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Foundation Document, Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail, Montana Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail DRAFT Foundation Statement September 2011 Cover (left to right): Lake Pend Oreille, Farragut State Park, Idaho, NPS Photo; Moses Coulee, Washington, NPS Photo; Palouse Falls, Washington, NPS Photo 2 Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Table of Contents Introduction.............................................................................................................................................................4 Trail Description....................................................................................................................................................6 Map..............................................................................................................................................................................8 Trail Purpose.........................................................................................................................................................10 Trail Significance.................................................................................................................................................12 Fundamental Resources and Values..............................................................................................................14 Primary Interpretive Themes..........................................................................................................................24 Special Mandates and Administrative Commitments............................................................................26 National Natural Landmarks...........................................................................................................................28 Appendix A: Enabling Legislation ...................................................................................................................30 Appendix B: Participants.....................................................................................................................................34 Appendix C: Future Planning Needs................................................................................................................36 DRAFT Foundation Statement 3 Introduction PURPOSE OF THIS FOUNDATION STATEMENT The foundation planning process confirms Managers and stakeholders need to know why the purpose and significance statements of Ice Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail was Age Floods National Geologic Trail, identifies established, why the floods and associated fundamental and other important resources resources are important within a wider con- and values, and establishes primary interpre- text, and what legal and policy requirements tive themes. The foundation document there- apply to the trail’s management. This draft fore helps to ensure that future planning and foundation statement offers an opportunity management activities focus on these priorities to coordinate all types and levels of plan- by ensuring that staff and shareholders have ning and decision making from this common a mutual understanding of the priorities and understanding. objectives required to protect the highly significant trail resources and values. Congress established Ice Age Floods National DEVELOPMENT OF THIS Geologic Trail in 2009, under Public Law 111- FOUNDATION STATEMENT 11. This draft foundation statement provides the opportunity to integrate all previous plan- The National Park Service prepared this ning and decision-making efforts into a single draft foundation statement in cooperation focused vision of what is most important about with partners including: the Bureau of Land Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. This Management (BLM), Bureau of Reclamation understanding is grounded in the legislation (BOR), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that established the trail and in the knowledge (USACE), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of floods features held by the public agencies (USFWS), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. and other organizations that manage the trail Geological Survey (USGS), Washington in partnership. State Parks, and the nonprofit Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI). Initial input was gathered Every national trail, similar to every national during a three-day workshop that took place park system unit, needs a formal statement of during the spring of 2011 and the foundation its core mission to provide basic guidance for statement was developed collaboratively over all the management decisions to be made—a the next several months. In the future, new “foundation for planning and management.” legislation, public comment, or other new This document will help ensure that the most information may lead to revisions to the trail important objectives will be prioritized before foundation statement. other, less important tasks not directly related to the trail’s mission. 4 Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail ELEMENTS OF THE FOUNDATION STATEMENT This foundation statement includes the follow- The national geologic trail also features other ing elements: resources and values that are not fundamen- tal to purpose and significance, but are never- Trail Purpose theless important considerations for planning and management. A statement of purpose identifies why Congress established the Ice Age Floods Primary Interpretive Themes National Geologic Trail. It is based on the trail’s enabling legislation. Trail purpose Primary interpretive themes are the key provides the baseline for determining the stories or concepts to be communicated to appropriateness of all planning recommenda- visitors in order for them to understand and tions and operational decisions. appreciate the purpose and significance of the national geologic trail. The primary interpre- Significance tive themes are the basis for all future educa- tional and interpretive efforts. Significance statements define what is most important about the trail’s resources and Special Mandates and Administrative values. They express why the trail and its Commitments resources are significant within a regional, na- tional, and global context—focusing attention Special mandates are legal requirements that on those exceptional qualities that Congress apply specifically to the national geologic trail. felt were important to preserve and interpret. Administrative commitments are agreements that have been reached through a formal, Fundamental Resources and Values documented process, such as a memorandum of understanding among agencies. This section Fundamental resources and values are summarizes applicable mandates and commit- those features, systems, processes, experi- ments to ensure their consideration in plan- ences, stories, scenes, sounds, smells, or ning and decision making. other attributes that are critical to achiev- ing purpose and maintaining significance. That which is most important about the trail could be jeopardized if these resources and values are allowed to degrade. DRAFT Foundation Statement 5 Trail Description TRAIL DESCRIPTION natural history rather than historic people or events. In 2001, the National Park Service, in “At the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 to collaboration with public landowners and the 17,000 years ago, a series of cataclysmic floods nonprofit Ice Age Floods Institute, completed occurred in what is now the northwest region a study recommending federal recognition of the United States, leaving a lasting mark of of the area in order to tell the comprehensive dramatic and distinguishing features on the story of the Ice Age floods. Since then, mo- landscape of parts of the States of Montana, mentum has built within the communities of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.” the floods region, culminating in Public Law 111-11, which designated the national geologic Public Law 111-11, March 30, 2009 trail. This is the opening paragraph used by The national geologic trail commemorates a Congress in establishing the Ice Age Floods dramatic series of events. Toward the end of National Geologic Trail. The federal trail the last Ice Age, a lobe of the Cordilleran ice system already includes national historic, sheet formed a dam that blocked the Clark recreational, and scenic trails; however, this Fork River, creating a massive lake 200 miles national geologic trail is the first of its kind. long and up to 2,000 feet deep. The ice dam While in some ways similar to a historic trail, broke catastrophically, and Glacial Lake the geologic trail commemorates our nation’s Grand Coulee, Washington, Photo by Joe Rocchio 6 Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail Missoula, which contained more than 500 The National Park Service will not man- cubic miles of water, drained within a matter age any additional lands as part of this new of days. An enormous flood of water, ice, and designation. Rather, the role of the National debris charged westward along established Park Service will be to coordinate planning drainages and across dry land, covering 16,000 and development of the trail and interpreta- square miles. Eventually, the flood waters tion of the floods among the many public and reached the Pacific Ocean and continued private partners. In this way, the trail may be hundreds of miles beyond the shoreline. This likened to a necklace, with the many public process happened many times, each time carv- landowners continuing to manage the “gems” ing and reshaping the land. or geologic resources, and the National Park Service coordinating the string that holds Today, evidence of the immense floods the necklace together. In addition to public remains in many forms including: high
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