The process of designating National Trails is very similar to designating a National Heritage Area. Both are required to have a feasibility study complete with inventory lists and both come with federal land management plans.
Unlike National Heritage Areas who are only guided by the National Park Service and the Department of Interior; National Trails are National Parks.
National Trails are Federal National Park Service Units.
National Heritage Areas have borders and are often administered with the intent to preserve everything within that boundary. National Trails do not have borders. The administrators often focus on preserving the viewshed for as far as the eye can see, from any point along that trail.
In the spring of 2021, as the country was coming out of Covid lockdowns, Norman and I traveled within the borders of the Kansas Nebraska Heritage Area Partnership proposed National Heritage Area. We set up public meetings and informed people of the intended use of their property.
That tour allowed us to form lasting bonds with many people within the region. A few of those people informed us of the Chisholm and Western National Historic Trail proposal. It had been repeatedly introduced to Congress since the completion of the Feasibility Study in 2019.
Interestingly, the National Park Service did not want another Unit added to the National Park Service. In a letter stamped with the date of May 17th, 2019, the Deputy Director for the National Park Service states:
“… the Department of the Interior does not support trail designation at this time due to the $11.9 billion deferred maintenance backlog within NPS.”
P. DANIEL sMITH, DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Nor did the citizens living along the trail want their land added to the National Park System. The Chisholm and Western Trails stretch through 109 counties in 4 states encompassing 76,792,640 acres of land. Of the 10,673,000 people living in the 56 counties in Texas, 18 counties in Oklahoma, 29 counties in Kansas and 6 counties in Nebraska, only 326 showed up to the public meetings.
Most of the citizens who did know about the trails learned about them after the legislation was introduced to Congress and they became champions of fighting it back. In 2021 and 2022, the legislation to make the trails a National Park, failed again. And again, it has been reintroduced to Congress.
Just like the National Heritage Areas, National Trails can be pushed back with Resolutions. The Kansas Nebraska Heritage Area Partnership ended their pursuit of an NHA after 45 of the 49 counties passed a resolution wanting out.
Here is a Template to give you an idea of what a Resolution should look like. We encourage counties, municipalities and bodies to alter the Templates or use their own, to best fit the needs of their community.
If a resolution is passed, please share it with us. We will make them public so they cannot be denied and send them to members of Congress. Email your signed and dated resolution to: www.westernregionpropertyrightscoalition@outlook.com
Angel Cushing
” No one has the right to designate your property for anything without your permission. Not even Yard of the Month should be designated without your consent.”
Meeting held in Vici, Oklahoma. Photo by Andrea Hutchison
