    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 17 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
    [Pages 705-706]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Memorandum on Public-Private Partnerships for Protection of the National
    Parks

    April 22, 1996

    Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

    Subject: Facilitating Public-Private Partnerships for Protection of the
    National Parks

        Many important efforts are already underway in which the private
    sector works in partnership with government to protect or maintain
    public lands. These include the work of the National Park Foundation, an
    organization created by the Congress in 1967 to receive private gifts
    and make disbursements to benefit the parks; cooperative agreements
    between the private sector and State and local parks to share resources
    and equipment and to provide valuable services, including maintenance
    services, to the parks; and agreements with willing private parties to
    acquire conservation easements. In an effort to ensure that the public-
    private partnerships that can enhance park protection and maintenance
    are as effective as possible, I hereby direct the following action:
        1. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide to me, within 30
    days, a specific proposal for ways in which the National Park
    Foundation's role in fostering public-private partnerships on behalf of
    the parks can be invig-

    [[Page 706]]

    orated through either administrative or legislative action.
        2. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide to me a legislative
    proposal that would make permanently available to the National Park
    System the authority to enter into cooperative agreements on behalf of
    the parks. This proposal should be consistent with the temporary
    authority that would be provided by enactment of my 1997 budget proposal
    as submitted to the Congress.
        3. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide a report to me within
    6 months on options for preserving historic structures within National
    Parks. This report should consider the possibilities for partnerships
    with businesses, associations, and individuals in the private sector.
        4. The Secretary of the Interior shall work with the Congress to
    pass legislation that would allow the implementation of the 1995
    National Park Service study to protect vistas surrounding Point Reyes
    National Seashore, California, while retaining existing private uses
    through actions including the purchase of conservation easements from
    willing private sellers. The Secretary of the Interior shall also give
    priority to funding such purchases from existing funds should
    authorization for such purchases be enacted. In addition, to the extent
    permitted by law and within existing budget authority, the Secretary
    shall exercise his existing authority to make a minor boundary
    adjustment as necessary to carry out the purposes of the National Park
    Service study to add property to Point Reyes National Seashore prior to
    enactment of such legislation, and to make available an amount of funds
    not to exceed $1 million to purchase such property from willing sellers.
        This memorandum shall be published in the Federal Register.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 24,
    1996]

    Note: This memorandum was published in the Federal Register on April 25.