The Boundary Dilemma at Shenandoah National Park
By Diane M. Dale
INTRODUCTION
The Shenandoah National Park Act authorized the creation of the first major national park east of the Mississippi River. Unlike many of the western national parks, which were simply carved out of the vast public domain, the Shenandoah National Park was assembled from privately owned lands in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, a region that had been settled by European colonists more than two centuries before the Act's passage in 1926. Within this context of park creation, many legal, social, and economic obstacles to the establishment of the Park developed that took years to resolve. In particular, problems arose from collecting thousands of privately owned parcels and relocating the land's inhabitants. However, the Park's legislation, which had been structured to address these and other political and economic issues of the day, did not anticipate the myriad problems that would spring from the region's future economic development.
This Note evaluates the creation and development of the Shenandoah National Park. Section II begins with an analysis of the Park's authorizing legislation. Most notably, this legislation placed a major administrative burden on Virginia to acquire and transfer land to the Federal government for the national park. The economic hardships of the Great Depression further complicated this task, and the land that Virginia did assemble was a mere skeleton of the national park that Congress had envisioned. Section III provides an overview of the problems the National Park Service (NPS) confronts in managing a restricted park land base surrounded primarily by private land. Although other external environmental factors threaten the Park's natural and recreational resources, this Note focuses on the potentially more far-reaching threats posed by the region's suburbanization.
Section IV describes the NPS's constitutional and statutory limitations in confronting the external threats to the Park caused by the region's pattern of private land ownership. Section V concludes with a proposal for cooperative land planning efforts among the NPS, local governments, and private interest groups to develop mutually agreeable solutions to the boundary and land conflicts at the Shenandoah National Park.
The Shenandoah National Park Act authorized the creation of the first major national park east of the Mississippi River. Unlike many of the western national parks, which were simply carved out of the vast public domain, the Shenandoah National Park was assembled from privately owned lands in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains, a region that had been settled by European colonists more than two centuries before the Act's passage in 1926. Within this context of park creation, many legal, social, and economic obstacles to the establishment of the Park developed that took years to resolve. In particular, problems arose from collecting thousands of privately owned parcels and relocating the land's inhabitants. However, the Park's legislation, which had been structured to address these and other political and economic issues of the day, did not anticipate the myriad problems that would spring from the region's future economic development.
This Note evaluates the creation and development of the Shenandoah National Park. Section II begins with an analysis of the Park's authorizing legislation. Most notably, this legislation placed a major administrative burden on Virginia to acquire and transfer land to the Federal government for the national park. The economic hardships of the Great Depression further complicated this task, and the land that Virginia did assemble was a mere skeleton of the national park that Congress had envisioned. Section III provides an overview of the problems the National Park Service (NPS) confronts in managing a restricted park land base surrounded primarily by private land. Although other external environmental factors threaten the Park's natural and recreational resources, this Note focuses on the potentially more far-reaching threats posed by the region's suburbanization.
Section IV describes the NPS's constitutional and statutory limitations in confronting the external threats to the Park caused by the region's pattern of private land ownership. Section V concludes with a proposal for cooperative land planning efforts among the NPS, local governments, and private interest groups to develop mutually agreeable solutions to the boundary and land conflicts at the Shenandoah National Park.