[Senate Report 108-372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 731
108th Congress Report
SENATE
2d Session 108-372
======================================================================
REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT ACT OF 2004
_______
September 28, 2004.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Domenici, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 2567]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 2567) to adjust the boundary of Redwood
National Park in the State of California, having considered the
same, reports favorably thereon without amendment and
recommends that the bill do pass.
Purpose of the Measure
The purpose of S. 2567 is to adjust the boundary of Redwood
National Park to include approximately 36,400 acres that have
been acquired by the California Department of Parks and
Recreation.
Background and Need
By the 1960's, ninety percent of the redwoods in California
had been harvested and many citizens across the country were
concerned that this magnificent resource would soon be lost
forever. Amid much controversy, a compromise with the timber
industry was negotiated, and on October 2, 1968, President
Johnson signed into law the Act that established Redwood
National Park (Public Law 90-545; 16 U.S.C. 79b). The new park
placed 58,000 acres in the care of the National Park Service
(NPS) and also included lands that would remain under the
jurisdiction of the State of California. As logging continued
outside the park boundary, sediment loads increased
dramatically along Redwood Creek. In March 1978, in response to
the threatened health of the stream-side redwoods within the
national park, President Carter signed into law the addition of
48,000 acres to Redwood National Park.
In 1994, the National Park Service and the California
Department of Parks and Recreation entered into a cooperative
agreement to jointly manage and protect the State and park
lands within the boundary of Redwood National Park. The State
of California and the National Park Service retain separate
ownership of their land and facilities in the parks; however,
both Federal and State lands are managed and operated
cooperatively. The three California state parks and Redwoods
National Park are now collectively referred to as the Redwood
National and State Parks (RNSP). These units represent
approximately 45 percent of all the old-growth redwood forest
remaining in California. The RNSP are designated a World
Heritage Site and are part of the California Coast Range
Biosphere Reserve.
In recent years the California Department of State Parks
and Recreation has acquired approximately 26,400 acres of
additional land. S. 2567 would amend Public Law 90-545 to
expand the boundary of the park and to authorize the California
Department of Parks and Recreation and the National Park
Service to manage the additional lands under the terms of the
existing cooperative management agreement.
Legislative History
S. 2567 was introduced by Senator Feinstein on June 23,
2004. A companion measure, H.R. 3638, was introduced by
Representative Thompson on November 21, 2003. The Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources' Subcommittee on
National Parks held a hearing on S. 2567 on July 15, 2004. At
the business meeting on September 15, 2004, the Committee on
Energy and Natural Resources ordered S. 2567 favorably
reported.
Committee Recommendation
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in an open
business session on September 15, 2004, by a unanimous voice
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S.
2567.
Section-by-Section Analysis
Section 1 entitles this Act the ``Redwoods National Park
Boundary Adjustment Act of 2004.''
Section 2 amends section 2(a) of the Act of Public Law 90-
545 (16 U.S.C. 79b (a)) by adjusting the park boundary as
referenced on the map entitled ``Redwood National Park, Revised
Boundary, numbered 167/60502 and dated February 2003''. The
referenced map must be on file and available for public
inspection in the appropriate National Park Service offices and
also be provided to the appropriate officers of Del Norte and
Humbolt Counties, California. This section further amends
Public Law 90-545 by increasing the maximum number of acres
within the boundary of Redwood National Park from 106,000 acres
to 133,000 acres.
Cost and Budgetary Considerations
The following estimate of the cost of this measure has been
provided by the Congressional Budget Office.
S. 2567--Redwood National Park Boundary Adjustment Act of 2004
S. 2567 would expand the boundary of the Redwood National
Park in California to include an additional 27,000 acres. CBO
estimates that enacting this legislation would have no
significant impact on the federal budget and would not affect
revenues or direct spending. The added lands, including the
25,500-acre Mill Creek property, are already owned by
California. Like other state park property within the existing
boundary of the Redwood National Park, these lands would
continue to be owned by the state and would be managed
cooperatively by the state and the National Park Service.
S. 2567 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Deborah Reis.
This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
Regulatory Impact Evaluation
In compliance with paragraph 11 (b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 2567.
The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of
imposing Government-established standards or significant
economic responsibilities on private individuals and
businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 2567.
Executive Communications
On July 6, 2004, the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources requested legislative reports from the Department of
the Interior and the Office of Management and Budget setting
forth Executive agency recommendations on S. 2567. These
reports had not been received when this report was filed. The
testimony provided by the Department of the Interior at the
Subcommittee hearing on S. 2567 follows:
Statement of A. Durand Jones, Deputy Director, National Park Service,
Department of the Interior
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear
before your committee to present the views of the Department of
the Interior on S. 2567, a bill to adjust the boundary of
Redwood National Park in the State of California.
The Department supports enactment of S. 2567. This
legislation would enable the National Park Service and the
California Department of Parks and Recreation to manage a large
swath of state-owned redwood forest land, known as the Mill
Creek property, under the same terms that state park lands
currently within the boundary of Redwood National Park are
managed. It would thus provide for more efficient and cost-
effective management and protection of a very ecologically
important resource in the coastal redwood region of northern
California. There would be no Federal costs for land
acquisition or development resulting from this legislation, and
only negligible operation and maintenance costs.
S. 2567 would revise the boundary of Redwood National Park
and increase the park's acreage limitation from 106,000 acres
to 133,000 acres to accommodate the addition of the 25,500-acre
Mill Creek property and about 900 acres of state park lands
that have been acquired since the last park boundary adjustment
was enacted in 1978. The Mill Creek property consists of the
watersheds of Mill Creek and Rock Creek, tributaries to the
Smith River, and is contiguous to the Redwood National Park
boundary. This property has been studied and proposed for park
status since the early 1900's, most recently in the 1960's as
the heart of an early proposal to establish Redwood National
Park. Coast redwoods comprise almost 95 percent of the forest
type on the property. The land includes about 121 acres of
ancient redwood forest, and contains 23 species that are
endangered, threatened, or of special concern. Mill Creek
supports the most significant run of Coho salmon in the entire
Smith River watershed and has been identified as critical to
the recovery of the species.
The Mill Creek property was purchased by the Save-the-
Redwoods League for $60 million from the Stimson Lumber
Company, which was phasing out logging operations on the
property and wanted to sell the land. Funding for the purchase
came from a variety of state and private sources. The land
became part of the California state park system in June, 2002,
and is being managed under an interim plan pending action by
Congress to add the property to Redwood National Park.
If the Mill Creek property is included within the boundary
of Redwood National Park, it will be managed under the same
cooperative management agreement that the National Park Service
and the California Department of Parks and Recreation currently
use to manage the National Park Service property and the three
state parks within the boundary. The joint Federal-state
management arrangement at Redwood is unusual within the
National Park System, but has come to serve as a model of
interagency cooperative management efforts.
The Federal-state management arrangement at Redwood stems
from the origins of the park. The 1968 legislation that
established Redwood National Park and the 1978 legislation that
expanded it included three existing state parks within the
boundary in anticipation of eventual conveyance from the state
to the National Park Service. For a variety of reasons, that
conveyance did not occur. The state parks currently own about
32 percent of the land within the Redwood National Park
boundary, and about half the acreage of the ancient redwood
forest in the park. In the 1990's, after years of experiencing
duplication of efforts and management conflicts, the National
Park Service and the California Department of Parks and
Recreation established a framework for cooperative management
of the Federal and state parks. Congress facilitated this
effort by providing authority for the National Park Service to
enter into a cooperative management agreement for the Redwood
parks with the state agency-and, incidentally, has since
extended that authority to all units of the National Park
System due in large part to the success of the arrangement at
Redwood.
The Federal-state cooperative management agreement at
Redwood National Park allows the two park agencies to operate
the entire 105,000-acre area in a unified manner. In a
reflection of that unity, while ``Redwood National Park''
remains the legal name for the park, the name of the site that
is used for public information purposes is ``Redwood National
and State Parks.'' The management decisions of both agencies
are guided by a joint General Management Plan, adopted in 2000.
The two agencies share staff, equipment, and facilities to
fulfill common resource protection and visitor service goals.
They develop common procedures for activities such as issuing
special use permits, and common programs for park operations
such as staff training and media relations. They develop and
implement schedules so that the two agencies cover for each
other and avoid duplication. Both agencies benefit from
efficiencies in the areas of law enforcement, interpretation,
administration, resource management and maintenance. Facilities
and space on the new parcel will increase these efficiencies by
providing centralized staging areas, storage space and offices
for these joint operations.
Adding the Mill Creek property to the boundary of Redwood
National Park, as S. 2567 would do, would enable the National
Park Service and the California Department of Parks and
Recreation to extend all the benefits of the cooperative
management agreement to that property, as well. The result
would be the more efficient and effective management and
protection of land that provides a critically important
contribution to the ecological values that the National Park
Service protects at Redwood National Park.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement. I would be happy
to answer any questions you or other members of the
subcommittee may have.
Changes in Existing Law
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by
S. 2567, as ordered reported, are shown as follows (existing
law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new
matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
Public Law 90-545
AN ACT To establish a Redwood National Park in the State of California,
and for other purposes
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in
order to preserve significant examples of the primeval coastal
redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests and the streams and
seashores with which they are associated for purposes of public
inspiration, enjoyment, and scientific study, there is hereby
established a Redwood National Park in Del Norte and Humboldt
Counties, California.
Sec. 2. [(a) The area to be included, within the Redwood
National Park is that generally depicted on the maps entitled
``Redwood National Park,'' numbered NPS-RED-7114--A and NPS-
RED-7114-B, and dated September 1968, copies of which maps
shall be kept available for public inspection in the offices of
the National Park Service, Department of the Interior, and
shall be filed with appropriate officers of Del Norte and
Humboldt Counties.] (a)(1) The Redwood National Park consists
of the land generally depicted on the map entitled `Redwood
National Park, Revised Boundary', numbered 167/60502, and dated
February, 2003.
(2) The map referred to in paragraph (1) shall be--
(A) on file and available for public inspection in
the appropriate offices of the National Park Service;
and
(B) provided by the Secretary of the Interior to the
appropriate officers of Del Norte and Humboldt
Counties, California.''
[The Secretary] (3) The Secretary of the Interior
(hereinafter referred to as the ``Secretary'') may from time to
time, with a view to carrying out the purpose of this Act and
with particular attention to minimizing siltation of the
streams, damage to the timber, and assuring the preservation of
the scenery within the boundaries of the national park as
depicted on said maps, modify said boundaries, giving notice of
any changes involved therein by publication of a revised
drawing or boundary description in the Federal Register and by
filing said revision with the officers with whom the original
maps were filed, but the acreage within said park shall at no
time exceed [one hundred and six thousand acres] 133,000 acres,
exclusive of submerged lands and publicly owned highways and
roads.
* * * * * * *