Norton Study to Make National Park Service Responsive to Communities Gets Support on House Floor

July 27, 2011

WASHINGTON, DC -- The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) said today she was delighted that both the chairman and the ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies pledged on the House floor last night to help Norton get the National Park Service (NPS) to conduct the study required by NPS's current policy of applying the same rules and regulations to all NPS parks, regardless of local circumstances. Norton offered an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2012 Interior Appropriations bill, but withdrew it for procedural reasons after receiving a commitment from Subcommittee Chairman Michael K. Simpson (R-ID) and Ranking Member Jim Moran (D-VA) to work with her to get the study done. NPS owns most of the parks in the District of Columbia.

"Both Chairman Simpson and my good friend Ranking Member Moran agreed that my amendment would benefit park communities throughout the nation," Norton said. "I am grateful for their commitment to implementing my amendment this year, whether in a conference committee or by other means. D.C residents, perhaps more than Americans in other jurisdictions in our country, have often been frustrated by NPS's inflexibility in meeting the needs of local communities. Even within the necessary unified national park system, one size does not fit all parks all the time uniformity, that rigidly applied, can undermine NPS's mission, which includes not only conversation but recreation and enjoyment of our parks by the people who use them." Although the NPS-owned neighborhood parks in D.C. serve a very different function than Yellowstone National Park, for example, NPS applies the same rules and regulations to all of its parks. Dupont Circle Park, for example, is a central community meeting place in the District where residents play chess, sunbathe, play Frisbee and pass out flyers. Examples cited by the Congresswoman on the floor of the NPS's inflexibility included its refusal to allow the Capital Bikeshare program on or near the Mall and other parks here and its insistence on operating the District's three golf courses as concessions, where there is no incentive for capital investment, rather than considering a public-private partnership to attract the private capital needed for capital-intensive upkeep and renovation.

Norton submitted her amendment for a study of best park practices only after years of refusal by NPS to make small changes to enable the parks here to better serve District residents. However, she cited as an example of positive NPS change an agreement she recently got to implement administratively a provision of her Mall revitalization bill to bring music and cultural activities to the Mall for residents and tourists to enjoy during lunch hours.

See also The Washington Examiner's article, Shoud the NPS Chill Out About D.C. Parks?, written by Liz Farmer.