Memorandum on Public-Private Partnerships for Protection of the National Parks

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Subject: Facilitating Public-Private Partnerships for Protection of the National Parks

Many important efforts are already underway in which the private sector works in partnership with government to protect or maintain public lands. These include the work of the National Park Foundation, an organization created by the Congress in 1967 to receive private gifts and make disbursements to benefit the parks; cooperative agreements between the private sector and State and local parks to share resources and equipment and to provide valuable services, including maintenance services, to the parks; and agreements with willing private parties to acquire conservation easements. In an effort to ensure that the public-private partnerships that can enhance park protection and maintenance are as effective as possible, I hereby direct the following action:

1. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide to me, within 30 days, a specific proposal for ways in which the National Park Foundation's role in fostering public-private partnerships on behalf of the parks can be invigorated through either administrative or legislative action.

2. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide to me a legislative proposal that would make permanently available to the National Park System the authority to enter into cooperative agreements on behalf of the parks. This proposal should be consistent with the temporary authority that would be provided by enactment of my 1997 budget proposal as submitted to the Congress.

3. The Secretary of the Interior is to provide a report to me within 6 months on options for preserving historic structures within National Parks. This report should consider the possibilities for partnerships with businesses, associations, and individuals in the private sector.

4. The Secretary of the Interior shall work with the Congress to pass legislation that would allow the implementation of the 1995 National Park Service study to protect vistas surrounding Point Reyes National Seashore, California, while retaining existing private uses through actions including the purchase of conservation easements from willing private sellers. The Secretary of the Interior shall also give priority to funding such purchases from existing funds should authorization for such purchases be enacted. In addition, to the extent permitted by law and within existing budget authority, the Secretary shall exercise his existing authority to make a minor boundary adjustment as necessary to carry out the purposes of the National Park Service study to add property to Point Reyes National Seashore prior to enactment of such legislation, and to make available an amount of funds not to exceed $1 million to purchase such property from willing sellers.

This memorandum shall be published in the Federal Register.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 24, 1996]