In this Issue

	New Communities Honored in Newark
	Preserve America Steward Named in Newark
	Come to the National Trust Preserve America Session
	Another Session to Attend in Spokane
	Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Preserve America
	Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itineraries
	Tribal Youth Summit
	Section 106 Training
	40th Anniversary of World Heritage Convention
	Federal Resources for Sustainable Rural Communities

Links

Preserve America News |August  2012

New Communities Honored in Newark

At the ACHP's summer business meeting Aug. 9, Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker, ACHP Chairman Wayne Donaldson and Vice Chairman Clement Price presented two Newark neighborhoods with Preserve America Community designation certificates signed by First Lady Michelle Obama. The neighborhods are the Ironbound community and the James Street Commons Historic District. Read more details.

Preserve America Steward Named in Newark

At the ACHP's summer business meeting Aug. 9, a new Preserve America Steward was honored. Branch Brook Park Alliance received a certificate signed by First Lady Michelle Obama from ACHP Chairman Wayne Donaldson, Vice Chairman Clement Price and Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker. Read more details.

Come to the National Trust Preserve America Session

An affiliate session for Preserve America Communities as well as other historic communities and their partners will be held in Spokane, Wash., on Oct. 31, 2012, from 1-3 p.m. at the National Preservation Conference. The special forum is focused on “Historic Communities and Tourism Economics.”

All interested community representatives and others attending the conference in Spokane are invited; while registration for the main conference is encouraged, it is not required to attend this session. Confirmed speakers to date include Donovan Rypkema of Place Economics; Ron Anzalone of the ACHP; and community presenters from Monterey, Calif., Great Falls and Whitehall, Mont. We would be happy to receive additional speaker proposals if you are interested in speaking about your community’s or region’s preservation and heritage tourism accomplishments, and how you are measuring the economic success of your efforts.

We would love to see community representatives from Preserve America Communities, Certified Local Governments and Main Street Communities, including gateway communities to National Parks and other significant public resources, as well as communities named by the National Trust to the annual Dozen Distinctive Destinations list. The forum will also welcome others working with these communities, including state and tribal preservation officials, statewide and regional heritage organizations, convention and visitor bureaus and tourism offices.

Read a full description of the session. If you are interested in making a presentation, or want to sign up to attend, please contact Judy Rodenstein (202-606-8584) or Ron Anzalone (202-606-8523) at the ACHP.

Spokane Riverfront Park (photo courtesy Wikipedia)

Another Session to Attend in Spokane

The ACHP will also present an educational session at the National Preservation Conference. “Perceptions of Place: Preservation in a Changing America” is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 3. Plan to stay for the award ceremony Friday night and the ACHP session on Saturday morning, before leaving Spokane.

The session will address the issue of multiculturalism in historic preservation and how the values of historic places can be properly interpreted, respected and protected. Moderated by ACHP Office of Federal Agency Programs Assistant Director Charlene Vaughn, the panel includes ACHP Vice Chairman Clement Price (as Director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience at Rutgers University, Newark Campus); David Vela (Southeast Regional Director, NPS); Leonard Forsman (Chairman, Suquamish Tribe); and Dennis Arguelles (Director, Program Development, Search to Involve Pilipino Americans as a representative of Filipinotown, Los Angeles, Calif.).

Celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Preserve America

March 3, 2013, will be the anniversary of the first announcement of the Preserve America program at a conference of the National Association of Counties in Washington, D.C. by then-First Lady Laura Bush. The spring 2003 Preserve America announcement was followed by events later in the year in Mobile, Ala. and Portland, Maine, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors also passed a resolution in support of Preserve America at its annual conference in Denver. January 15, 2014, will mark 10 years since the first Preserve America Communities were announced at a White House event. The first eight designated communities were Steamboat Springs, Colo.; Key West, Fla.; Augusta, Ga.; Versailles, Ky.;  Dorchester County, Md.; Putnam County, N.Y.; Delaware, Ohio; and Castroville, Texas.  

If you have suggestions about how to recognize the anniversary of Preserve America, please e-mail your idea to Ron Anzalone.

Augusta Riverwalk

Discover Our Shared Heritage Travel Itineraries

As part of its “Discover Our Shared Heritage” Travel Itinerary series, which highlights properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places that can be visited along themed itineraries, the National Park Service identifies those itineraries that are connected to Preserve America Communities. The most recent itineraries include “Indian Mounds of Mississippi,” “Places Reflecting America’s Diverse Cultures in the National Park System,” and “Bureau of Reclamation Historic Dams and Water Projects.” See all of the National Register itineraries. Read about the Preserve America Communities linked to National Register itineraries.

Parker Dam, Arizona/California (photo courtesy NPS) 

Tribal Youth Summit

The ACHP’s Office of Native American Affairs (ONAA) and Office of Communications, Education, and Outreach participated in back-to-back historic preservation sessions at the 2012 Intertribal Youth Leadership Institute on July 30, 2012.

ACHP staff provided information about three federal historic preservation issues that affected tribes as models, and participated in interactive discussions about how the national historic preservation program can assist tribal leaders in issues of importance to tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations. About 30 attendees were in each of the two sessions.

Following the educational sessions, ONAA staff participated in an interactive “getting to know your federal partners” session where institute attendees could learn more about historic preservation efforts, the ACHP, and discuss issues important to them.

The sessions took place at the fourth leadership institute held by the U.S. Department of Justice near Washington, D.C. between July 28 and Aug. 2.

Students listen to panelists.

Section 106 Training

Are you curious about how federal agencies factor historic preservation concerns into project planning? Is a federal or federally-assisted project anticipated in your community? If so, you may want to learn more about Section 106 review. Section 106 is explained in the ACHP’s Citizen's Guide, but webinars are another great opportunity to gather useful information about this tool in the federal historic preservation program.

The Section 106 Webinar Series continues this summer. One-hour, interactive learning experiences about hot topics in Section 106 review are led by ACHP staff instructors. The schedule includes topics of interest to all knowledge levels, from those new to the regulatory process to experienced practitioners.

Details are available here. Additional webinars will be announced over the next month, so we encourage you to bookmark this page and check for updates. Enrollment is limited to 25 students in any offering, and all webinars are $50 per participant. Contact us with questions.

And if you will be in Spokane, Wash., this fall, sign up to take our on-site Section 106 Essentials course being offered in conjunction with the National Preservation Conference. More information is available here.

40th Anniversary of World Heritage Convention

In June 2012, a group of experts and organizational representatives took part in a symposium on U.S. World Heritage Sites at the University of Virginia. Monticello and the university together comprise the UNESCO World Heritage Site designated in 1987.

Since the World Heritage Convention is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the group believed it was timely and important to discuss how to improve appreciation and understanding of U.S. World Heritage Sites. Enhancing the timeliness of the meeting was the release of the first-ever National Travel and Tourism Strategy by the federal government in May. Related issues included assessing the potential for enhanced networking and cooperation among the U.S. site managers, and developing strategies to promote the tourism benefits of enhanced international and domestic visitation at the sites. A related interest that will be of particular concern to Preserve America Communities near some of these locations is how to use World Heritage Sites as one part of a regional tourism promotional strategy through the U.S. international tourism marketing being carried out by Brand USA and its Discover America Web site.   

Sponsors of the symposium included the ACHP, the National Park Service and the U.S. National Commission on UNESCO. A report of the proceedings is available here.  

View a full current U.S. World Heritage list and the study list, as well as more about the program and links to the international sites.

Federal Resources for Sustainable Rural Communities

The federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities released a new publication, Federal Resources for Sustainable Rural Communities. Three federal agencies—the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—came together in 2009  to create the Partnership for Sustainable Communities to help places around the country develop in more environmentally and economically sustainable ways. To guide its work, the Partnership developed six livability principles that are consistent with the goals of most Preserve America Communities: Provide more transportation choices; Promote equitable, affordable housing; Enhance economic competitiveness; Support existing communities; Coordinate and leverage federal policies and investment; Value communities and neighborhoods.

Several designated Preserve America Communities have been featured in partnership case studies, including Selma, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Charles Town, WVa. Read more details about the partnership, the livability principles and other case studies and resource information.

Historic Dundon House, Bridgeport, Conn. (photo courtesy State of Connecticut)