Boston Harbor Islands a National Park Area General Management Plan
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Boston Harbor Islands A N a t i o n a l P a r k A r e a General Management Plan Boston, Massachusetts 2002 Prepared by Boston Support Office of the Northeast Region National Park Service for the Boston Harbor Islands Partnership E XECUTIVE S UMMAR Y THIS DOCUMENT PRESENTS THE FIRST GENERAL MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED BOSTON HARBOR ISLANDS NATIONAL PARK AREA. THE BOSTON HARBOR ISLANDS BECAME A UNIT OF THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM IN NOVEMBER 1996 BY AN ACT OF CONGRESS THAT CONTAINS SEVERAL PROVISIONS WHICH, IN TOTAL, MAKE THIS A NATIONAL PARK LIKE NO OTHER. he islands of Boston Harbor have served Park Resources Tnumerous public and private uses and The Boston Harbor Islands national park area are a unique example of an island cluster contains some 30 islands (and former islands) intimately tied to the life of a city. Although lying within Boston Harbor. They range in size within sight of a dynamic and densely populated from less than 1 acre to 274 acres and together metropolitan area, they continue to offer the embrace 1,600 acres of land over an area of visitor a rare sense of isolation. Their proximity to 50 square miles. The park incorporates the 16 a large urban population and their special natural islands of the Boston Harbor Islands State Park and geologic resources, cultural and historic established in the 1970s. resources, and associated values contribute to Unlike islands typical of the New England their national significance. coast, many of the Boston Harbor Islands are The involvement of American Indians in glacier-formed drumlins. With more than 200 the park is not only directed by the enabling mainland drumlins in eastern Massachusetts, legislation but asserted by many tribes and these harbor islands are part of the only individuals who have come to play a prominent drumlin field in the United States that intersects role in park planning. The island focus stems a coastline. from the park’s enabling legislation which Harbor water quality has improved over highlights the importance of understanding the past 10 years, as a wastewater treatment the history of Native American use and system for metropolitan Boston eliminates involvement with the islands, and calls for waste discharges into the harbor. Recreational protecting and preserving Native American burial activities such as swimming, fishing, and grounds, particularly those connected with King boating have increased as urbanites return to Philip’s War. the harbor and the islands, and as national i and international visitors discover the islands’ The Boston Harbor Islands contain evidence cultural and natural history and opportunities for of American Indian use of such archeological recreation close to a major tourist destination. significance that, to date, 21 islands have been designated within an archeological district listed The islands, known to have been inhabited on the National Register of Historic Places. 8,000 years ago, had been cleared to The park’s enabling legislation directs that park support agriculture and then various types managers include programs to protect Indian of development. Today, the vegetation is burial grounds and sites associated with composed predominantly of successional King Philip’s War internment and other periods. communities. Boston Harbor and its islands provide shelter and food-rich habitats for fishes, Museum collections related to Boston Harbor invertebrates, marine mammals, and birds, as Islands, comprising more than 6,000 items, are well as nurseries for their young. Since Boston held by more than a dozen organizations including Harbor is part of the Gulf of Maine, its fauna is municipal, state, and federal agencies, as well as representative of the larger body. nonprofit and educational institutions. Collections include archival, historical, archeological, and Many of the Boston Harbor Islands contain natural history objects, specimens, documents, buildings and structures related to uses such as and images. coastal defense, agriculture, commercial fishing, year-round and summer habitation, resort life, Establishment of the Park and industry, public health, immigration, and social Current Management welfare. More than 100 buildings and structures, Congress established the Boston Harbor including sea walls, forts, lighthouses, gun Islands as a unit of the national park system emplacements, concrete bunkers, wood-framed in 1996. Rather than having the National Park cottages, and brick military and institutional Service (NPS) own and manage the park, the law buildings, reflect the long history and changing makes NPS a nonland-owning participant in the character of the Boston Harbor Islands. The Boston Harbor Islands Partnership and directs park contains three national historic landmarks. the Partnership “to coordinate the activities The Boston Harbor Islands contain numerous of the Federal, State, and local authorities and cultural landscapes that, when combined with the the private sector in the development and historic structures, archeological resources, and implementation of ”a general management plan. associated museum collections, relate the history The enabling legislation established a 13-member and culture of the people who shaped the cultural body consisting of: National Park Service, resources in the vicinity of Boston Harbor. U.S. Coast Guard, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, Metropolitan ii District Commission, Massachusetts Water Plan Background Resources Authority, Massachusetts Port The purpose of the general management Authority, City of Boston, Boston Redevelopment plan is to clearly define the park’s mission and Authority, Thompson Island Outward Bound management direction and establish a basic Education Center, The Trustees of Reservations, foundation for decision making for the Boston Island Alliance, and Boston Harbor Islands Harbor Islands Partnership in consultation with Advisory Council. interested stakeholders. The plan considers The enabling legislation also established the park holistically, in its full cultural and the Boston Harbor Islands Advisory Council, ecological contexts, as a unit of the national park a permanent federal advisory committee system and as a part of Boston Harbor, harbor currently with 28 members, and holding 2 communities, and the region. seats on the Partnership. Its purpose is to It takes the long view, 15 to 20 years into the advise the Partnership on the development and future. As a policy-level document, the general implementation of the general management management plan provides guidance for park plan. A unique aspect of the park is the Island managers and is not detailed, specific, or technical Alliance, a nonprofit organization, with a seat on in nature.The general management plan acts as the Partnership, charged in the legislation with an agreement among the Partnership members generating private funding for the park. and between park managers and the public. The Boston Harbor Islands national park area is operated day to day by the owners and managers of islands and other park areas who Public Process and Consultation work through the Partnership to introduce An extensive participatory process has consistency and coordination parkwide and to characterized the development of this plan. create parkwide programs. Several member From 1997, the Partnership’s planning committee agencies have experience in managing island worked with the NPS planning team through properties for many decades. monthly meetings, presentations, public The National Park Service’s role is to help workshops, special meetings with agency staff coordinate the Partnership and Advisory Council, and advocacy and interest groups, newsletters, to provide information and orientation to the and a web site. The Boston Harbor Islands public, to develop and operate programs, and to Advisory Council, which was appointed after a help assure that the park will be managed to NPS community-based planning process, added to the standards, as the law requires. park’s ability to reach a broader public. iii A draft general management plan and draft concerns. In the combined draft general environmental impact statement were released management plan and draft environmental for public comment in June 2000. During the impact statement four management alternatives public comment period, eight formal public were presented including a “no action” choice. meetings hosted by the Advisory Council were The Partnership recommended Alternative C as held throughout the region. the preferred alternative. The potential impacts Consultation also took place with the relevant of the four alternative actions were evaluated in state and federal agencies, and informally with the draft plan, and are summarized in the final members of the congressional delegation and environmental impact statement. The resources state and local elected officials. evaluated are: air quality, coastal processes, water quality, soils, upland vegetation, terrestrial In a parallel course, the NPS held a number wildlife, wetland and aquatic vegetation, wetland of consultation meetings with American Indian and aquatic marine wildlife, protected species, tribes, and regularly met with Indian tribes, special communities or habitats, cultural offices, and organizations. landscapes, archeological and ethnographic resources, historic buildings and structures, Environmental Analysis museum collections, and socioeconomic factors. Consistent with the National Environmental In response to public comments on the Policy Act of 1970 (NEPA),