Fort Frederica National Monument Boundary Expansion Act

Floor Speech

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As the chairman has said, this bill expands the Fort Frederica National Monument to include a 20-acre property, known as the North Marsh, which is currently owned by the St. Simons Land Trust. The National Park Service evaluated the property in a 2014 study and determined that its acquisition would provide additional opportunities to protect and interpret resources that are associated with the site.

Fort Frederica, located on St. Simons Island, Georgia, was built by James Oglethorpe in 1736 to protect the colony of Georgia from Spanish Florida. The fort has been managed by the National Park Service since 1936, when President Franklin Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to designate the site as a national monument.

As a quick aside, I climbed Mount Katahdin last week, which is Maine's highest mountain, and I was in Maine when Secretary Jewell arrived to celebrate President Obama's use of the Antiquities Act to accept a gift of 87,000 acres in order to create the new Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument--some of the most beautiful country I have ever seen.

This bill is an important reminder of how a decision to protect and elevate our shared heritage resonates for generations. Eighty years after President Roosevelt made the decision to establish a national monument, we are looking at opportunities to expand it and increase the resources it protects. By using money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund--a Federal program that was not around in FDR's time but that is one, I am sure, he would have supported--we can continue this important legacy.

I thank the majority and my friend from Georgia (Mr. Carter) for advancing this bill. I look forward to working with them to advance similar legislation that is designed to expand and enhance our public lands.

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