[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 237 (Friday, December 9, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 89143-89145]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-29528]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-OIA-22277; PIN00IO14.XI0000]


15-Day Notice of Opportunity for Public Comment on Planned 
Additions to the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List and Proposed Future 
U.S. Nominations to the World Heritage List

AGENCY: National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: This is a First Notice for the public to comment on the next 
potential U.S. nominations from the existing U.S. World Heritage 
Tentative List (``Tentative List'') to the United Nations Educational, 
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List, and 
announces additions to the Tentative List. The public may also make 
suggestions for additions to the Tentative List. This notice complies 
with Sec. 73.7(c) of the World Heritage Program regulations (36 CFR 
part 73).

DATES: Comments will be accepted on or before December 27, 2016. There 
have been several opportunities for public comment on this subject in 
past notices, and the National Park Service has also received 
suggestions from the public and through other channels since 2008 and 
throughout the process of revising the Tentative List in 2015 and 2016.

ADDRESSES: Please provide all comments directly to Jonathan Putnam, 
Office of International Affairs, National Park Service, 1201 Eye Street 
NW. (0050), Washington, DC 20005 or by Email to: 
[email protected] . Phone: 202-354-1809. Fax 202-371-1446.
    Comments: Comments on whether to nominate any of the properties on 
the Tentative List must address:
    (i) How well the property(ies) would meet the World Heritage 
nomination criteria, requirements for authenticity, integrity, legal 
protection and management. Information on these criteria and 
requirements can be found on the Web site noted below; and
    (ii) The readiness and ability of the property owner(s) to prepare 
a satisfactory nomination document.
    Suggestions for additions to the Tentative List not previously 
submitted must address:
    (i) How the property(ies) would meet the World Heritage nomination 
criteria, requirements for authenticity, integrity, legal protection 
and management. Information on these criteria and requirements can be 
found on the Web site noted below; and
    (ii) The U.S. legal prerequisites that include the agreement of all 
property owners to the nomination of their property, an official 
determination that the property is nationally significant (such as by 
designation as a National Historic or National Natural Landmark), and 
effective legal protection.
    All previous suggestions for the Tentative List made during 
previous comment periods or otherwise submitted since 2008, have been 
retained and considered and should not be resubmitted at this time.
    All public comments will be summarized and provided to Department 
of the Interior officials, who will obtain the advice of the Federal 
Interagency Panel for World Heritage before making any selection of 
properties for World Heritage nomination. The selection may include the 
following considerations:
    (i) How well the particular type of property (i.e., theme or 
region) is represented on the World Heritage List in both the United 
States and other nations;
    (ii) The balance between cultural and natural properties already on 
the List and those under consideration;
    (iii) Opportunities that the property affords for public 
visitation, interpretation, and education;

[[Page 89144]]

    (iv) Potential threats to the property's integrity or its current 
state of preservation;
    (v) Likelihood of being able to complete a satisfactory nomination; 
and
    (vi) Other relevant factors, including the possible implications of 
the fact that the United States is currently prohibited by law from 
providing any funding to UNESCO, including UNESCO and World Heritage 
member dues.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Putnam, 202-354-1809. General 
information about U.S. participation in the World Heritage Program and 
the process used to develop the Tentative List is posted on the Office 
of International Affairs Web site at: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/internationalcooperation/worldheritage.htm.
    To request a paper copy of the U.S. Tentative List, please contact 
April Brooks, Office of International Affairs, National Park Service, 
1201 Eye Street NW., (0050) Washington, DC 20005. Email: 
[email protected].
    For the World Heritage nomination format, see the World Heritage 
Centre Web site at: http://whc.unesco.org/en/nominations.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Background: The World Heritage List is an international list of 
cultural and natural properties nominated by the signatories to the 
World Heritage Convention (1972), an international treaty for the 
preservation of natural and cultural heritage sites of global 
significance. The United States has served several terms on the elected 
21-nation World Heritage Committee, but is not currently on the 
Committee. There are 1,052 sites in 165 of the 192 signatory countries. 
Currently there are 23 World Heritage Sites in the United States.
    U.S. participation and the roles of the Department of the Interior 
and the National Park Service are authorized by Title IV of the 
Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1980 and conducted in 
accordance with 36 CFR part 73--World Heritage Convention.
    The National Park Service serves as the principal technical agency 
for the U.S. Government to the Convention and manages all or parts of 
18 of the 23 U.S. World Heritage Sites currently listed.
    A Tentative List is a national list of natural and cultural 
properties appearing to meet the World Heritage Committee eligibility 
criteria for nomination to the World Heritage List. It is a list of 
candidate sites which a country intends to consider for nomination 
within a given time period, but does not guarantee future nomination. 
The World Heritage Committee's Operational Guidelines ask participating 
nations to provide Tentative Lists, which aid in evaluating properties 
for the World Heritage List on a comparative international basis and 
help the Committee to schedule its work over the long term. A country 
cannot nominate a property unless it has been on its Tentative List for 
a minimum of a year. Countries also are limited at this time to 
nominating no more than one site in any given year.
    Neither inclusion in the Tentative List nor inscription as a World 
Heritage Site imposes legal restrictions on owners or neighbors of 
sites, nor does it give the United Nations any management authority or 
ownership rights in U.S. World Heritage Sites, which continue to be 
subject to U.S. laws.
    Current U.S. World Heritage Tentative List: The current U.S. World 
Heritage Tentative List was transmitted to the UNESCO World Heritage 
Centre on January 24, 2008. Since 2008, five properties on the 
Tentative List have been nominated to the World Heritage List: Three 
have been successfully inscribed on the World Heritage List, and are 
therefore no longer included on the Tentative List.
    On June 26, 2012, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced in 
the Federal Register (77 FR 38079) that it intended to update the 
Tentative List in 2016. To accomplish this, it made use of an expert 
Working Group established as a sub-committee of the U.S. National 
Commission for UNESCO, a Federal Advisory Committee for the U.S. 
Department of State. The organizations comprising the Working Group 
(see below) were selected to provide expertise in the full range of 
subject areas that can be considered for World Heritage; they also 
included the member agencies of the Federal Interagency Panel on World 
Heritage, which advises the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for 
Fish and Wildlife and Parks. The Working Group completed its work in 
October 2016 and the full U.S. National Commission for UNESCO endorsed 
its recommendations on October 11, 2016 in an open teleconference. On 
October 17, 2016, the Department of State transmitted the 
recommendations to the Department of the Interior.

Agencies and Organizations on the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List 
Working Group

Smithsonian Institution
U.S. National Committee, International Council on Monuments and Sites
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage 
(TICCIH)
U.S. National Park Service
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Society of Architectural Historians
American Historical Association
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Geological Society of America
National Geographic Society
U.S. Department of State

    The current Tentative List includes the following properties:

Cultural Sites

Civil Rights Movement Sites, Alabama

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery
Bethel Baptist Church, Birmingham
16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham

Dayton Aviation Sites, Ohio

Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park

Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio

Fort Ancient State Memorial, Warren County
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, near Chillicothe
Newark Earthworks State Historic Site, Newark and Heath

Jefferson (Thomas) Buildings, Virginia (Proposed Jointly as an 
Extension to the World Heritage Listing of Monticello and the 
University of Virginia Historic District)

Poplar Forest, Bedford County
Virginia State Capitol, Richmond

Mount Vernon, Virginia

Serpent Mound, Ohio

Wright (Frank Lloyd) Buildings [Nominated in 2015; Additional 
Information has Been Requested by the World Heritage Committee]

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona
Hollyhock House, Los Angeles, California
Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California
Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois
Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
Price Tower, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania
Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin
Herbert and Katherine Jacobs House, Madison, Wisconsin

Natural Sites

National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa (Formerly Fagatele Bay 
National

Marine Sanctuary, American Samoa)

[[Page 89145]]

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

White Sands National Monument, New Mexico

Proposed Additions to U.S. World Heritage Tentative List

Cultural Sites

Ellis Island, New Jersey and New York

Chicago Early Skyscrapers, Illinois, Including: [Other Properties May 
Be Added in the Course of Developing a Nomination]

--Rookery
--Auditorium Building
--Monadnock Building
--Ludington Building
--Marquette Building
--Old Colony Building
--Schlesinger & Mayer (Carson, Pirie Scott) Department Store
--Second Leiter Building
--Fisher Building

Central Park, New York

Brooklyn Bridge, New York

Moravian Bethlehem District, Pennsylvania

Natural Sites

Marianas Trench National Monument, U.S. Territory, Commonwealth of the 
Northern Mariana Islands, Guam

Central California Current, California, Including

--Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary
--Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary
--Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
--Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge
--Point Reyes National Seashore
--Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Big Bend National Park, Texas

Pacific Remote Islands National Monument, U.S. Territorial Waters

    In developing recommendations for additions to the Tentative List, 
the Working Group considered all the suggestions that had been 
submitted to the Department of the Interior since the current Tentative 
List was developed in 2008, during both formal comment periods and 
through other channels. There were well over 100 of these suggestions, 
including both specific properties and thematic ideas. The Working 
Group also considered additional suggestions contained in the January 
2016 ``U.S. World Heritage Gap Study Report'' by the U.S. national 
committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) 
and a report by an expert from the World Commission on Protected Areas 
on places in the U.S. identified as priorities for global conservation 
and which may have potential for World Heritage listing. The ICOMOS 
international secretariat provided, under contract with the National 
Park Service, preliminary evaluations of a short list of cultural 
candidate sites, which also informed the Working Group's 
recommendations.
    The United States Department of the Interior is now considering 
whether to initiate the preparation of draft nominations for any of the 
remaining properties on the current Tentative List to the World 
Heritage List. Brief descriptions of the properties appear on the 
National Park Service, Office of International Affairs Web site: 
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/internationalcooperation/worldheritage.htm.
    All comments will be a matter of public record. Before including an 
address, phone number, email address, or other personal identifying 
information in a comment, members of the public should be aware that 
the entire comment--including personal identifying information--may be 
made public at any time. While commenters can request that personal 
identifying information be withheld from public review, it may not be 
possible to comply with this request.

    Authority: 54 U.S.C. 307101; 36 CFR part 73.

    Dated: November 30, 2016.
Michael J. Bean,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
[FR Doc. 2016-29528 Filed 12-8-16; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4312-52-P