STATEMENT OF DURAND JONES, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE BEFORE THE SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, HISTORIC PRESERVATON
AND RECREATON CONCERNING S. 1649, A BILL TO AMEND THE OMNIBUS PARKS AND PUBLIC
LANDS MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1996 TO INCREASE THE AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS
FOR THE VANCOUVER NATIONAL HISTORIC RESERVE AND THE PRESERVATION OF VANCOUVER
BARRACKS.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the
opportunity to present the views of the Department of the Interior on S. 1649,
a bill to amend the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996 to
increase the authorization of appropriations for the Vancouver National
Historic Reserve and for the preservation of Vancouver Barracks.
The Department recognizes and
appreciates the efforts of our partners to cooperatively administer the
Vancouver National Historic Reserve. This is a partnership that has worked
well, and we look forward to continuing to work with the City of Vancouver, the
State of Washington, and the Department of the Army to achieve the goals
outlined in the cooperative management plan for the Reserve. However, in light
of the Department’s commitment to supporting the President’s initiative to
eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog in our national parks, we cannot
support diverting limited funds away from the Service’s own needs. We believe
that funds that are appropriated to the National Park Service are more
appropriately directed to reducing the long list of necessary but deferred
construction projects that have been identified in our national parks.
The Vancouver area of southwestern
Washington was an important site of 19th-century social, economic, political,
and military activity in the Pacific Northwest. In recognition of its
historical significance, Congress in 1948 designated a portion of the area—Fort
Vancouver—as a National Monument, and in 1961 Fort Vancouver became a National
Historic Site. Over the next several decades, continuing efforts to preserve
the area’s other historic sites prompted Congress, in 1990, to pass legislation
authorizing the creation of a Vancouver Historical Study Commission.
Subsequently, the commission recommended the establishment of a reserve as the
best management strategy for protection of the resources within the study area,
and in 1996, Congress passed legislation that established the Vancouver
National Historic Reserve. The Reserve itself is not a unit of the National
Park System, although the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site component is
part of the System.
The Reserve encompasses 366 acres
along the Columbia River within the City of Vancouver, Washington, and includes
a particularly rich collection of cultural resources, including Fort
Vancouver National Historic Site, Officers Row, Vancouver Barracks, Pearson Air
Museum and Air Field, portions of the Columbia River waterfront, and the Water
Resources Education Center. In this nationally significant historic setting,
the Reserve celebrates well over 200 years of history including the use of the
area by Native Americans; the creation of the first multi-cultural village of
its kind in the Pacific; the Hudson Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver, which was one
of the largest such British enterprises; and the growth of the U.S. Army in the
Pacific Northwest as reflected in the historic Officers Row and Vancouver
Barracks.
The law that established the
Reserve directed the preparation of a general management plan to be developed
by a partnership comprised of the National Park Service, the Historic
Preservation Office of the State of Washington, the Department of the Army, and
the City of Vancouver, Washington. The plan, completed in early 2000 and
approved by the Secretary of the Interior, envisions an active public/private
partnership in managing the shared assets of the Reserve. The Reserve partners,
while maintaining full authority and management responsibilities for their
individual areas consistent with applicable laws, work cooperatively on all
matters relating to the Reserve. Additional financial support comes from the privately
based nonprofit Vancouver National Historic Reserve Trust. The cornerstones of the 15-year management
plan are preservation, education, and public use.
The plan, however, is not a budget
document. While it identified estimated
costs for recommended actions, it did not commit any of the agencies or other
partners to specific funding requirements. Signature by the partners or the
Secretaries did not commit the Department of the Interior or the Army to any
funding requirements outside of agency budgets as approved by Congress.
The law that established the
Reserve authorized the appropriation of $400,000 annually for operational
costs, and a total of $5 million for development costs. These funds have been
provided in the National Park Service budgets for fiscal years 1998 through
2002 in the construction and statutory aid accounts.
The cooperative management plan
for the Reserve provided a summary of development costs estimated at
approximately $85 million (in 1998 dollars). The plan contemplates that the
costs will be shared by the federal government, the state, the city, nonprofit
groups and organizations, and private investors, corporations, and businesses.
The federal share could be allocated from the U.S. Army, the U.S. Army Reserve,
the Department of Defense, or the Department of the Interior.
The Vancouver National Historic
Reserve has benefited greatly from the contributions made by our partners and
other donors, who have already provided over $19 million for a wide variety of
projects, and plan to provide approximately $20 million more for projects that
have already been identified.
We would like to emphasize that we
are committed to working with our partners in the Vancouver National Historic
Reserve to find appropriate ways to meet the goals outlined in the cooperative
management plan. We encourage our partners in the Reserve to continue to seek
funding and other solutions for the preservation and protection of its
resources through grants and other programs administered by the Service, the
Department, and other federal agencies.
This concludes my testimony. I am
glad to answer any questions that you or members of the Subcommittee may have.