Western NC Disaster Recovery | Protesting the Reduction in the Federal Public Lands Workforce
Also a call to action on National Heritage Area Funding and Conserving Black Modernism Grants
It may seem like Washington is focused on cuts to federal programs and employees and has moved on from the desperate struggle of communities in Western North Caroline and East Tennessee to recover from Hurricane Helene. The Washington Post published an extensive article yesterday on the challenges faced by farmers in Western NC and the unprecedented damage they have experienced. It is also a good illustration of the intersection between farming and tourism and why we continue to support legislation like the AGRITOURISM Act, which will be reintroduced shortly.
The NPS Second Century Action Coalition has drafted a sign on letter that calls on Congress to halt the firing of federal public lands employees. To date more than 5,700 employees from the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife Service and Bureau for Land Management have been cut. NPS staff have received the most attention but all of these agencies are vital partners with tourism communities. Not all have an advocacy arm, so the Coalition is stepping up to support all of these employees.
You can view and sign on to the letter here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc7mZvQ1fTK7k2fLh0A25kWd5eitvrppbCvOISj7V8GGIBLAA/viewform
The sign on if for your organization not an individual. No need to go through me, but if you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
Also, if you aren’t comfortable or able to sign onto the letter but want to support these fired employees, the National Parks Conservation Association has posted an action alert that allows you to send an email directly to your congressional representatives: Protect Our National Park Service Staff. As of noon, more than 150,000 emails have been sent Capitol Hill signaling there is strong public interest in reversing these cuts. Feel free to share this action alert with your network.
Work is underway on FY26 appropriations and the National Heritage Areas (NHA) are in need of community support for their annual funding in the National Park Service budget. Even though NHA programs funding is approved by Congress through the formal appropriations process, last month they were caught up on funding freeze on all federal grants and contracts imposed by the Trump Administration. The funding has been re-opened but it demonstrates the vulnerability of their core funding. The Co-Chairs of the National Heritage Area Caucus, Rep. Paul Tonka (D-NY) and Rep. G.T. Thompson (R-PA) have said that support from tourism leaders would be particularly helpful and have asked for our support.
Attached is a template letter that tourism leaders can send either individually or as sign on letter. A couple things to note:
Please use your organization’s letterhead or create letterhead with the logos of all the organizations signing on.
Please customize for your state and/or specific NHA. And be sure to note the economic impact to local communities.
Share the letter with your NHA, who in turn will send it to congressional delegation and the NHA Caucus Co-Chairs.
The deadline for submitting support letters in March 18, 2025.
I think it will be easier for many tourism leaders to do this as a sign on letter. We have successfully done this before. If you are willing to be the point person for your state, please let me know and I can help coordinate that effort. I am hoping that many if the State Advocacy Chairs who served in the past will continue in that role. Note that this will be good practice for the coming funding battles.
Finally, a grant opportunity that may be a bit off the beaten path: the Trust for Historic Preservation’s Conserving Black Modernism Grant Program is now accepting applications. What caught my eye about an architecture preservation grant is that they are looking to preserve historic assets associated with the Green Book sites, community and cultural centers, site associated with sports and recreation, schools, and libraries, among other assets. This is a new grant program. The grants are for $150,000. Deadline to apply is March 14, 2025. More details and a link to the application can be found here.
Things continue to move fast and yet are very fluid in DC. We were able to reverse the freeze on seasonal funding for NPS staff and we are working to reverse the dismissal of vital NPS, Forest Service and Fish & Wildlife employees. Stay engaged and we may be successful in blunting the cuts to federal programs and staff that are key to tourism.