Planning

Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership Draft Report Released

The Lake Champlain Basin Program is releasing the Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership Draft Management Plan and Environmental Assessment for public review and comment. The release of this document culminates several years of planning and public meetings to discuss the importance of the Champlain Valley’s cultural heritage and recreational resources. Completing an Environmental Assessment is a requirement for the development of the Draft plan.

The Champlain Valley National Heritage Partnership (CVNHP) Management Plan is a document about choices. The national heritage areas (NHA) program of the United States National Park Service encourages each heritage area to manage itself in a manner that best suits the cultural values of its region. The proposed management plan is not restrictive, and emphasizes cooperation among communities and individuals interested in recognizing the unique heritage of the region. The plan identifies actions that communities, organizations and individuals can undertake to help improve, conserve, interpret, promote and strengthen the many cultural, natural and recreational resources within the CVNHP region.

While the LCBP traditionally focuses on the landscape that drains into Lake Champlain, the area of consideration for the CVNHP includes any historic site or community along the “linked navigable waterways” of Lake Champlain, Lake George, the Champlain Canal and the Upper Hudson River that contains a physical, cultural or historical resource that represent the CVNHP’s interpretive themes. The Vermont and New York counties within the Partnership include Grand Isle, Franklin, Chittenden, Addison, Rutland, Bennington, Clinton, Essex, Warren, Saratoga and Washington.

This draft suggests choices on the management of the CVNHP: should the National Heritage Area be fully implemented by the LCBP, or should no action be taken? If the former is chosen, should the LCBP concentrate only on interpreting the commercial and nation-building history of the region, providing coordination, technical assistance and grant funding to carry out the goals, objectives and actions involved? Or, should the region’s natural heritage and modern conservation efforts also be interpreted, along with promoting environmental sustainability, when considering those commercial and nation-building historical themes?

In addition to working on the Champlain Valley, the LCBP also shares activities with other NHAs, including the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area in New York. These NHAs connect and overlap just north of Albany, where the Mohawk River flows into the Hudson. This confluence of the three NHAs also is the hub of three great transportation corridors on which extraordinary historical events occurred and where social movements began, reflecting the common interest and shared heritage of the three regions.

For further information:
Public comments and suggestion on the draft plan will be accepted through June 15, 2010 at the LCBP office, 54 West Shore Road, Grand Isle, VT 05450 or at heritage@lcbp.org. For further information, contact Jim Brangan or Bill Howland at the Lake Champlain Basin Program office at (802) 372-3213 or 800-468-5227 (toll-free in NY and VT only). Printed copies of the draft plan are available upon request.