The National Park
Service and Cultural Resource Stewardships
Kate Stevenson,
Associate Director,
Cultural Resource Stewardship and Partnerships
National Park Service
Good morning, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Buenos Dias, G'Day
Thank you for your kind introduction. It is my pleasure and honor to be representing the National Park Service at the US/ICOMOS 2000 International Symposium. US/ICOMOS has long been a valued partner to the National Park Service -- and hopefully, you feel the same about us. It is a relationship of the greatest collegiality and one of which we are immensely proud. I look forward to continuing that for many years to come. I am pleased to be back among you and to see many old and valued friends. Thank you for the invitation to come before you today.
This new millennium -- this new decade -- provides the National Park Service (and all of us in American historic preservation) with important opportunities for reflection. As managers of the oldest and largest national park system in the world, the National Park Service serves as an international model, both of what to do -- and what not to do -- for nations around the globe. The U.S. National Park Service offers experiences and models of natural and cultural resource preservation programs. Our community involvement and outreach programs in such areas as rivers and trails protection and heritage areas are models based upon international examples and which can be molded to suit a wide range of situations and conditions worldwide. Our cooperative partnerships with other nations have involved everything from planning and development strategies, to complex scientific inquiry and analysis of biological and cultural resources, to air to water pollution identification and management. We have also provided a host of training and educational opportunities for park and heritage programs personnel for many, many nations. The National Park Service regards our leadership and partnership in these and other areas of resource protection and preservation a serious national and international responsibility.
Our national preservation program is soon to be 35 years old. The U.S. National Register of Historic Places now lists over 1 million properties. 2,300 National Historic Landmarks have now been designated by the Secretary of the Interior. Our federal historic preservation tax incentives program leveraged $2.3 billion of private investment in historic preservation last year -- creating 41,000 jobs and over 4,000 units of low and moderate housing in one year. There is no arguing that historic preservation in the United States has never had it so good as in the Year 2000. Never before in our history have so many loving restored historic homes, pursued their family histories through genealogical research, and eagerly visited our national parks and other historic sites nationwide. Heritage tourism now ranks in the top economic generators of many states throughout the nation.
This Year 2000 is also another important benchmark for our national historic preservation movement. As we speak, the U.S. Census is completing its data collection phase. Before we see the results, we intuitively know some of what it will tell us. We are a more ethnically and racially diverse republic than the founding fathers ever could have dreamed. In fact, we are a more diverse population than those who founded our national preservation program could have conceived 35 years ago! The waves of emigration that recently reached our shores now have (and will continue to have) a profound effect on our nation in ways surpassing the mass European migrations in the 19th century that brought many of our ancestors to this country. The world my two daughters know now, and will know, is not that in which I grew up, what seems like so very little time ago.
We move more often and seemingly have less ties to place than our grandparents. Yet at the same time, we are increasingly concerned about sense of place and preservation of community as we face, daily, the onslaught of sprawl, shopping centers, and destruction of the natural and historic environment and landscape. We have greater access to more raw information than we could have believed at the last census ten years ago. As people, we read less and have shorter attention spans. We receive knowledge and entertainment in different ways than our parents, and in vastly different ways than our grandparents.
Because of this, we are at greater risk of losing the stories behind the historic and archaeological places that we all fight to preserve both here and abroad. The significance of historic sites and places is not inherent -- is not self-evident. Significance and stories must be conveyed from generation to generation. Without this, the reason to preserve place and historic sites is forgotten and the reason lost.
Yes, historic preservation is facing unparalleled success in this nation today. But we are a national program largely unchanged in 35 years. We are a program born in the post World War II years, created in the belief that our nation's patrimony was largely monolithic -- seen through one cultural lens. Nowadays, we increasingly see challenges to the "fit" of our national program's criteria of significance, and integrity, and ultimately what have been the bases of the U.S. approach to preservation. What are appropriate ways to preserve historic places to peoples from non-European cultures, often clashes with what is presently America's national public policy for restoration and rehabilitation -- policies derived largely from 19th century English traditions and thought.
Will our National Park Service traditions, policies, and "world views" have resonance for the increasing waves of emigrants who are now our citizens? Will our profession and our national accomplishments of which we are justifiably proud, make cultural sense to the increasing voice of America's native peoples? How effectively do we meet the need of our African-American, Latino, and Asian-American citizens?
A recent survey of National Park visitors tells us that the overwhelming percentage of visitors to our 379 units of the National Park System is upper middle class and white. And that African-and Latino-Americans feel little or no connection to these places. By the time the next census is taken, we will be a nation of minorities. It is not only the right thing to do to make sure our increasingly diverse citizenry can "own" our national parks and our national historic preservation program -- it is the smart thing as well. Without the constituency in support of our national parks and in support of our national historic preservation program, all the success of the years following World War II will be lost. We need to "grow" our approaches to significance just to keep up with current society. This message is of no surprise to the membership of US/ICOMOS. For years you have not only dealt with these realities, you have exalted in them. For it is these diverse and rich differences among and between many peoples' and nations' cultures that have drawn you to this cause, this conference, and this important international organization.
Plainly said, this is my challenge; This is your challenge as we face this new millennium. We have unparalleled opportunities to learn from many cultures and many countries what historic preservation is and how these differences can enrich the experience in America. We must internalize and digest these differences and make them part of what will be the future body of mainstream preservation in the U.S.
The world is increasingly coming to us -- in boats, in airplanes, and on the Internet. We must also increasingly work abroad to assist other cultures and preservation movements worldwide. Just as America's domestic needs for developing and maintaining protected places that make cultural sense to all its citizens, international needs are too great for us to neglect productive, creative partnerships with those who share our goals and aspirations. Quality of life and perpetuating the strengths of cultures and landscapes is everywhere and at once local and global.
Soon, you will begin hearing more about our endeavors to open a new dialogue in the United States focusing on such issues as learning from other countries' cultural approaches to significance and integrity and how they might influence our national historic preservation program and the very nature of our national park system as we face the first decades of the 21st century. I have already spoken with Gustavo Araoz on ways US/ICOMOS can assist in a significant role in both framing this discussion and putting us in touch with the right people around the world. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas during this exciting meeting in Indianapolis, and in discussions to come.
As a final note, I want to observe the loss of one of your most ardent supporters in the ranks of National Park Service alumni. As you know, Dr. Ernest Allen Connally passed away this past winter. This was a great loss to both the National Park Service and to US/ICOMOS. As the first Chairman of US/ICOMOS and as one of the founding framers of the U.S. national historic preservation program, Dr. Connally is responsible for what both programs are today. Each organization is a living tribute to his vision and professionalism and we are better organizations for him.
Thank you again for the opportunity to come before you today. It has been my great honor and pleasure to see you and to talk about the challenges we face together. US/ICOMOS is a most valued partner to the National Park Service and we look forward to many productive years to come. In closing, let me take this opportunity to invite US/ICOMOS to have one of its future meetings in one of the National Parks that is also a U.S. World Heritage Site -- your choice.
Thank you very much.