[Senate Hearing 117-297]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-297
PENDING LEGISLATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
NATIONAL PARKS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
on
H.R. 268 S. 2964 S. 3519
H.R. 1931 S. 3141 S. 3551
S. 557 S. 3185 S. 3667
S. 1344 S. 3240 S. 3685
S. 1718 S. 3307 S. 4114
S. 1814/H.R. 3531 S. 3334 S. 4121
S. 2367 S. 3338
__________
MAY 11, 2022
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Printed for the use of the
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
47-939 WASHINGTON : 2024
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COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
JOE MANCHIN III, West Virginia, Chairman
RON WYDEN, Oregon JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont MIKE LEE, Utah
MARTIN HEINRICH, New Mexico STEVE DAINES, Montana
MAZIE K. HIRONO, Hawaii LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
ANGUS S. KING, JR., Maine JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
MARK KELLY, Arizona BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana
JOHN W. HICKENLOOPER, Colorado CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas
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Subcommittee on National Parks
ANGUS S. KING, JR., Chairman
BERNARD SANDERS STEVE DAINES
MARTIN HEINRICH MIKE LEE
MAZIE K. HIRONO LISA MURKOWSKI
MARK KELLY JOHN HOEVEN
JAMES LANKFORD
Renae Black, Staff Director
Sam E. Fowler, Chief Counsel
David Brooks, General Counsel
Richard M. Russell, Republican Staff Director
Matthew H. Leggett, Republican Chief Counsel
John Tanner, Republican Deputy Staff Director for Lands
C O N T E N T S
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OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
King, Jr., Hon. Angus S., Subcommittee Chairman and a U.S.
Senator from Maine............................................. 1
Daines, Hon. Steve, Subcommittee Ranking Member and a U.S.
Senator from Montana........................................... 2
Hirono, Hon. Mazie K., a U.S. Senator from Hawaii................ 3
WITNESS
Caldwell, Michael A., Associate Director, Park Planning,
Facilities, and Lands, National Park Service, U.S. Department
of the Interior................................................ 4
ALPHABETICAL LISTING AND APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
Ala Kahakai Trail Association et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 49
Appalachian Trail Conservancy:
Letter for the Record with attachment........................ 51
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers:
Letter for the Record........................................ 65
Bar Harbor Bank and Trust:
Letter for the Record........................................ 66
Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce:
Letter for the Record........................................ 67
Caldwell, Michael A.:
Opening Statement............................................ 4
Written Testimony............................................ 7
Responses to Questions for the Record........................ 46
Daines, Hon. Steve:
Opening Statement............................................ 2
Friends of Acadia:
Letter for the Record........................................ 68
Hirono, Hon. Mazie K.:
Opening Statement............................................ 3
Island Housing Trust:
Letter for the Record........................................ 71
King, Jr., Hon. Angus S.:
Opening Statement............................................ 1
League of Towns:
Letter for the Record........................................ 72
National Memorial to the Women Who Worked on the Home Front
Foundation:
Letter for the Record........................................ 73
New Philadelphia Association:
Statement for the Record..................................... 80
North Country Trail Association et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 89
Preservation Maryland et al.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 91
Sawyer, Rhonda L.:
Letter for the Record........................................ 94
USDA Forest Service:
Statement for the Record..................................... 95
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The text for each of the bills addressed in this hearing can be found
on the Committee's website at: https://www.energy.senate.gov/hearings/
2022/5/national-parks-subcommittee-legislative-hearing
PENDING LEGISLATION
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2022
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on National Parks,
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:02 a.m. in
Room SD-366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Angus S.
King, Jr. presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ANGUS S. KING JR.,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MAINE
Senator King. Good morning. Welcome to today's legislative
hearing to consider 20 bills related to a variety of national
park issues. In honor of today's hearing, I am wearing my tie
which has on it small figures of Mount Desert Island, where
Acadia National Park is, so, there it is, if you wonder what
these figures are.
Among these bills, we will hear about efforts to
reauthorize the Japanese American Confinement Site program,
which helps preserve and educate Americans about one of the
darkest times in our nation's history. We will also hear about
bills that will honor the women who worked on the home front
during World War II. One bill would expand the Rosie the
Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park in
California and another would establish a memorial to those
women here in Washington, DC. Other bills deal with boundary
adjustments at existing park units. My bill, S. 4114, would
allow a parcel of land in the Village of Town Hill to be used
for affordable workforce housing.
In 1986, the Acadia Boundary Act was passed. That was a
piece of legislation that fixed Acadia National Park's
boundaries as well as adding and subtracting various pieces of
land. At that time, the piece of land in question in this bill
was to be transferred to Bar Harbor for the purposes of a trash
transfer station, but it turns out this wasn't the place for
that station, and the legislation was so specific, it could not
be transferred for any other purpose, so the parcel has
languished for the past 36 years. This bill now replaces this
use with an affordable workforce housing use and allows the
Park Service to hang onto 15 acres for its own housing needs.
As we have discussed here in the Subcommittee before, access to
affordable workforce housing is a problem across the Park
Service, and I hope we can move this bill and others forward to
start to make a dent in this problem for Park Service employees
across the country, but in this particular bill, for those
working at Acadia National Park.
Another bill we will consider is sponsored by my colleague
from Maine, Senator Collins, and would encourage the use of
native plant species within the Park Service. Using native
plants will help to preserve biodiversity and increase the
benefits that local flora provide to our wildlife, human
health, and the environment, and will also help prevent the
future spread of invasive species. I look forward to learning
more about this legislation today.
Finally, I would like to mention a bill introduced by
Ranking Member--no, by Co-Chair Daines--the Gateway Community
and Recreation Enhancement Act. I was honored to work with him
on this bill, which will help provide support to our gateway
communities that are so vital to the success of our national
parks across the country. The bill will also help provide
additional vital data to visitors that will help improve their
experience, telling them when an attraction is especially busy,
when might be a better time of the day to visit, or suggesting
a nearby alternative attraction that is not as busy at that
time.
Last week, the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee
included a number of provisions from this gateway communities
bill in the larger Outdoor Recreation Act, and I want to thank
Chairman Manchin and Ranking Member Barrasso for that
inclusion.
Now, for a procedural note on today's hearing, I will first
recognize Co-Chair Daines for his opening statement. Following
his remarks, I will recognize members of the Committee who wish
to make a statement about their bills on the agenda, followed
by any members not on the Committee seeking to make a
statement. After that, I will introduce our witness before we
get to questions. Also, without objection, all members may
submit letters of support or opposition to any additional
materials regarding measures on today's agenda.
Now, Senator Daines, you are recognized for your opening
statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DAINES,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator Daines. Chairman King, thank you.
In today's hearing we are going to examine 20 mostly
parochial parks and lands bills from Hawaii to Maine and
literally about everywhere in between. Today's agenda spans the
country. We also have the bipartisan Senate bill 3551, the
Gateway Community Recreation and Enhancement Act, which
Chairman King and myself introduced earlier this year. This
important bill gives the tools and the direction of the
Department of the Interior and the Forest Service to work with
gateway communities to address the housing shortages and
increased visitation infrastructure demands. It will also give
public land managers the tools that they need to manage
visitation by coordinating with state, local, and federal
recreation sites as well as private entities to encourage
visitation to lesser-known recreation opportunities. Our
national parks and our gateway communities are being loved to
death. By ensuring that employees and locals have adequate
housing and encouraging visitors to visit lesser-known sites,
we can support our rural communities, protect our parks from
becoming overburdened, and ensure places like Montana continue
to be accessible to all and not just the rich and the famous.
The Chairman and I worked hard to include this language in
last week's legislative markup where we were successfully able
to include it in the bipartisan Outdoor Recreation Act. I hope
that we can all work together to get this signed into law soon
so we can provide the much-needed relief to our public lands
and gateway communities. I am also excited to hear more about
Chairman King's housing bill. While Montana and Maine may be
far apart on the map, we share many of the same challenges.
This includes the needs for affordable housing for park
employees, the teachers, the hospitality workers, guides and
outfitters, emergency responders, and families that serve the
communities and visitors in our national parks. The folks in
Gardiner, Montana, outside of Yellowstone National Park, share
many of the same concerns as those in Bar Harbor, Maine,
outside of Acadia. This is why we worked so closely together on
our gateway communities bill and why I hope we hear more about
Senate bill 4114.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I turn it back over to you, and
look forward to the testimony from our witness.
Senator King. Thank you, Senator Daines.
Senator Hirono, do you have a statement?
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MAZIE K. HIRONO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM HAWAII
Senator Hirono. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to briefly discuss the importance of H.R.
1931, the Japanese American Confinement Education Act, of which
I am a co-sponsor. Due to unsubstantiated fear of Japanese
Americans in 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order
9066, which led to the unjust and unconstitutional internment
of Japanese people in the United States. This horrific
treatment of Japanese people during World War II simply because
of their ancestry is a stain on our country's history. In 2006,
Congress recognized our nation's need to tell the painful story
by passing the Preservation of Japanese American Confinement
Sites Act. This law established the Japanese American
Confinement Sites Grant Program, to be administered by the
National Park Service. Since then, the National Park Service
has awarded these grants to non-profits, educational
institutions, state, local, tribal governments, and other
public entities working to preserve Japanese American
incarceration sites and their history.
Over $1.4 million of this funding has gone to entities in
Hawaii, like the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii and the
University of Hawaii. This funding has supported a range of
projects, including working with teachers in Hawaii schools to
develop curriculum on Japanese American incarceration and
history as well as projects to conduct interviews with 15
individuals who left their homes in Hawaii to join their
fathers who were detained in the Jerome Relocation Center in
Arkansas. In 2006, the bill authorized $38 million for the
grant program with a sunset clause saying the program would end
two years after all funds were disbursed. Those funds are
expected to run out this year. That is why it is important that
we pass H.R. 1931 to make sure that the program continues. May
is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, making this an
especially fitting time to consider this bill.
H.R. 1931 increases the authorization of appropriations for
the program from $38 million to $80 million to allow grants to
continue beyond this year. It also carves out a portion of the
program to provide education grants specifically to Japanese
American organizations, with priority given to those with fewer
than 100 employees. As you can imagine, many of the
organizations in this field do not have hundreds of employees,
so this is an important aspect of what we are doing, and this
would allow groups like the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii
to digitize the many physical records currently at the National
Archives to provide greater access and connect families with
these stories to learn more about their history. We have come a
long way since 1942, and a lot of important work has been done
with the grants since the 2006 bill was passed. However, the
last two years, during COVID, have shown that we still have a
long way to go when it comes to treating everyone in this
country with dignity and respect. As the COVID-19 pandemic
swept the world, we again saw the detrimental consequences of
unfounded fear and misinformation as discrimination and racism
incited a disturbing rise in violence and hate crimes against
Asians and Pacific Islanders in communities across the country.
That is why we must pass this bill to ensure that we continue
educating the public about Japanese American incarceration and
work to ensure this painful part of U.S. history is never
repeated. And of course, the lesson is that minority groups, be
they be Japanese Americans, Muslims, or any other minority
group, should not be targeted for discrimination and
discriminatory treatment in our country.
So, Mr. Caldwell, I hope that you will talk a little bit
about the historic demand you have seen for these grant funds,
and if you expect interest in this program to continue well
into the future.
Thank you for the hearing. I have a conflict, so, Mr.
Chairman, I know you understand. Thank you for giving me the
time to put my statement into the record.
Senator King. Thank you, Senator.
I am well aware of the conflicts. I was just in another
hearing and suggested to the technology people there that AI
might be applied to Senate scheduling so that we do not have
these continuous conflicts.
Michael Caldwell is the Associate Director for Park
Planning, Facilities, and Lands at the National Park Service.
Mr. Caldwell, you have appeared before this Committee before.
Welcome back. Thank you for being here today, and we look
forward to your thoughts. Thank you.
OPENING STATEMENT OF MICHAEL A. CALDWELL, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR,
PARK PLANNING, FACILITIES, AND LANDS, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present the
Department of the Interior's views on the 20 bills on today's
agenda. I would like to submit our full statements on each of
the bills for the record and summarize the Department's views.
The Department supports the following 15 bills:
H.R. 268, which would provide for the boundary of the Palo
Alto Battlefield National Historic Park to be adjusted and
authorize the donation of land for addition to the park.
H.R. 1931, which would amend the legislation authorizing
the Japanese American Confinement Site Program to provide
competitive grants for the promotion of Japanese American
confinement education.
S. 557, which would establish a pilot program for native
plant species.
S. 1344, which would redesignate the Pullman National
Monument in the State of Illinois as the Pullman National
Historical Park.
S. 1718, which would amend the Rosie the Riveter World War
II Home Front National Historical Park Establishment Act of
2000 to provide for additional areas to be added to the park.
S. 1814/H.R. 3531, which would authorize the Women Who
Worked on the Home Front Foundation to establish a
commemorative work.
S. 2367, which would authorize the Secretary of the
Interior to acquire land in Frederick County, Maryland, for the
Historic Preservation Training Center of the National Park
Service.
S. 3185, which would amend the Delaware Water Gap National
Recreation Area Improvement Act to extend the exception to the
closure of certain roads within the recreation area for local
businesses.
S. 3240, which would waive the application fee for special
use permits for veterans' special events at war memorials.
S. 3334, which would extend the authority for the
establishment of a commemorative work to honor enslaved and
free black persons who served in the American Revolution.
S. 3338, which would revise the boundary of the Saint
Genevieve National Historical Park in the State of Missouri.
S. 3519, which would amend the National Trails System Act
to designate the Butterfield Overland National Historic Trail
and for other purposes.
S. 3667, which would establish the United States African
American Burial Grounds Preservation Program.
S. 3685, which would direct the Secretary of the Interior
to conduct a special resource study of the John P. Parker
House.
And S. 4114, which would amend Public Law 99-420 to provide
for the conveyance of certain federal land in the State of
Maine for use for affordable workforce housing and for other
purposes.
The reasons for our support of these bills are explained in
our full statements. For several of the bills we are requesting
amendments and we would be happy to work with the Committee on
drafting them.
The Department supports the intent of S. 3551, the Gateway
Community and Recreation Enhancement Act. The Department is
supportive of Congressional efforts to provide the various
federal land management agencies under its jurisdiction with
greater authority and flexibility to respond to changing needs
and higher visitation. We appreciate the Committee's work to
take action on these issues and would welcome the opportunity
to continue working with the bill sponsors and the Committee in
a collaborative manner to advance these goals.
Regarding S. 2964, which would clarify the status of the
North Country, Ice Age, and New England Scenic Trails as units
of the National Park System, the Department does not object to
the goal of the bill, which is to treat all six national scenic
trails administered by the National Park Service as units of
the National Park System. We would recommend amending the bill
to statutorily designate all six national scenic trails as
units.
S. 3141 would establish the New Philadelphia National
Historic Site in the State of Illinois as a unit of the
National Park System. The Department would note that a special
resource study is currently in progress for New Philadelphia.
If the Committee decides to act on this legislation, we would
appreciate the opportunity to work with you on amendments and a
legislative map.
The Department opposes S. 3307, which would modify the
boundary of the Wilson's Creek National Battlefield in the
State of Missouri to include approximately 624 acres that
include the site of the Battles of Newtonia. An earlier special
resource study found that the battlefields did not meet the
criteria for significance or suitability.
Finally, the Department has no position on S. 4121, which
would designate the Kol Israel Foundation Holocaust Memorial in
Bedford Heights, Ohio, as a national memorial. The memorial
would be located at a site that is not under the jurisdiction
of the Department of the Interior, and this bill does not
provide for any management or funding by the National Park
Service.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my statement. I would be
pleased to answer any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Caldwell follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator King. Thank you, Mr. Caldwell, and thank you again
for being with us.
Co-Chair Daines and I have talked a number of times about
the importance of the people that work at our national parks--
the staff--and as you know, housing is an issue because often
parks are situated in the middle of high-value real estate, and
so housing is a problem. That is the bill that you so
graciously offered your support to. S. 4114 conveys 40 acres
from Acadia to the Town of Bar Harbor. And that in itself, the
fact that the land will have no cost will be a major support
for development of housing on that site.
Let me ask a broader question, however. Is this something
that the Park Service is concerned about generally, and can you
give me some thoughts about how we approach this issue of
affordable housing more generally? Of course, the bill that we
have before us is a specific response, but talk to me about
workforce housing more generally across the parks system.
Mr. Caldwell. Sure. Thank you, Senator King.
And certainly, we know of your interests in housing at
Acadia and also the broader system. Director Sams has
consistently communicated to the field, to all employees of the
National Park Service, that employees are his number one
priority and housing is very much an important part of that.
Without some of the housing that we have in our units, those
units just could not operate. So we are attacking this issue on
a number of fronts across the National Park system, including a
new FY23 budget request for both the construction on NPS lands
and leasing in local communities of additional housing,
exploring the potential for public-private partnerships to
solve some of the housing needs that not only the National Park
Service has, but also our gateway communities, like Senator
Daines mentioned--the medicals and teachers--all the sorts of
people that are in these gateway communities that we are proud
to be part of, they share the same issues that we have in
housing. So, certainly, our Director has charged us with using
those authorities that we have or working with others to try to
maybe gain some more flexibilities and authorities that are
needed for public-public partnerships to help us with our
housing needs.
Internally, in the National Park Service, we are revising
Director's Order #36, which is our guidance for housing. It has
been close to two decades since it was revised. So, you know,
the housing needs have changed in the past two decades, so we
are undertaking that right now. And last week we held a housing
summit, hosted by Director Sams, where we had concessioners, as
well as the private sector, as well as folks who have been
involved in Department of Defense housing, just looking at new
ways to offer housing for National Park Service employees as
well as working with our communities. So I would characterize
this as a top priority in the agency across the entire system.
Senator King. Is the Park Service having difficulty
obtaining workers, as most other American entities are these
days?
Mr. Caldwell. Yes, part of the summit that we had last
week, we hosted, included three superintendents: Yosemite,
Rocky Mountain, as well as Big Cypress. And certainly, you
could have had Yellowstone or Acadia as part of that panel as
well, but they did indicate that it is hard to make offers to
seasonal workers or even permanent workers without the ability
and the flexibility to offer housing. So there were a number of
instances where that was communicated.
Senator King. Separate from the housing issue, are they
having difficulty filling vacancies?
Mr. Caldwell. I think they--in general, in terms of filling
vacancies, it is harder from a seasonal workforce standpoint to
fill those vacancies without those housing alternatives
available in the community. So that is one of maybe several
issues in terms of filling positions within park units.
Senator King. In the Subcommittee, we often talk about
bills that--as there is the John P. Parker House Study Act, and
this is a bipartisan bill to have the Park Service study the
applicability and appropriateness of developing a new park,
particularly for underrepresented resources and stories. How do
we approach this issue and how can the Subcommittee help?
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you. Certainly, within where we are
with special resource studies, we are currently studying a
number of units, including Springfield Race Riots, for example,
for possible inclusion in the National Park system. I think
within our cultural resources program, there have been a number
of efforts to look at these thematic themes and these networks
of different aspects of our history, and I think continuing to
encourage us to study the broader themes of American history is
one way the Committee can certainly help support the system. In
2017, the National Park Service came out with a system plan,
which identified certain gaps, both in our natural history, as
well as our cultural history and our shared heritage, and I
think utilizing that National Park system plan as a guide to
maybe where the system could go in the future, would--I think,
the Committee supporting that idea would be very helpful.
Senator King. Thank you.
Senator Daines.
Senator Daines. Mr. Caldwell, our bipartisan Gateway
Community and Recreation Enhancement Act helps coordinate
efforts between gateway communities, federal land managers, and
public-private groups to address housing shortages and
affordable housing for park employees and community members,
and I think it is fair to say, since Senator King and I started
working on this, the situation has even gotten worse than it
was, perhaps, when we began this journey a while back. So I
think the sense of urgency to move forward and take some action
to address this problem is appropriate.
What is the Park Service doing now to address housing
shortages in gateway communities and how will our bill further
strengthen these existing efforts?
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you, Senator. I think, as we alluded to
with the earlier question, we have forwarded an increase in our
housing improvement fund to both construct additional housing
as well as lease housing in gateway communities. So that is one
piece of it. The National Park Service, over the past several
years, has put in, from a number of funding sources, up to $95
million to add capacity as well as repair housing. So, by the
end of 2026, there will be approximately 95 different projects
completed throughout the National Park System related to
housing. And I think one thing about, certainly, the spirit of
your legislation is the ability to offer flexibility on the
ground to our park managers to work with communities to
address--whether it is housing or visitation--overcrowding at
different units. And I think the Park Service, you can see this
in action in things like the Zion Regional Recreation
Management Plan, where four counties in Utah are working with
federal agencies to address the problems that we share. We
share these wonderful resources, but with those resources come
these shared challenges. So in the spirit of the Gateway Act,
we certainly think that whether it is housing or visitation or
spreading the visitation to other units, having those
flexibilities for our park managers is really important.
Senator Daines. You know, Senator King brought up the issue
of open headcount slots and needing to fill slots in this
current workforce shortage, a challenge we face in our country.
I think that the housing, too, as we improve the housing for
employees, that is an important retention strategy as well to
build morale. Housing is such an important part of that, I
think, of that total package.
Our bipartisan bill also requires that the Park Service
work with other federal land managers to address increased
visitation, in part, by encouraging visitation to lesser-known
public land recreation opportunities. In Montana, there are
countless recreation opportunities, but we see that folks often
only visit one or two of the more well-known sites. How will
spreading visitation help reduce pressure at some of our high-
impact recreation sites?
Mr. Caldwell. Senator, I think, speaking certainly as a
former superintendent, one of the strongest partnerships you
can have locally are with both your local travel bureaus as
well as your statewide tourism bureaus, and I certainly have
seen this at work in a number of states. I just referred to the
one at Zion. And I think those happen across the system. I
think we need to continue to emphasize these partnerships
across the system where, whether it is a federal, state, or
local unit, we are all in this together, and our goal is to
both preserve these resources and provide for the enjoyment of
the visitor.
And so, I think those powerful partnerships, giving the
park managers some flexibility to facilitate those
partnerships, really are key to dealing with some of the issues
that you cited.
Senator Daines. Spreading visitation also, I think, will
allow folks to visit and experience sites they may have never
heard of, like the Lewis and Clark Caverns. That is a state
park, west of my hometown of Bozeman, or the Bighorn Canyon
National Recreation Area. How will our bipartisan bill help
promote these lesser-known gems and bolster recreation on all
of our public lands?
Mr. Caldwell. I think, from whether it is marketing,
promotion, or just providing that stellar visitor experience,
to meet the visitors where they are and then make sure that we
are also communicating the other assets and things that are
enjoyable in that particular area, is really something that we
should do as an agency, and I know we do. In many ways, while
the park rangers are ambassadors at Acadia for Acadia National
Park, they are certainly up there and should be able to speak
to Katahdin Woods or to Baxter State Park or Campobello Island,
for example. And I think that is the type of on-the-ground
partnership that we need to continue to emphasize in the field.
Senator Daines. Mr. Caldwell, thank you.
Mr. Caldwell. Thank you.
Senator King. Thank you, Mr. Caldwell.
As a member of the Commission at Campobello, I appreciate
that mention. We need to have some people turn right instead of
left when they leave Mount Desert Island, and they can also
experience some amazing places.
S. 3551, which is a bill Senator Daines was talking about--
the recreational opportunities in gateway communities--you
didn't explicitly support, but I understand you have some
technical and other issues. I certainly hope that you will
continue to work with the Committee so we can iron those out
and move that bill with the other package.
Mr. Caldwell. Yes, we would welcome that opportunity. Thank
you, Senator.
Senator King. Thank you.
We have S. 2964, the National Scenic Trails Parity Act,
which, for me, highlights an issue that I have noticed,
particularly when I have gotten engaged with this Committee. It
turns out we have 25 different titles for National Park units.
We have national parks, trails, monuments, historic parks,
battlefields, reserves, lake shores, on and on. I would suggest
that it might be helpful to the public to do some work to try
to create more consistent and less confusing labels, if you
will, for these units. Is that something that we can discuss
and perhaps pursue? I want the public to know what the
difference is, and I am not sure we need 25 different labels.
Mr. Caldwell. I think we would welcome a chance to work
with you and the Committee staff on that issue.
Senator King. And you mentioned--Senator Daines mentioned--
the state park, and I think informing the public is important.
And we, in the bill that we talked about and passed last week,
there is a provision for technology for alerting people to
where parks are crowded, but the other is other regional assets
that may not be national parks. For example, in Moab, you are
near, I think, Reef, certainly near Arches and other national
parks, but there is Dead Horse Point State Park, which is an
astonishing place, and it would be nice if there was an app
that would talk about public resources within the region. And I
hope that is something the Department will look at.
Mr. Caldwell. I think we certainly support the spirit of
making sure that we are communicating and connecting visitors
to those places where they go. This nation is blessed with some
incredible state parks, and I think, certainly, our visitors
appreciate when we make those connections.
Senator Daines. Just a thought on that too, following on
the app, Senator King. You know, when the public is out
recreating, they are not necessarily too caught up on whether
it is a state park or a national park, and it is public lands,
and I know we tend to have to be in our silos in terms of the
way that the governments are organized, but I think it is
really something to expand thinking--national park apps
recommending where is a great state park nearby. So I think it
is an interesting idea.
Senator King. Complete with reviews.
Senator Daines. Complete with reviews.
[Laughter.]
Senator King. Mr. Caldwell, additional testimony for the
Subcommittee this morning? Do you have other subjects that we
should be attending to that are not in this package of
legislation?
Mr. Caldwell. Not that come to the top of my pile, sir, but
we certainly do appreciate though, the interest in housing, in
particular, certainly with Bar Harbor as well as places like
Gardiner. Just to reiterate, I know Director Sams has continued
to emphasize employees are his priority for the system and I
think your support to provide adequate, quality housing is
really important, not just to the employees, but certainly to
the public that visits those parks. So we appreciate that.
Senator King. Is it nice to have a director?
Mr. Caldwell. It is nice to have a director. Thank you,
sir.
Senator King. Thank you.
Any further questions?
[No response.]
Senator King. Without further questions, I appreciate the
testimony, Mr. Caldwell.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:34 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
APPENDIX MATERIAL SUBMITTED
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