The Opportunity of a Lifetime for Landscape Scale Conservation
November 23, 2021
To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.
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For this month’s Featured Voice interview, we talk with Don Hellmann, the former Assistant Director for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the National Park Service. Hellmann ended his 40-year career working with Congress at the beginning of 2017. He spent the last 22 years with the NPS. In the interview, Hellmann provides insight into how the NPS legislative agenda changed over time as well as background on especially memorable bills, including Public Law 104-333, which addressed the future of the Presidio of San Francisco.
The mid 1970s proved to be a pivotal moment in the history of large landscape conservation. The funding boom of the sixties had come to an end, but the political influence of the environmental movement still held sway in many state capitols and in Washington, D.C. The administration of President Gerald Ford sought to cut back on federal investments in conservation, especially in cities, while members of Congress pushed for increases or – at the very least – preservation of the funding status quo. A document from the era, drafted by Charles Little of the Congressional Research Service, captures these tensions and is worth a read.
It is getting harder and harder to keep track of all the news involving federal government action on landscape conservation issues. The past few weeks have been especially overwhelming with each day (and sometimes each hour!) bringing a new headline or controversy. Drilling in Alaska, new fees at National Park Service units, and potential changes to National Monument designations are just a few of the issues to catch our attention.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the acquisition of the World’s End property in Hingham, Massachusetts, by the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations. World’s End is one of more than 100 properties managed by the Trustees, an organization that dates to the late 19th century. Read more.
At close to 900 pages, Senate Bill 1460 is far from light reading. Introduced by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the legislation covers a huge number of topics ranging from infrastructure to federal lands management to energy efficiency and more. It is a rare bi-partisan effort that builds on the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which passed the Senate before falling short of votes in a conference with the House.
For this month’s Featured Voice interview, we talk with Don Hellmann, the former Assistant Director for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the National Park Service. Hellmann ended his 40-year career working with Congress at the beginning of 2017. He spent the last 22 years with the NPS. In the interview, Hellmann provides insight into how the NPS legislative agenda changed over time as well as background on especially memorable bills, including Public Law 104-333, which addressed the future of the Presidio of San Francisco.
The mid 1970s proved to be a pivotal moment in the history of large landscape conservation. The funding boom of the sixties had come to an end, but the political influence of the environmental movement still held sway in many state capitols and in Washington, D.C. The administration of President Gerald Ford sought to cut back on federal investments in conservation, especially in cities, while members of Congress pushed for increases or – at the very least – preservation of the funding status quo. A document from the era, drafted by Charles Little of the Congressional Research Service, captures these tensions and is worth a read.
It is getting harder and harder to keep track of all the news involving federal government action on landscape conservation issues. The past few weeks have been especially overwhelming with each day (and sometimes each hour!) bringing a new headline or controversy. Drilling in Alaska, new fees at National Park Service units, and potential changes to National Monument designations are just a few of the issues to catch our attention.
2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the acquisition of the World’s End property in Hingham, Massachusetts, by the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations. World’s End is one of more than 100 properties managed by the Trustees, an organization that dates to the late 19th century. Read more.
At close to 900 pages, Senate Bill 1460 is far from light reading. Introduced by Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the legislation covers a huge number of topics ranging from infrastructure to federal lands management to energy efficiency and more. It is a rare bi-partisan effort that builds on the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, which passed the Senate before falling short of votes in a conference with the House.