Beating the Heat – 2022 Battlefield Land Acquistion Grant Year in Review

A portion of Chattanooga Battlefield preserved in 2022 by an NPS ABPP Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant awarded to the City of Chattanooga.

Jeff Guenther

In 2022, the Director of the National Park Service, Chuck Sams III, laid out seven priorities to guide the NPS commitment to preserving and protecting natural and cultural landscapes across America. Every year, the NPS American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) strives to achieve these priorities through our grant programs. These priorities were used to frame our reflection of Program accomplishments in 2022 and in consideration of areas for improvement.

Director’s Priority: Confront the climate crisis using science and traditional ecological knowledge in stewarding our resources.

In the spirit of the Director’s priority of confronting the global climate crisis, in 2022 the NPS ABPP awarded nearly $14 million in Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants to 11 state and local governments and their nonprofit partners to financially assist with the acquisition and preservation of nearly 1,500 acres of open space at 21 battlefields across the country.

In 2022, 73 percent of the total battlefield land preserved by NPS ABPP grant recipients constituted open space in heavily populated urban areas and adjacent suburbs which suffer from a heat island effect. This effect, where temperatures in developed urban areas exceed those of surrounding rural landscapes, is a result of a high density of manmade surfaces, such as steel and concrete, which store heat radiation from the sun at higher rates than natural materials. This potentially causes some of these areas to retain unnaturally high temperatures which may lead to detrimental effects on urban community health. One way to mitigate these effects is through protecting green space and natural landscapes which can better absorb and disperse heat radiation.

In 2022, NPS ABPP awarded several Battlefield Land Acquisition Grants to protect landscapes in urban areas experiencing this heat island effect. One grant awarded to the City of Chattanooga, Tennessee will preserve over 300 acres of Chattanooga Battlefield. These 300 acres are critical to the local community, as they contain pristine forests and meadows which not only serve in cooling the city’s temperature, but also in educating about the nationally significant event which occurred there in 1863. NPS ABPP also awarded a grant to the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation for the permanent protection of over 50 acres at the Second Deep Bottom Battlefield. Like the preservation efforts at Chattanooga, this protected battlefield landscape located seven miles east of downtown Richmond, is comprised of crucial natural resources which absorb heat radiation and lessen the heat island effect for its community of the Virginia state capital.

Though the fight against climate change is a global dilemma that requires the concerted efforts of many, NPS ABPP is proud of our 2022 grant recipients’ preservation efforts to not only preserve these historic landscapes, but to also make a positive difference in the health of their surrounding community. In 2023 and beyond, NPS ABPP will strive to continue supporting these preservation partners in their efforts to ensure that both environmentally and historically significant landscapes be conserved in perpetuity.

Check out a summary of all the Battlefield Land Acquistion Grants awarded in 2022, here!