NATIONAL PARK SERVICE First Annual National Park Service Historic Preservation Conference

PNR has not been involved with the HPT to the extent some other regions have; those involved in Bicentennial projects, for instance. We do have one major project, however, the reconstruction of Fort Vancouver and have dealt with them on a variety of less extensive projects.

Generally, we have been satisfied with the way our projects have been handled by the Historic Preservation Team. Their studies and plans have been excellent and have been completed within acceptable time frames. The Fort Vancouver project is complex - requiring coordinated efforts of historians, historic architects, archeologists, and project planners. Both inhouse people and A and E firms have been used. Despite these complexities, and a few bumps and jolts along the way, the job is getting done.

We believe that the HPT should be kept intact in the DSC, and not divided up among regional offices or regional teams within the DSC. The workload is never going to be divided equally among the regions. Further, the workload in a single region will vary from year to year.

The best way to accomodate this uneven and ever-changing workload is to keep the experts in one unit.