A clutch of U.S. senators from the northern tier of the United States is seeking some love from the National Park Service via their National Scenic Trails Parity Act, which is designed to formally make three national scenic trails part of the National Park System.
Specifically, the measure aims to "clarify the status of the North Country, Ice Age, and New England National Scenic Trails as units of the National Park System." It seeks to accomplish that by slightly amending 16 USC 1244: National scenic and national historic trails. The legislation would insert language in the listing of each of those trails to make it clear they are part of the National Park System.
The measure is being co-sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.,, Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Christopher Murphy, D-Conn., Sen. Ron johnson, R-Wisc.,, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
“From the northern edges of the Upper Peninsula all the way through southwest Michigan, the North Country Trail offers Michiganders the opportunity to take in some of our state’s most beautiful scenery,” Senator Peters said in explaining his support for the measure. “National Scenic Trails like this deserve to be able to compete on a level playing field for resources from the National Park Service, so that they can continue to be maintained and kept accessible to the public.”
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Comments
Are these senators voting for more than enough money to fully fund our existing NPS units first? Enough more to provide funds for these trails?
Good question. And, here's some interesting language regarding at least one of these trails from the legislation these senators are seeking to "slightly amend": "No land or interest in land outside the exterior boundaries of any federally administered area may be acquired by the Federal Government for the trail except with the consent of the owner of the land or interest in land."
Making a trail "part of the National Park System" involves a lot more than just tweaking the wording in an existing bill.
As the bill's title asserts, parity is needed. These three National Scenic Trails fulfill the requirements of unit status and are at least as important to our Nation as Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail, Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site and half or so of the other existing units.
What's more, these three "affiliated areas" of NPS are adored by millions. Last year, for instance, an estimated 1.2 million people visited the Ice Age Trail and it received almost 80,000 volunteer service hours. Only a dozen or so existing units of NPS have that many volunteer hours in a year.
Some of these volunteers have dedicated significant portions of their lives to the Ice Age Trail, going back to 1958 when the effort to create an Ice Age National Park was promoted by mountaineer and conservationist Ray Zillmer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Zillmer).
In April, 1961, National Park Service geologist Robert Rose completed a Preliminary Geological Report on 1961 Field Study of Proposed Ice Age Area in Wisconsin. He concluded the report with:
This matter has been delayed long enough.