STATEMENT OF DR. MICHAEL SOUKUP, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, NATURAL RESOURCE
STEWARDSHIP AND SCIENCE, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON
NATIONAL PARKS, RECREATION, AND PUBLIC LANDS, OF THE HOUSE RESOURCES COMMITTEE,
CONCERNING H. R. 2234,
TO REVISE THE BOUNDARY OF THE TUMACACORI NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK IN THE
STATE OF ARIZONA.
November 13,
2001
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of the Interior’s views on H. R. 2234. This bill would revise the boundary of Tumacacori National Historical Park in the State of Arizona. We extend our thanks and appreciation to Congressman Pastor for his interest in the resources and stories preserved and told at Tumacacori National Historical Park (NHP).
The Department supports H. R. 2234. The legislation would allow the park to fulfill the original purposes for which it was established, create more opportunities to expand educational and recreational partnerships within the new boundary and beyond, and has received the support of the surrounding community. Expanding the boundary of Tumacacori NHP would fulfill one of the goals identified in the park's approved General Management Plan, and the owners of the lands proposed for addition have expressed a willingness to sell.
H. R. 2234 would amend Public Law 101-344, the Act authorizing the establishment of Tumacacori National Historical Park, and expand the boundary of the park by adding two separate parcels, which are adjacent to the original Tumacacori unit of the park and total approximately 310 acres. The legislation also defines the purpose for adding these lands.
Tumacacori National Historical Park is a 45-acre unit of the National Park System because the mission is an outstanding example of 18th century Spanish Colonial architecture and served as the source and center of a community and a way of life that survived for centuries in a harsh and demanding environment. To tell that story means more than protecting a building. It means protecting the resources that nourished and maintained it - its orchards, crops, and fields. The proposed additions to the boundary contain these resources.
Tumacacori is one of a chain of missions established by the Spanish in the Pimería Alta (land of the Upper Pima Indians) from Sonora, Mexico to San Xavier del Bac near Tucson. Father Kino established Mission San Cayetano de Tumacacori approximately forty miles south of present day Tucson in 1691. At its height, the mission land grant included nearly 6,000 acres.
Theodore Roosevelt set aside 9 acres immediately around the church as Tumacacori National Monument in 1908. The boundary of the monument was revised with the addition of 6 acres in 1978. In 1990 the missions of Guevavi (8 acres) and Calabazas (22 acres), to the south along the Santa Cruz River, were added and the park redesignated a National Historical Park.
The 18th and 19th
century Tumacacori Mission encompassed not only a church and its associated
compound, but also homes for the native
people. The mission supported itself
by what it could grow and graze on its lands along the Santa Cruz River.
Vegetables and fruits grew in a large (5 acre) walled orchard and garden
irrigated by the acequia (irrigation ditch). Eventually
homesteaders settled mission lands, and by the time Tumacacori National Monument
was set aside all of the former mission lands were in private ownership.
Today the mission stands divorced from its land and people.
One quarter of the historic orchard and its still visible wall remains.
The majority of the acequia, mission farmland and a section
of the Santa Cruz River all lie on adjacent private land.
The park’s General Management
Plan (1996) identified the need to acquire additional lands to obtain the
rest of the mission orchard. Acquisition
of the entire historic remains of the orchard, former mission farmlands and
the acequia would allow the park
to recreate a 19th century cultural landscape.
Future visitors would understand that the mission was not just a church
but a complete self-sustaining community.
The nearby Santa Cruz River, a desert riparian area, is a vital educational
tool to understand how the native and mission communities were able to develop
and thrive in the desert. In addition,
expansion of the park boundary would allow the National Park Service to enhance
the recreational experience of visitors along the Juan Bautista de Anza National
Historic Trail between Tubac and Tumacacori as well as partner with communities
all along the Santa Cruz River to further develop the recreational and educational
values of the trail.
The two parcels of private
land proposed to be included in the Tumacacori NHP boundary are a 90-acre
parcel to the south and east and a 220-acre parcel to the north and east. The owners have expressed their interest in
selling to the National Park Service. Acquisition
costs for the two parcels are estimated at $2,000,000 to $2,500,000, although
actual costs would not be known until appraisals on the land are completed.
A non-profit group may be willing to purchase the properties and hold
them for a short period of time until the National Park Service is able to
designate land acquisition funding.
Since the National Park Service
intends to return the proposed additional lands to a 19th century
cultural landscape there will be little additional park operational funding
needed. Park staff would be able to
provide a basic level of resource protection to lands that are acquired through
existing financial resources. In the
future, funding will be needed to develop visitor use trails as well as to
rehabilitate and replant the mission
orchard as called for in the General Management Plan. No other visitor facilities will be built in
the new areas. An additional 1.5 FTE
would be needed in personnel for the increased maintenance responsibilities. Costs to accomplish these
projects would require one-time funding of approximately $250,000 for visitor
trail, waysides and bridge construction and $100,000 to reconstruct and replant
the orchard. A $78,000 base increase
for maintenance staff would be needed.
H. R. 2234 has generated a cross-section of support.
The county supervisor on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors
whose district includes the park has expressed support.
Local community groups that have expressed support for the legislation
include the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, the Anza Trail Coalition and
the Tubac Historical Society.
We have discovered that there is a discrepancy between
the name and number of the map showing this proposed boundary expansion and
the map reference in the bill. In
order to make the bill language consistent with the map we suggest that the
map title on page 3, line 9 and 10 be changed to read “Tumacacori National
Historical Park, Arizona Proposed Boundary Revision 2001” and the map number
on page 3, line 11 be changed to read “310/80,044”.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared remarks. I would be pleased to answer any questions you or other members of the subcommittee may have.