[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 239 (Tuesday, December 14, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77901-77903]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-31316]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
National Park Service
[0050-XXXX-673]
30-Day Notice of Opportunity for Public Comment on U.S.
Nominations to the World Heritage List and Potential Additions to the
U.S. World Heritage Tentative List
AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: This is a first notice for the public to comment on the next
potential U.S. nominations from the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List
to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) World Heritage List, and on possible additions to the
Tentative List. This notice complies with 36 CFR 73.7(c).
The U.S. World Heritage Tentative List (formerly referred to as the
Indicative Inventory) appears at the end of this notice. The current
Tentative List was transmitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre on
January 24, 2008, and includes properties that appear to qualify for
World Heritage status and which may be considered for nomination by the
United States to the World Heritage List. Any property nominated to the
World Heritage List must have been on the Tentative List for at least a
year prior to its nomination, according to the Operational Guidelines
of the World Heritage Committee.
[[Page 77902]]
The preparation of the Tentative List provides multiple
opportunities for the public to comment on which sites to include, as
part of a process that also included recommendations by the U.S.
National Commission for UNESCO, a Federal Advisory Commission to the
U.S. Department of State.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is now considering whether to
nominate any of the properties on the Tentative List to the World
Heritage List. The Department will consider public comments received
during this comment period and the advice of the Federal Interagency
Panel for World Heritage in making a final decision on future
nominations. Comments may also be made on suggestions for additions to
the Tentative List, although the Department is not required to make
additions to the List.
DATES: Comments upon whether to nominate any of the properties on the
Tentative List or for properties to be added to the Tentative List will
be accepted on or before thirty days from the date of publication of
this notice in the Federal Register.
If a site is selected by the Department for nomination, public
notice will be made of the decision. The site's owner(s) will be
responsible, in cooperation with the National Park Service, for
preparing the draft nomination in the nomination format required by the
World Heritage Committee and for gathering documentation in support of
it. Legal protective measures must be in place before a property may be
nominated. Any such nominations must be received from the preparers by
the National Park Service in substantially complete draft form by a
date on or near July 15, 2011. Such draft nominations will be reviewed,
amended if necessary, and if considered by the Department to be
technically and substantively adequate, provided to the World Heritage
Centre for technical review no later than September 30, 2011. The
Centre would then provide comments by November 14, 2011, with final
submittal to the World Heritage Centre by the Department of the
Interior through the Department of State by January 30, 2012. Any
nomination submitted by that date will be considered by the World
Heritage Committee at its meeting in the summer of 2013. The Committee,
composed of representatives of 21 nations elected as the governing body
of the World Heritage Convention, makes the final decisions on which
nominations to accept on the World Heritage List. If a nomination
cannot be completed in accordance with this timeline, work may continue
on the nomination for possible submission to UNESCO in a subsequent
year.
ADDRESSES: Please provide all comments directly to Jonathan Putnam,
Office of International Affairs, National Park Service, 1201 Eye
Street, NW. (0050), Washington, DC 20005 or by e-mail to: [email protected]. Phone: 202-354-1809. Fax 202-371-1446. All comments
will be a matter of public record. Before including an address, phone
number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying information in a
comment, please be aware that the entire comment--including personal
identifying information--may be made public at any time. While you can
request that personal identifying information be withheld from public
review, it may not be possible to comply with this request.
Comments on whether to nominate any of the properties on the
Tentative List or whether to add properties to the Tentative List
should address the qualifications of the properties for World Heritage
listing. The World Heritage nomination criteria can be found on the
National Park Service Office of International Affairs Web site http://www.nps.gov/oia. Suggestions for additions to the Tentative List should
also address the U.S. legal prerequisites noted in the Supplementary
Information below.
All public comments are welcomed and will be summarized and
provided to Department of the Interior officials, who will obtain the
advice of the Federal Interagency Panel for World Heritage before
making any selection of properties for World Heritage nomination. The
selection may include the following considerations:
(i) How well the particular type of property (i.e., theme or
region) is represented on the World Heritage List;
(ii) The balance between cultural and natural properties already on
the List and those under consideration;
(iii) Opportunities the property affords for public visitation,
interpretation, and education;
(iv) Potential threats to the property's integrity or its current
state of preservation; and,
(v) Other relevant factors, including public interest and awareness
of the property, and the likelihood of being able to complete a
satisfactory nomination according to the timeline described above.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Putnam, 202-354-1809 or April
Brooks, 202-354-1808. General information about U.S. participation in
the World Heritage Program and the process used to develop the
Tentative List is posted on the Office of International Affairs Web
site at http://www.nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/worldheritage.htm.
Only the 13 properties or groups of properties included in the U.S.
Tentative List are eligible to be considered for nomination by the
United States to the World Heritage List at this time. One property on
the List, Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, was nominated in
2009 and listed as a World Heritage Site in 2010. Brief descriptions of
the properties appear on the Web site just noted.
To request a paper copy of the U.S. Tentative List, please contact
April Brooks, Office of International Affairs, National Park Service,
1201 Eye Street, NW. (0050) Washington, DC 20005. E-mail: [email protected].
For the World Heritage nomination Format, see the World Heritage
Centre Web site at http://whc.unesco.org/en/nominations.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The World Heritage List is an international list of cultural and
natural properties nominated by the signatories to the World Heritage
Convention (1972). The United States was the prime architect of the
Convention, an international treaty for the preservation of natural and
cultural heritage sites of global significance proposed by President
Richard M. Nixon in 1972, and the U.S. was the first nation to ratify
it. The United States has served several terms on the elected 21-nation
World Heritage Committee, but is not currently on the Committee. There
are 911 sites in 151 of the 187 signatory countries. Currently there
are 21 World Heritage Sites in the United States.
U.S. participation and the roles of the Department of the Interior
and the National Park Service are authorized by Title IV of the
Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1980 and conducted in
accordance with 36 CFR 73--World Heritage Convention.
The National Park Service serves as the principal technical agency
for the U.S. Government to the Convention and manages all or parts of
17 of the 21 U.S. World Heritage Sites currently listed, including
Yellowstone National Park, Everglades National Park, and the Statue of
Liberty.
A Tentative List is a national list of natural and cultural
properties appearing to meet the World Heritage Committee eligibility
criteria for nomination to the World Heritage List. It is a list of
candidate sites a country
[[Page 77903]]
intends to consider for nomination within a given time period. A
country cannot nominate a property unless it has been on its Tentative
List for a minimum of one year. Countries also are limited to
nominating no more than two sites in any given year.
Neither inclusion in the Tentative List nor inscription as a World
Heritage Site imposes legal restrictions on owners or neighbors of
sites, nor does it give the United Nations any management authority or
ownership rights in U.S. World Heritage Sites, which continue to be
subject only to U.S. laws. Inclusion in the Tentative List merely
indicates the property may be further examined for possible World
Heritage nomination in the future.
The World Heritage Committee's Operational Guidelines ask
participating nations to provide Tentative Lists, which aid in
evaluating properties for the World Heritage List on a comparative
international basis and help the Committee schedule its work over the
long term.
In order to guide the U.S. World Heritage Program effectively and
in a timely manner, NPS prepared and submitted (through the Secretary
of the Interior and the Secretary of State) to the World Heritage
Centre of UNESCO on January 24, 2008, the previously referenced
Tentative List of properties that appear to meet the criteria for
nomination.
In order to be included, a proposed site must meet several U.S.
prerequisites in addition to appearing to meet the stringent World
Heritage criteria of international importance. The U.S. prerequisites
include the written agreement of all property owners to the nomination
of their property, general support from stakeholders, including elected
officials, and a prior official determination that the property is
nationally important (such as by designation as a National Historic or
National Natural Landmark).
Process for Developing the U.S. World Heritage Tentative List
The Tentative List was developed using an application approved by
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on August 29, 2006 (OMB
Control No. 1024-0250), pursuant to a 30-Day Notice of Request for
Clearance of Collection of Information to the Office of Management and
Budget published by NPS in the Federal Register on July 27, 2006 (FR
71, 144:42664-42665).
The National Park Service Office of International Affairs provided
the application form in August 2006 for voluntary applications to a new
U.S. World Heritage Tentative List by governmental and private property
owners. It was intended that preparers use the application to
demonstrate the property meets the criteria established by the World
Heritage Committee for inclusion in the World Heritage List and other
requirements, including those of U.S. domestic law (16 U.S.C. 470a-1,
a-2, d) and program regulations (36 CFR 73-World Heritage Convention).
Thirty-seven (37) applications were received by the April 1, 2007,
deadline. Two were subsequently withdrawn. The National Park Service
made recommendations based on staff review of the applications by the
Office of International Affairs, in consultation with National Park
Service subject matter experts and external reviewers for cultural and
natural resources who are knowledgeable about the World Heritage
Committee's policies, practices and precedents. Additional
correspondence and/or addenda containing revised or expanded material
was received from most applicants in response to written reviews that
were provided to them; all of this material was carefully considered.
NPS staff recommendations were provided to the World Heritage
Tentative List Subcommittee of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO
for review.
The subcommittee made recommendations to the full Commission, whose
recommendations were published for comment in the Federal Register on
October 31, 2007.
U.S. World Heritage Tentative List Cultural Sites (9)
Civil Rights Movement Sites, Alabama
Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Montgomery
Bethel Baptist Church, Birmingham
16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham
Dayton Aviation Sites, Ohio
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, including:
--Huffman Prairie (part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base)
--Wright Cycle Company and Wright & Wright Printing, Dayton
--Wright Hall (housing the Wright Flyer III), Dayton
--Hawthorn Hill, Dayton
Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, Ohio
Fort Ancient State Memorial, Warren County
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, near Chillicothe
Newark Earthworks State Historic Site, Newark and Heath, including:
--Wright Earthworks
--The Octagon Earthworks.
--Great Circle Earthworks
Jefferson (Thomas) Buildings, Virginia
Poplar Forest, Bedford County
Virginia State Capitol, Richmond. (Proposed jointly as an extension to
the World Heritage listing of Monticello and the University of Virginia
Historic District)
Mount Vernon, Virginia
Poverty Point National Monument and State Historic Site, Louisiana
San Antonio Franciscan Missions, Texas
Mission San Antonio de Valero (The Alamo)
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, including:
--Mission Concepci[oacute]n
--Mission San Jose
--Mission San Juan
--Mission Espada (including Rancho de las Cabras)
Serpent Mound, Ohio
Wright (Frank Lloyd) Buildings
Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona. Hollyhock House, Los Angeles,
California
Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael, California
Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago, Illinois
Unity Temple, Oak Park, Illinois
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, New York
Price Tower, Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania
S. C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Administration Building and Research
Tower, Racine, Wisconsin
Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin
Natural Sites (4)
Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, American Samoa
Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia
Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
Authority: 16 U.S.C. 470 a-1, a-2, d; 36 CFR 73.
Dated: December 6, 2010.
Thomas L. Strickland,
Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
[FR Doc. 2010-31316 Filed 12-13-10; 8:45 am]
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