In honor of National Armed Forces Day Saturday, the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association released a new assessment recommending additional federal funding to maintain four Civil War parks in Tennessee.
The report, which features Stones River National Battlefield, Fort Donelson National Battlefield, Shiloh National Military Park and Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, also finds that adjacent land development threatens historic views that are essential to understanding the important battles and history that took place there.
“As we approach the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, we must ensure that our national treasures, and Tennessee’s Civil War heritage, is preserved and protected for our children and grandchildren to enjoy,” said Emily Jones, National Parks Conservation Association program manager.
According to the assessment by the National Parks Conservation Association’s Center for State of the Parks, each of the four Civil War battlefields suffer from staffing and federal funding shortfalls that affect the National Park Service’s ability to provide educational programs to visitors and maintain hundreds of historic military markers, cannons and monuments.
For example, at Fort Donelson National Battlefield, the Park Service needs $48,000 to document and interpret ties to African-American history and the park’s association with the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. Shiloh National Military Park has the oldest visitor orientation film of any park in the park system, and needs $750,000 to create a new film and rehabilitate the auditorium at the existing visitor center.
At Stones River National Battlefield, home to the nation’s oldest intact Civil War monument, the Park Service has limited staff to care for monuments, historic structures and cultural landscapes. And at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the Park Service lacks a preservation crew to maintain Civil War monuments, markers, plaques and historic buildings.
“Many of our national parks, including our Civil War parks, suffer from chronic federal funding shortfalls that limits the ability to preserve historic sites and tell the stories of our American heritage,” Jones said.
The report also indicates all of Tennessee’s Civil War national parks are threatened by adjacent development that would mar historical and scenic views that are essential to interpreting American history and providing visitors with a memorable experience.
At Stones River, the park is highly fragmented and is surrounded by an urban environment. As a result, adjacent development disrupts wildlife habitat, generates noise and mars views, affecting the park’s ability to preserve the Civil War-era setting.
“Imagining troops marching across the battlefields is critical to understanding the battles that took place there but urban development can make this visualization difficult,” said Jones. “Development and traffic noise disrupts educational programs and detracts from the historic events that are remembered in our nation’s battlefields.”
Last month, the Department of the Interior announced specific job-creating projects that will be completed in national parks across the country as a result of the more than $900 million in stimulus funding provided by Congress. The list of projects includes funding for restoration projects at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Stones River, and Chickamauga and Chattanooga.
The National Parks Conservation Association is encouraging Congress to fund the president’s proposed fiscal year 2010 budget, which would increase federal funding for Tennessee’s Civil War national parks and national parks across the country.
Since May 19, 1919, the nonpartisan NPCA has been the leading voice of the American people in protecting and enhancing our National Park System. NPCA launched the landmark Center for State of the Parks program in 2000 to assess the resource conditions of national parks across the country. To view a copy of the full report, and take action to help protect the park, visit www.npca.org/stateoftheparks/civil_war_national_parks.
To view the National Park Service projects funded by the stimulus, visit: http://recovery.doi.gov/nps.
CHALLENGES
• Development on adjacent land is threatening the ecological and aesthetic character of the park. It disrupts habitat, generates noise, and mars viewsheds, affecting the park’s ability to preserve the Civil War-era setting. In addition, because the park is highly fragmented and is surrounded by an urban environment, it is difficult for plants and animals to disperse and recolonize what little natural habitat exists within the park.
• Key reports are needed, including an archaeological overview and assessment, a cultural resource base map, a study of the park’s monitoring and control efforts on the Fortress Rosecrans earthworks, historic structures reports, and an ethnographic overview and assessment.
• According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 list of impaired waterways, portions of the West Fork Stones River are impaired due to excessive nitrates, loss of biological integrity due to siltation, and low dissolved oxygen. Specific locations for these impairments are not given. The Cumberland Piedmont Network is monitoring nitrates and dissolved oxygen as part of its routine water-quality monitoring program at Redoubt Brannan and McFadden’s Ford on the West Fork Stones River.
• The park needs additional full-time personnel, specifically a full-time cultural resources manager, one more law enforcement ranger, an interpretive ranger, and a maintenance worker. Without a cultural resources manager overseeing projects at the park, other staff must pitch in to ensure that projects are initiated and completed. The visitor center requires more maintenance and staff than it did prior to its 2004 remodel. Finally, the many monuments and historic structures in the park require upkeep and repair. The park cannot provide the level of care these resources need with limited staff (two maintenance workers and one maintenance supervisor). The park has received a portion of the funds to meet some of its needs and is waiting to see if the remainder will be allocated in 2009.
WHAT’S BEING DONE
• Due to the disjointed nature of the park—six units separated by urban infrastructure—visitors sometimes become confused when traveling from one unit to the next, in some cases never reaching all of them. In order to provide a more complete story of the Battle of Stones River, managers are designing a new auto tour route that will make the two largest sections of park accessible from a major city road and will make circulation more direct for visitors taking the battlefield tour. Funds for planning and designing the route have been appropriated, but construction funding has not yet been obtained.
• Despite the lack of an official, full-time museum curator, nearly 97 percent of the park’s museum and archival collections have been cataloged, and the park has met nearly 98 percent of the standards in the Checklist for the Preservation and Protection of Museum Collections. Stones River benefits from a strong relationship with Middle Tennessee State University, which is a source of job applicants, interns and volunteers to address museum management needs. The park’s law enforcement officer also serves as the park’s curator, and coordinates volunteers, interns, and seasonal
museum technicians to accomplish museum tasks.
• The park has an innovative native habitat restoration program and was recognized in 2006 with the Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award for Excellence in Natural Heritage Conservation. Native plant material, such as seeds and transplants, are collected in and around the park for revegetation of the historic fields and earthworks. Prescribed fires are used to promote native plant restoration and reduce
woody encroachment and non-native species. Some of the restoration work has been accomplished with the help of volunteers.
• The park remodeled and expanded its visitor center in 2004. The Battle of Stones River is brought to life through museum exhibits, audio presentations of soldiers’ letters and diaries and a video presentation featuring a battle reenactment.
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