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Parks Without Borders: Valuing NPS Programs

Environmental economists have traditionally focused on the management of physical park units when performing economic valuations. The value NPS creates by operating cooperative programs outside of its park boundaries (including programs aimed at education, conservation, historical preservation, and recreation) through collaboration with local partners is just as relevant albeit more difficult to define.Still, we cannot omit the value that programs provide just because it is harder to quantify.

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The 2016 Federal Budget: How did Large Landscapes Fare?

After months of uncertainty, weeks of negotiations and two short-term extensions to keep the government open, Congress passed and the President signed the 2009 page omnibus spending Bill, titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016. How did federal initiatives that support landscape scale work and fund our natural and cultural conservation program fare?

Read More »

National Heritage Areas Deliver Place-Based Education

The thirtieth anniversary of the first National Heritage Area (NHA) and the upcoming centennial of the National Park Service (NPS), inspired research into the relatively untapped topic of the mutual benefits to both NHAs and the NPS. Recent research has explored how NHAs deliver place-based educational programming in partnership with nearby national park units.

Read More »
Credit: National Park Service

Blackstone River Valley: Policy Without Money is just Talk

The Blackstone River Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island has long been a hotbed of innovation from its earliest industrialization to experimentation in protected area management with the creation of a National Heritage Corridor in 1986. Recently, the conservation possibilities of the region have been re-imagined yet again. In 2014, Congress authorized a new park unit – the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park. How might this latest change affect the ongoing story of the heritage corridor with more than three decades of working on the ground in communities throughout the valley?

Read More »
Credit: Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor

National Heritage Areas at Thirty: Help tell the Story

2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Heritage Areas program. Conceived as a way to cross the culture – nature divide, heritage areas stretch beyond political boundaries to tell landscape scale histories and protect regional environmental resources. The areas tell stories that are too big, too gritty, too alive and too expensive to be confined within a traditional national park unit. Yet, heritage areas have been consistently hammered by shrinking federal budgets, questions about the proper role of government, and even their right to exist. Read more about how the LLO plans to mark this important anniversary.

Read More »

Parks Without Borders: Valuing NPS Programs

Environmental economists have traditionally focused on the management of physical park units when performing economic valuations. The value NPS creates by operating cooperative programs outside of its park boundaries (including programs aimed at education, conservation, historical preservation, and recreation) through collaboration with local partners is just as relevant albeit more difficult to define.Still, we cannot omit the value that programs provide just because it is harder to quantify.

Read More »

The 2016 Federal Budget: How did Large Landscapes Fare?

After months of uncertainty, weeks of negotiations and two short-term extensions to keep the government open, Congress passed and the President signed the 2009 page omnibus spending Bill, titled the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016. How did federal initiatives that support landscape scale work and fund our natural and cultural conservation program fare?

Read More »

National Heritage Areas Deliver Place-Based Education

The thirtieth anniversary of the first National Heritage Area (NHA) and the upcoming centennial of the National Park Service (NPS), inspired research into the relatively untapped topic of the mutual benefits to both NHAs and the NPS. Recent research has explored how NHAs deliver place-based educational programming in partnership with nearby national park units.

Read More »
Credit: National Park Service

Blackstone River Valley: Policy Without Money is just Talk

The Blackstone River Valley in Massachusetts and Rhode Island has long been a hotbed of innovation from its earliest industrialization to experimentation in protected area management with the creation of a National Heritage Corridor in 1986. Recently, the conservation possibilities of the region have been re-imagined yet again. In 2014, Congress authorized a new park unit – the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park. How might this latest change affect the ongoing story of the heritage corridor with more than three decades of working on the ground in communities throughout the valley?

Read More »
Credit: Illinois & Michigan Canal National Heritage Corridor

National Heritage Areas at Thirty: Help tell the Story

2014 marks the 30th anniversary of the National Heritage Areas program. Conceived as a way to cross the culture – nature divide, heritage areas stretch beyond political boundaries to tell landscape scale histories and protect regional environmental resources. The areas tell stories that are too big, too gritty, too alive and too expensive to be confined within a traditional national park unit. Yet, heritage areas have been consistently hammered by shrinking federal budgets, questions about the proper role of government, and even their right to exist. Read more about how the LLO plans to mark this important anniversary.

Read More »