PDA

View Full Version : ATC and NPS sign new 10 year agreement



jlb2012
01-26-2005, 08:07
from today's Morning Report:

Appalachian National Scenic Trail (CT,GA,MA,MD,ME,NC,NH,NJ,NY,PA,TN,VA,VT,WV)
NPS Signs New Agreements with ATC


In a celebratory event at the USFWS National Conservation Training Center, the National Park Service and the Appalachian Trail Conference (ATC) recently signed new documents defining their decades-old official working relationship on behalf of the Appalachian Trail. These are the latest generation of agreements stemming from the agency's unprecedented 1984 delegation of most management responsibility to ATC for the 110,000 acres it acquired specifically to protect the A.T. from development. That delegation, in turn, stemmed from 1968 National Trails System Act provisions, sought by ATC, that DOI solicitor Pete Raynor at the time termed unique: "We are unaware of any other unit of the national park system that has such a broad statement of authority…to transfer operation, development, or maintenance of an NPS area to nonfederal control." The 1984 agreement was renewed in 1989 and again in 1994 for a 10-year term. With NPS Associate Director Chris Jarvi as a witness, Director Mainella having already signed in advance, ATC Chair Brian T. Fitzgerald and Executive Director David N. Startzell and A.T. Park Manager Pamela Underhill of the NPS on November 20th signed new documents covering the next 10 years — a cooperative agreement that allows the NPS to financially support trail programs and a memorandum of understanding that reaffirms the philosophical and legal basis for the delegation of stewardship responsibility.
[Submitted by Bob Gray, Chief Ranger]