Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - May 21, 2008)

By Ms. MURKOWSKI:

S. 3045. A bill to establish the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Forest Heritage Area in the State of Alaska, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Forest Heritage Area would be the first Heritage Area in Alaska, and one of a few Heritage Areas in the West. Our proposal encompasses the wide mountainous corridor that was the major gateway to pioneer settlement of the State, extending from Seward through the Kenai Mountains to the upper Turnagain Arm. Here mountain trails developed by indigenous First Alaskans became prospectors' trails and, eventually, the roads and railroad used by the pioneers who settled the last frontier of the United States. Transportation, resource development and settlement in this rugged, often-treacherous landscape provide a powerful reminder of the fortitude and resourcefulness of the pioneers of America's Last Frontier.

Historic communities that were developed around mining and early transportation routes have preserved much of their original character. A visit to the Hope Townsite is a visit to a living community that still resembles the gold rush town that it was before the rush to the Klondike. The City of Whittier provides a glimpse of our Nation's intense effort to develop an ice-free port to supply troops who were defending our boundaries in Alaska during World War II. As in the early days, all the signs of human activity in the corridor are dwarfed by the sweeping landscapes of the region, by the magnificence of the mountains, glaciers and tidal fjords and the dominance and power of nature. Turnagain Arm, once a critical transportation link, has one of the world's greatest tidal ranges.

This Heritage Area proposal, truly a grass roots product, began in 1997 when the Kenai Peninsula Historical Association asked a group of local community leaders to reach out and tell people about Heritage Areas. They were successful in garnering support from communities throughout the corridor. These local folks have extensive knowledge of the resources; they are personally acquainted with the area; they understand the ruggedness and the beauty of the land, and certainly appreciate the potential economic value this designation would bring to the area.

In 2000 these community leaders organized the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area Corridor Communities Association as a non-profit organization with a board of directors made up of corridor community representatives. Later a congressionally designated grant made it possible for the new non-profit to serve as a local coordinating entity and prove its ability to plan and accomplish projects consistent with Heritage Area purposes. Through their management of the grant, historic structures were preserved, a small museum has opened, parks and pavilions with historic interpretation have been constructed, oral histories have been collected from old-timers and recorded, and an excellent book on corridor history has been published.

Since the corridor is within the western part of the Chugach National Forest, the Association has asked to put this Heritage Area under the Secretary of Agriculture. The bill provides for coordination with the Secretaries of Interior and includes the same components, structure and national recognition as Heritage Areas under the Secretary of Interior. Similar components assure that the Heritage Area will not impact private property rights or public land management. A Memorandum of Understanding between the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior would establish coordination at the Secretarial level. Passage of this bill will be an excellent way to commemorate the recent centennial of the Chugach National Forest.

I am proud to lend my support to this grassroots effort by introducing legislation today to designate the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm in Alaska as our most northern and western National Heritage Area, the first National Heritage Area in Alaska and the first National Forest Heritage Area to be assisted by the U.S. Forest Service.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.

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