In your contacts with public officials, here are some talking points you can use to help reach our goal:
- Volunteers have been working for over 50 years to have the National Park Service acquire and own land for an Ice Age National Park/Trail in Wisconsin.
- Over the past five years, about five miles of Ice Age Trail have been protected per year. At that pace it will take another 100 years to complete the Trail.
- If Congress did not intend for the National Park Service to acquire land for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, why did it include the authority to do so in the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act that became law in 2009?
- The National Trails Land Resources Program Center office of the National Park Service, located in Martinsburg, WV has acquired over 2,500 parcels of land to fill 620 miles of gaps in the Appalachian Trail. Fewer parcels and fewer miles need protection to complete the Ice Age Trail.
- During 30 years of acquiring land for the Appalachian Trail (1978-2008), the Martinsburg office of the National Park Service acquired on average 83 parcels per year to fill over 20 miles of gaps per year. During 25 years of acquiring land for the Ice Age Trail (1986-2011), the various Ice Age Trail partners together acquired on average 8 parcels per year to fill about 4 miles of gaps per year. So the NPS Martinsburg office acquired ten times more parcels and protected five times as much trail per year than all the Ice Age Trail partners combined.
- The NPS Martinsburg office has acquired land to protect the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, the Florida Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway and will even begin working on the recently designated New England National Scenic Trail. Why is the NPS Martinsburg office not also acquiring land for the Ice Age Trail?
http://iceagenationalpark.blogspot.com/p/our-2011-proposal.html
http://iceagenationalpark.blogspot.com/p/nps-geologist-on-proposed-nps-focus.html
