Great American Outdoors Act Funding Supports Projects for Public Benefit Nationwide
CASE STUDY
its inception, the Legacy Restoration Fund has impacted national parks in every state, supplying approximately $4 billion for more than 100 large-scale infrastructure projects and 300 smaller historic preservation activities throughout the country. GAOA funding is also addressing the maintenance needs at landscapes central to America’s foundational history, including at Minute Man National Historical Park (NHP) in Massachusetts. Minute Man NHP will receive approximately $27 million from GAOA to address maintenance needs for the park’s buildings, structures, landscape, trails, signage, and monuments. The project will preserve some of the core features of the park including the Battle Road Trail and coincide with the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. Likewise, BLM has used GAOA funds to stabilize and rehabilitate the historic Punta Gorda Light Station along the Lost Coast of the King Range National Conservation Area in northern California. This critical maintenance project will ensure the continued safety of thousands of annual visitors as they experience the Lost Coast’s natural and cultural resources. Federal agencies have also leveraged GAOA funds to create new educational and training opportunities aimed at bolstering the preservation tools and strategies employed by federal preservation staff and their partners. In 2021, the USFS Job Corps, and HistoriCorps entered a partnership to facilitate Corps students addressing critical maintenance needs of historic properties, while gaining knowledge in traditional trades. Job Corps, a program administered by the Department of Labor, provides free job training and education to a diverse group of young students. By partnering with HistoriCorps, the Job Corps Program will allow students to gain hands-on traditional preservation skills and propel them toward careers in historic preservation. This program directly meets one of the recommendations of the ACHP’s 2021 Section 3 Report, that agencies use GAOA funding for traditional trades training to address the severe shortage of traditional tradespeople whose skillsets can be used to complete critical and deferred maintenance projects throughout land-managing agencies.
Enacted into law in August 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) represents a landmark piece of legislation that supports permanent funding for major federal infrastructure projects, open access to public lands, continued upkeep of recreational facilities, and vital land and water conservation efforts. For the last three years, GAOA has allowed federal agencies, including the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to leverage federal funds toward preserving thousands of historic properties critical to the nation’s public history. GAOA funding has also provided federal
agencies with the opportunity to generate collaborative partnerships and learning opportunities that are training the next generation of historic preservationists to protect America’s heritage resources. One of GAOA’s major missions is to support agencies like NPS and BLM in updating aging infrastructure and addressing critical maintenance project backlogs. Supported in part by revenue from energy development, the GAOA Legacy Restoration Fund provides NPS with up to $1.3 billion per year to address maintenance and infrastructure concerns in each of America’s 425 national parks. Since
Videographers capture the restoration work of Boxelder and Pine Ridge Job Corps facilities maintenance, painting, and carpentry students at Tepee Work Center in the Black Hills National Forest. (Scott Jacobson/USFS)
Top: Punta Gorda oil house and light station after treatment (Tony Lock/Sustainable Group Foreman). Center: Elisha Jones House (the “Bullet Hole House”) is a component of Minute Man NHP. (NPS). Bottom: During the excavations at the Hessie Cabin in Eldorado, CO, USFS archaeologists discovered the remnants of a buried 19th century dynamite box, pictured here. (Courtesy Daniel Snyder)
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IN A SPIRIT OF STEWARDSHIP: A Report on Federal Historic Properties • 2024 | 63
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