[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.