Chair Bronin’s Message
February 15, 2024
collaboration, and training to accelerate these efforts. In addition, the report demonstrates the federal government’s commitment to upholding its trust responsibility with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiians–including a new ACHP policy involving burial sites, human remains, and funerary objects, and recent examples showing how meaningful consultation can improve outcomes. And finally, this report tracks progress to develop a diverse and well-trained preservation workforce, including through internships, workforce and trades training, and innovative opportunities like the ACHP-U.S. Forest Service “Cultural Heritage in the Forest” program, geared toward students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Overall, we hope to communicate a message of hope that the federal government is working to balance the important goal of preserving and protecting our nation’s history with other economic, environmental, and cultural goals. Every individual who contributes to this work–and the many ACHP and agency staff who contributed to this report–deserve our deep gratitude. Together, we can ensure that preservation itself endures as an American value, a source of pride, and a community benefit for many more decades to come.
On behalf of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP), I am pleased to present the agency’s seventh triennial report on stewardship achievements of federal agencies in managing historic properties, prepared pursuant to Executive Order 13287, “Preserve America.” It has been nearly 60 years since President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, which created the ACHP and holds federal agencies to high standards as they identify, protect, and use historic properties. And it has been 20 years since President George W. Bush signed the “Preserve America” Executive Order recommitting the federal government
to demonstrating leadership in preserving places important to our nation’s heritage. Throughout these decades, the federal historic preservation program has benefited from strong, bipartisan support for the places and stories we share as Americans. We hope this report inspires confidence in the efforts being made at the federal level to both preserve our historic properties and ensure that they meaningfully contribute to the people who live and work around them. To that end, this report highlights how federal actors–including the ACHP itself–are working to strengthen local economies and communities through strategic approaches both to specific cultural resources and to broader historic preservation policy. Among other things, this report details efforts to improve historic preservation reviews that serve to both protect the places Americans value and facilitate access to infrastructure and investments. It highlights the ways the ACHP has worked with federal agencies to fast-track electric vehicle charging infrastructure, military and veterans housing, transmission lines, and large-scale forest restoration. This report also considers how federal agencies are making our historic places more resilient to natural hazards and better integrating them into climate mitigation efforts. The ACHP’s newly adopted policy on climate change and historic preservation encourages shifts in agency practices,
The Honorable Sara C. Bronin Chair Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
2
IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 3
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker