[Senate Report 108-236]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 446
108th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 108-236
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HARPERS FERRY NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK BOUNDARY REVISION ACT OF 2004
_______
March 9, 2004.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Domenici, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 1576]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 1576) to revise the boundary of Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park, and for other purposes, having
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.
Purpose of the Measure
The purpose of S. 1576 is to revise the boundary of the
Harpers Ferry National Historical Park to include approximately
772 acres of Federal land and to authorize the Secretary of the
Interior to acquire approximately 368 acres for addition to the
park.
Background and Need
Originally established in June 1944, Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park (NHP) has had three previous boundary
expansions. In 1988, the National Park Service (NPS) was
directed by Congress to study lands adjacent to the Harpers
Ferry NHP to determine whether they had historical significance
and merited federal protection. In addition to the Special
Boundary Study, in 1993 the Congressionally chartered Civil War
Sites Advisory Committee issued its Report on the Nation's
Civil War Battlefields, which reaffirmed the importance of
Harpers Ferry. The findings of these two reports have guided
specific efforts to protect lands identified in the study.
The Harpers Ferry area first experienced tension between
development and preservation interests when proposed housing
developments threatened the historically significant School
House Ridge Battlefield. Over time, outreach by the NPS has
helped to educate community members about the historic and
other values of properties that could be acquired. The NPS also
completed a study that resulted in a proposal for a new park
boundary and acreage ceiling increase based on a broad public
outreach effort. According to surveys conducted by the Park
Service, 94 percent of respondents now strongly support this
effort.
Harpers Ferry NHP today consists of 2,505 acres of land,
the current statutory ceiling acreage for the park. The park is
unable to acquire additional land parcels of historic value
without new legislation. S. 1576 authorizes an expansion of the
acreage ceiling to 3,745 acres, which allows the NPS to acquire
an additional 1,240 acres. The new ceiling is sufficient to
allow the NPS to acquire all the historically sensitive lands
and incorporate them into the park, and would provide a 100-
acre margin to allow for survey and land acquisition
modifications.
Legislative History
S. 1576 was introduced by Senators Byrd and Rockefeller on
September 3, 2003. The Subcommittee on National Parks held a
hearing on S. 1576 on October 2, 2003. S. Hrg. 108-225. At the
business meeting on February 11, 2003, the Committee on Energy
and Natural Resources ordered S. 1576 favorably reported.
Committee Recommendation and Tabulation of Votes
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in open
business session on February 11, 2004, by a unanimous vote of a
quorum present, recommended that the Senate pass S. 1576.
The rollcall vote on reporting the measure was 23 yeas, 0
nays, as follows:
YEAS NAYS
Mr. Domenici
Mr. Nickles
Mr. Craig
Mr. Campbell*
Mr. Thomas
Mr. Alexander
Ms. Murkowski
Mr. Talent
Mr. Burns
Mr. Smith*
Mr. Bunning
Mr. Kyl*
Mr. Bingaman
Mr. Akaka
Mr. Dorgan*
Mr. Graham of Florida*
Mr. Wyden*
Mr. Johnson*
Ms. Landrieu*
Mr. Bayh*
Mrs. Feinstein*
Mr. Schumer*
Ms. Cantwell
* Indicates voted by proxy.
Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1 entitles this Act the ``Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park Boundary Revision Act of 2004''.
Section 2 amends the first section of the Act of June 30,
1944 (58 Stat. 645, chapter 328; 16 U.S.C. 450bb).
Subsections (a) and (b) of section 1 as amended, authorize
the Secretary of the Interior toacquire land within the
boundaries of the Park.
Subsection (c)(1) adds new language which authorizes the
Secretary of the Interior to acquire by purchase from a willing
seller with donated or appropriated funds, by donation or by
exchange, land or an interest in land within the boundaries as
depicted as ``Private Lands'' on the map entitled ``Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park Proposed Boundary Expansion'',
numbered 385/80126, and dated July 14, 2003.
Paragraph 2(A) transfers to the National Park Service for
inclusion in the park the land depicted on the referenced map
as ``U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Lands'' and revises the
boundary of the Park accordingly.
Paragraph 2(B) revises the boundary of the park to include
the land depicted on the referenced map as ``Appalachian NST''
and excludes that land from the boundary of the Appalachian
National Scenic Trail.
Subsection (d) increases the acreage ceiling for the Park
to 3,745 acres.
Subsection (e) requires that all maps shall be on file and
available for public inspection in the appropriate offices of
the National Park Service.
Subsection (f) requires that land or interest in land
acquired under this section become a part of the park.
Subsection (g) authorizes appropriations.
Section 3 makes minor conforming amendments to the Act of
June 30, 1944.
Cost and Budgetary Considerations
The Congressional Budget Office estimate of the costs of
this measure has been requested but was not received at the
time the report was filed. When the report is available, the
Chairman will request it to be printed in the Congressional
Record for the advice of the Senate.
Regulatory Impact Evaluation
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 1576. The bill is not a regulatory measure in
the sense of imposing Government-established standards or
significant economic responsibilities on private individuals
and businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 1576, as ordered reported.
Executive Communications
On February 11, 2004, the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources requested legislative reports from the Department of
Interior and the Office of Management and Budget setting forth
Executive agency recommendations on S. 1576. These reports had
not been received at the time the report on S. 1576 was filed.
When the reports become available, the Chairman will request
that they be printed in the Congressional Record for the advice
of the Senate. The testimony provided by the National Park
Service at the Subcommittee hearing follows:
Statement of Sue Masica, Associate Director, Park Planning, Facilities,
and Lands, National Park Service, Department of the Interior
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present the
views of the Department of the Interior on S. 1576, a bill to
provide for additional lands to be included within the boundary
of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in the state of West
Virginia.
The Department supports enactment of this legislation if
amended in accordance with this statement. S. 1576 would
authorize the Secretary of the Interior to expand the boundary
of Harpers Ferry National Historical Park to include lands that
are critical to preserving resources that tell the stories
there. The Department recommends that the legislation be
amended to include in the boundary only the transfer of lands
from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Appalachian
National Scenic Trail to Harpers Ferry National Historical
Park, and the donation of 177 acres of private lands from the
Civil War Preservation Trust. The Department recognizes the
importance of including in the boundary the remaining private
lands, but we recommend that the committee defer action on
authorizing the acquisition of these lands during the remainder
of the 108th Congress. To meet the President's Initiative to
eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog, we need to continue
to focus our resources on caring for existing areas in the
National Park System.
Located at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah
Rivers, Harpers Ferry has a history that has few parallels in
the American drama. The park commemorates a diverse number of
people and events, decisions, and actions that influenced the
course of our nation's history over 230 years. In 1944,
Congress established Harpers Ferry as ``a public national
memorial commemorating the historical events that occurred at
or near Harpers Ferry.''
This bill would add nine parcels of land to the boundary of
the park to provide permanent protection of resources that are
integral in commemorating historical events that occurred at
Harpers Ferry. These include properties on School House Ridge,
which was the position of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson
during the strategic battle for Harpers Ferry in 1862; the
Werner tract, which protects the southern viewshed of the park;
a portion of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail that
contains Civil War campgrounds; several small properties that
protect park viewsheds between Bolivar Heights and the Murphy
Farm; and Potoma Wayside that protects part of the view Thomas
Jefferson described in his Journals on the State of Virginia as
``stupendous'' and ``worth a trip across the Atlantic.'' The
wayside is also used as the take-out for whitewater rafting
companies and paddlers using the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers
near Harpers Ferry.
In 2001, at the direction of Congress, the National Park
Service undertook extensive outreach efforts and public
meetings in and around Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to explain
the options for expanding the boundary of Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park. These options were drawn from 12
years of public debate centered on the expansion of the park
and were incorporated into documents that were widely
disseminated to the public.
During the 2001 public outreach efforts, Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park worked with the Appalachian National
Scenic Trail, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, private non-
profit organizations, conservation organizations, state and
local leaders, tourism and business interests, land developers,
private landowners, and the public. Four public meetings were
held throughout Jefferson County, West Virginia, and one or
more meetings were held with each private landowner identified
in the report. The National Park Service transmitted the
results of the outreach efforts to Congress in a report titled
``Report to the Senate Appropriations Committee of the United
States Congress on the Public Outreach Program at Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park, in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, to
Explain the Options to Expand the Park's Boundary and Determine
if there is a Public Consensus for Expansion'' (September
2002). The report concluded that there exists an overwhelming
public consensus (94 percent) for expansion of the park.
Support for the expansion is equally strong among outreach
participants at the local, regional and national levels.
The land in the proposed park expansion is largely federal.
Lands held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Appalachian National Scenic Trail, which the park currently
manages through agreements, would be transferred to the Harpers
Ferry National Historical Park to be administered directly. The
total federal acreage in the proposed legislation is 772 acres.
There are also 368 acres of private land in the bill's proposed
park expansion that the Secretary of the Interior would be
authorized to acquire from willing sellers. The Civil War
Preservation Trust owns 177 acres, which they want to donate to
the Park, with the remaining 191 acres split among six
individual owners. For the National Park Service to acquire
these lands, the current park acreage ceiling of 2,505 acres
needs to be increased to 3,745 acres, which includes a margin
of 100 acres within the new ceiling for survey and acquisition
corrections.
No appraisals have been done on the properties included in
the proposed park expansion; however, based on recent
comparable sales of property adjacent to the park, the National
Park Service believes that the land acquisition costs would
total approximately $3.7 million to acquire all 191 acres of
private land. With our proposed amendment, land acquisition
costs would be negligible since it would be acquired through
donation or transfer.
The land in the proposed expansion is mainly forest or
agricultural farmland that contains a few structures. The
National Park Service proposes to manage the forested lands as
protected viewsheds, and the agricultural lands under the
park's agricultural leasing program with an overlay of public
trails and interpretive exhibits for public use and enjoyment.
We originally estimated development costs to be less than
$500,000 including projects such as building small parking
areas, restoring battlefields, developing trails, and creating
exhibits. We also had estimated operational costs to administer
all the land would add $150,000 annually to Harpers Ferry's
$5.7 million operational costs, an increase of less than one
percent.
With our proposed amendment, development costs would be
reduced to approximately $350,000 and operational costs would
be reduced to approximately $100,000.
That concludes my prepared statement Mr. Chairman. I would
be pleased to answer any questions you or members of the
committee may have.
Changes in Existing Law
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
the bill S. 1576, as ordered reported, are shown as follows
(existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black
brackets, new matter is printed in italic, existing law in
which no change is proposed is shown in roman):
16 U.S.C. 450bb
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AN ACT to provide for the establishment of the Harpers Ferry National
Monument
[Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
Secretary of the Interior be, and he is hereby, authorized to
accept donations of land, interest in land, buildings,
structures, and other property in the vicinity of Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia, not to exceed one thousand five hundred
acres, as the Secretary of the Interior may deem necessary to
carry out the purposes of this Act, and donations of funds for
the purchase and maintenance thereof, the evidence of title to
such lands to be satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior.
Any Federal land within the area designated by the Secretary of
the Interior as necessary for monument purposes shall be
transferred to the administration of the Department of the
Interior and when so transferred shall become a part of the
monument: Provided, That the Federal department or agency
having administration over such land shall agree in advance to
such transfer.]
SECTION 1. HARPERS FERRY NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK.
(a) In General.--To carry, out the purposes of this Act,
the Secretary of the Interior (referred to in this Act as the
``Secretary'') is authorized to acquire, by purchase from a
willing seller with donated or appropriated funds, by donation,
or by exchange, land or an interest in land within the
boundaries as generally depicted on the map entitled ``Boundary
Map, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park'', numbered 385-
80,021A, and dated April 1979.
(b) Bradley and Ruth Nash Addition.--The Secretary is
authorized to acquire, by donation only, approximately 27 acres
of land or interests in land that are outside the boundary of
the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and generally
depicted on the map entitled ``Proposed Bradley and Ruth Nash
Addition--Harpers Ferry National Historical Parks'', numbered
385-80056, and dated April 1, 1989.
(c) Boundary Expansion.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary is authorized to
acquire, by purchase from a willing seller with donated
or appropriated funds, by donation, or by exchange,
land or an interest in land within the area depicted as
``Private Lands'' on the map entitled ``Harpers Ferry
National Historical Park Proposed Boundary Expansion,''
numbered 385/80,126, and dated July 14, 2003.
(2) Administration.--The Secretary shall--
(A) transfer to the National Park Service for
inclusion in the Harpers Ferry National
Historical Park (referred to in this Act as the
``Park'') the land depicted on the map referred
to in paragraph (1) as ``U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Lands'' and revise the boundary of the
Park accordingly; and
(B) revise the boundary of the Park to
include the land depicted on the map referred
to in paragraph (1) as ``Appalachian NST'' and
exclude that land from the boundary of the
Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
(d) Maximum Number of Acres.--The number of acres of the
Park shall not exceed 3,745.
(e) Maps.--The maps referred to in this section shall be on
file and available for public inspection in the appropriate
offices of the National Park Service.
(f) Acquired Land.--Land or an interest in land acquired
under this section shall become a part of the Park, subject to
the laws (including regulations) applicable to the Park.
(g) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized
to be appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this
section.
Sec. 2. The property acquired under the provisions of
section 1 of this Act shall constitute the Harpers Ferry
National Monument and shall be a public national memorial
commemorating historical events at or near Harpers Ferry. The
Director of the National Park Service under the direction of
the [Secretary of the Interior] Secretary shall have the
supervision, management, and control of such national monument,
and shall maintain and preserve it for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people of the United States, subject to the
provisions of the Act of August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535),
entitled ``An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for
other purposes'', as amended.
Sec. 3. The [Secretary of the Interior] Secretary is
authorized to--
(1) Maintain, either in an existing structure
acquired under the provisions of section 1 of this Act
or in a building constructed by him for the purpose, a
museum for relics and records pertaining to historic
events that took place at Harpers Ferry, and for other
relics of national and patriotic interest, and to
accept on behalf of the United States, for installation
in such museum, articles which may be offered as
additions to the museum; and
(2) Construct roads and facilities and mark with
monuments, tablets, or otherwise, points of interest
within the boundaries of the Harpers Ferry National
Monument.
Sec. 4. There are authorized to be appropriated such sums
as may be necessary to carry out the improvements and
maintenance on the lands and sites donated under the provisions
of this Act.
Approved June 30, 1944.