As the holiday season approaches, national park lovers, conservation groups, and local tourism boosters have a number of new national parks on their Christmas list. Ranging from first national parks for Wisconsin and Georgia to small-scale historic parks, the list of landscapes looking to be protected is inclusive and robust.
While the 118th Congress will go down as one of the least productive federal legislatures in history, perhaps they’ll take a cue from Santa’s elves and get busy gifting the American public new parks before the term ends on January 3, 2025. After all, national parks are the gift that keeps on giving, being passed down from generation to generation.
Here’s what park hopefuls—who have tried their best to be on the nice list—are hoping to see wrapped under the Christmas tree.
Robust landscapes the kids will love
In the upper midwest, Wisconsin looks to gain its first flagship national park. This summer, Representative Tom Tiffany introduced legislation to redesignate the Apostle Islands as a National Park.
Designated in 1970, Apostle Islands National Lakeshore preserves a fairyland archipelago off the shore of Lake Superior. It would follow in the footsteps of Indiana Dunes National Park, which was redesignated from a national lakeshore in 2019.
As a special gift to sportsmen and women, one island in the archipelago, Sand Island, will be designated as a National Preserve to allow deer harvesting to continue.
On the opposite edge of the nation, the campaign continues to upgrade Arizona’s Chiricahua National Monument to a national park. Described as Arizona’s version of Bryce Canyon, the standing rocks of Chiricahua protect indigenous history and a Sky Island ecosystem.
Though stunning, Chiricahua is remote. National park status will bring greater attention to the unique landscape and tourism dollars to the surrounding communities.
On the Atlantic coast bipartisan legislators are looking to slip a national park unit into the stocking for the people of Maryland. Having recently progressed out of committee, the bill for the Chesapeake National Recreation Area would provide further protection and greater public access to America’s largest estuary.
Asking Santa for Bigger Toys
While new national parks have to be created by Congress, President Biden can bypass partisan elves and make new toys for the preservation-minded public himself.
There are more than a handful of campaigns asking the president to issue executive orders via the Antiquities Act to establish national monuments. Two look to the borders of existing national parks, aiming to effectively expand the park boundaries.
The Maah Daah Hey National Monument proposal asks the president to protect nearly 140,000 acres of the North Dakota badlands between the north and south units of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Winding through the non-contiguous units of the monument is the Maah Daah Hey Trail, a rugged 144 mile multi-use pathway.
In California, a similar campaign is underway to protect land bordering Joshua Tree National Park. The proposed Chuckwalla National Monument would cover 627,000 acres south of the national park, between the Coachella Valley and the Colorado River. In addition to calling on the president to use the Antiquities Act to create the Chuckwalla monument, two California congressmen have introduced legislation to expand Joshua Tree, a move recommended by the National Park Service.
History high on the wishlist
Though the National Park Service recommended against it this summer, legislation has been introduced to Congress to create Georgia’s first national park. Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve would involve a grafting of the existing Ocmulgee Mounds National Historic Park to additional lands along the Ocmulgee river corridor.
In its Special Resource Study, the NPS determined that the land-acquisition process would be difficult and that other agencies—namely the state of Georgia—were already doing an adequate job protecting and managing the landscape.
Though the NPS recommended against re-designation and expansion, Congress has chosen to consider it anyway. Similar circumstances surrounded Gateway Arch National Park, which was renamed and re-designated from a national monument in 2018.
In addition to the Ocmulgee mounds, several other nationally significant historic sites look poised for addition to the national park system.
After a 2005 Reconnaissance Survey, the NPS found significance in the historic streets of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Known as Black Wall Street, the area was the site of a deadly race riot in 1921. In the wake of the 100th anniversary of the massacre, the movement has gained steam, including a visit from president Biden, who could establish it as a national monument.
In Maine, the president has been asked to establish the home of Frances Perkins as a national monument. Perkins was the first female cabinet secretary, working under Franklin Delano Roosevelt as the Secretary of Labor.
Perkins’ policy contributions, which include Social Security, the 40-hour work week, and minimum wage, echo into the 21st century and affect the lives of every American.
Finally, the Rosenwald Schools are set up to form a unique national monument. Established by Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald, the Rosenwald schools are network for schoolhouses that brought equitable educational opportunities to African American children at the height of Jim Crow segregation.
Spread throughout the country, the Rosenwald Schools were named by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one of the most endangered historic sites in the country.
Please Santa don’t be late
While the list of new national-parks-in-the-works is exciting, there is always a possibility for disappointment on Christmas morning. Just like in Santa’s workshop, these bills face a hard deadline at the end of the legislative term on January 3, 2025.
The clock is also ticking for the many monument proposals. A new administration will take office on January 20, setting back the last three and half years of lobbying.
Will there be a Christmas miracle for landscape conservation? Perhaps if we all believe.
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