River National Battlefield (Tenn.): 112 acres, $4.3 million * Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park (Maryland):: 722 acres, $800,000 * Cape Cod National Seashore (Mass.): 9 acres, $2.8 million * Keweensaw National Historic Park (Mich.): 11 acres, $2.4 million * Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (Hawaii): 1,950 acres, $3.5 million * Fredericksburg and Spotylvania National Military Park (Virg.): 557 acres, $6.3 million * Pecos National Historic Park (New Mexico): 375 acres, $1.8 million ###RELAYED TEXT ENDS### This document is a PHOTOCOPY for educational, personal and non- commercial use only. 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