F A M I L Y T R E E M A G A Z I N E N E W S S E R V I C E April 28, 2005 http://www.familytreemagazine.com HISTORIC RESERVATIONS Congress is considering a proposal that, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, would weaken the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). A House Resources Committee subgroup has issued a discussion draft of amendments to the NHPA. That prompted the National Trust for Historic Preservation (http://www.nationaltrust.org) and six other organizations to call the proposals "the biggest threat to the integrity of the National Historic Preservation Act since its enactment in 1966" in a letter to the subcommittee. Current federal guidelines direct US agencies to identify historic places, consider a development project's effect on them and balance the project's purpose with historic preservation values. The amendment would require a federal agency to consider only a project's effects on properties already listed on the National Register of Historic Places or formally determined to be eligible, leaving hundreds of thousands of other historic structures vulnerable. Historic sites, such as an American Indian village adjacent to the 1607 Jamestown settlement in Virginia, also would lose protection. American Indian religious and cultural resources are particularly vulnerable since few traditional sites are listed on the National Register. The joint letter also objected to a proposal that would deny National Register status to all property owners in a historic district where more than half of owners don't want to be listed. See http://www.nationaltrust.org/ issues/index.html for more information. Sally Rolls Pavia sallypavia2001@yahoo.com "Save the Earth, it's the only planet with Chocolate!" List Owner: GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES-L-request@rootsweb.com Archives: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index/GENEALOGYBITSANDPIECES "All incoming and outgoing email checked by Norton Anti-Virus"