The National Natural Landmarks Program is a government land-use prohibition program run by the National Park Service in conjuntion with environmentalist activists such as the Nature Conservancy and university environmentalists. Millions of acres are targeted in this national campaign.

The landmark evaluation process is a feeder program for eventual takeover of the property. Activists quietly reconnoiter land they want locked up and write a report for the Federal government rationalizing why the property should be preserved and not used by its owners. The National Park Service makes the report an official government "study" and designates the property as "Nationally Significant".

The designation and the reports are used by the Park Service in planning for new Federal park takeovers of private property, and by environmentalist activists and state planners for imposing state and local restrictions and prohibitions on land use. When property owners find out about the "studies", the Park Service and its collaborators routinely deny their goals and claim the program is "voluntary".

Once property is fingered as "Nationally Significant" the designation has both legal and political impacts for owners of designated and nearby property. The designation is used as a criterion in the implementation of other preservation programs and land use controls and to manipulate public perception so that the allegedly "scientific", intrinsic "national significance" of your property for perservation is regarded as more important than your property rights.

In March 1990 I went to Washington, DC and testified before a Congressional oversight committe on the abuses of the National Natural Landmarks Program and environmental writer Alston Chase broke the scandal in his nationally syndicated column. Following his expose, the National Parks and Conservation Association (the lobbying arm of the National Park Service) published a mendantious denial of Chase's expose, evidently not realizing the existence of the extensive documentation. Chase responded with a second article on the scandal and the attempted cover up.

• Alston Chase, NPS Greengate
• Alston Chase, A Continuing NPS Coverup

In February 1991 I published my first article on the Landmarks Program in the nationally distributed property rights newsletter Land Rights Rights Letter detailing the program's purpose and how it works.

• The National Natural Landmarks Program -- Takings by Quicksand

In late 1991, in response to and Inspector General report critizing the operation of the Landmarks program, the government issued proposed new regulations ostensively reforming the program, but in fact entrenching its abusive operation. These articles in Land Rights Rights Letter covered the events and further described how the program works.

• New Regulations on the National Natural Landmarks Program Perpetrate the Abuse
• Nationwide Hearings Oppose the Natural Landmarks Program
• FAQ: Question and Answers on the Natural Landmarks Program

Our grassroots organization in downeast Maine, the Washington County Alliance, submitted detailed comments on the proposed regulations for the public record.

• Detailed Comments on the Proposed Rules for Landmark Program Operation

In early 1994 I got a call from some very frightened and angry rural property owners from the Canann Valley in West Viginia who were threatened with a Federal preservationist takeover. I wrote this article for Land Rights Letter describing the the 20-year-old, mostly secret, takeover campaign and the contents of a leaked memo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledging agency dishonesty and the threats to local people. The government and environmentalists had used the National Natural Landmarks Program to reconnoiter the area and decree it to be "nationally significant" as a rationalization for the takeover.

• Federal Officials and Environmentalists vs. the People of the Canaan Valley

Back to RIGHTS home page