And mediacom we believe with you if your are right here will weigh up the middle of anywhere you should have access to fast reliable internet. Im don mceachin and i represent virginias tough district. Virginia is home to so many sites e of historical significae to our state and nation. We must ensure their preservation for future generations so they can learn about our history and experience these wonderful areas firsthand. Among the many important sites in our state is a Great Dismal Swamp in the Hampton Roads region of my district. And chris is on the skull with us, chris lowie and doing a great job of keeping it going. I think about the Great Dismal Swamp because while its great its not nearly 2 million acres that it used to be rates about one 10th and allegedly while its a swamp it doesnt look like a swamp as you think about it nor is a dismal. They are doing a great job of tkeeping it up and keeping it vibrant and i couldnt be more proud of it. We may not know is the Great Dismal Swamp is refuge to generation of africanamericans and indigenous populations toel create a selfsustaining community away from. The swamp served as an economic commerce between populations formerly indentured africanamerican communities and those who were escaping slavery. The activity between these communities the Great Dismal Swamp contains heavy concentrations of important culturalgical and artifacts. You didnt know this either digit . The swamp is one of the only known stops on the underground burrow the underground burrow wrote those fleeing slavery would would use a swamp for cover as they traveled north to freedom. Theres a historical cultural and environmental value in the region of the must do everything we can to protect it. Despite the importance of the swamp it continues to be threatened and as i said the swamp covered more than 1 million acres across virginia virginia and health care lan and today at the 10th of the size due in large part to overdevelopment c as well as Climate Change and sealevel rise. The Great Dismal Swamp should be a concern for everyone not just those of us who call it home. The Great Dismal Swampe has a unique and fragile ecosystem and a wide array of rare animals plants animal species and plays a vital role in the continued litigation of the crisis. It assists in the fight against Climate Crisis that absorbs gases in the atmosphere that tend to driver global stemperatures. The Great Dismal Swamp is vileno nations history to ensure alt Healthy Future for the next generation. Thats why i am proud to bring it preservation of since ive come to congress. Ive spread to leave many delegations to the feasibility of designating the Great Dismal Swamp as a National Heritage area. This legislation is an important first step in the fight to conserve in burmafe to resources will and wildlife of this region. Not only is it a designation to preserve integrity will help stimulate the commonwealth economy through local economic activity. Ive also had the privilege and opportunity through a funding request to help the Preparations Committee before the house and the inclusion of the upcoming appropriations process. Please keep your fingers crossed we would like to get help for the region. This funding request would provide the city of chesapeake with the resources it needs to preserve the one of the oldest africanamerican schools in the region. I want to salute and commendd preservation virginia for shining a light on the importance of the importance of the school and including it on the list of one of the most endangered historical sites in our area. The Great Dismal Swamp other nations great treasures in the fight for its preservation continues with it like this to my thanks to preservation virginia and the Virginia Department of Historical Resources for their continued efforts to protect endangered sites throughout the commonwealth and please know that im your partner and your colleague whenever and wherever you need me. I will continue advocating at the federal level for conservation and look for tour continued collaboration to protect this incredible region to thank you for t allowing me o join you today to im sorry business workers to jump off the call and i hope you have a wonderful conversation and know we are only a phonecall away. God bless you. Thank you so much representative mceachin for being with us todaa and for all you are doing. Take care. Take care. Its not an easy job but is imagined reservations conservationiststs are increasingly recognizing the important connection between resources and our Natural Resources. Conservation easements National Heritage aired areas are some of the tools to advance these efforts and we have the suburb panel to talk more about National Heritage aired she with a focus on their recent interest in creating an nha National Heritage area for a big the Great Dismal Swamp as you heard congressman don mceachin talk about. In addition or panel member said like to point out we have two h. R. Staff with us and they will be on a webinar to answer any questions you might have in the talk. One quick housekeeping note, speakingt of questions we will take questions at the end if we haveo time soup please put them in a q a. If we dont get you in today because we have a number of excellent speakers will be sure to get back to you. With that lets turn to or Panel Members and not introduce them one at a time and im sure we will have questions at the end. First up at like to introduce janet hearst who joined and is now the director of Media Operations and education. Janet receives the interpretation preservation and general operational details in the portfolio and these properties in six of the properties are open to the qpublic including scotch town that John Marshall house smiths ford and the cape henry white house. Come and visit. She will briefly share information about these Historic Sites. Jen. Thank you. I know most all of this panel is going to t be talking about the Great Dismal Swamp. Before we get to that im just going to be talking about some of t the ways preservation of Historic Sites are utilizing our open space and the land around it. A brief overview of some of the projects we are involved in prudham going to go ahead. Lets see. There we go. T okay. The first site that we will dive into is going to be scotch town. This is a great aerial shot of the property and next to this i have a map of what was drawn up in the 60s i believe, 63 and it upside down in an orientation the site that i did want to point out that at this point its in the process of developing a master plan for the reentire property and were not specifically focused on the stark structures that the way we integrate the landscape for all who visit from the public. So we owned about 23 acres around the town. Historically we have only been in the archaeology area so we have so much archaeology and so much work to do and so much that remains uncovered. We know from Historical Records there were orders on the property. That is the goal of ours and we also want to make sure that we are working with representatives to have a better understanding of how this land was used prior to when the original land was designated land. Atim going to give you an overview of what it looks like. It still undergoing lots of research and we are utilizing in many different ways as we possiblys can and this is really through partnerships. Everything that i will be talking about in the rest of my time this all about ownership. I think thats the only way we can possibly move forward. So partnering with local groups who utilize livestock partnering with the Great National naturalization to develop learning gardens and with local entrepreneurial businesses. Those are very traditional ways of using the landscape that we have. Then we will move on to this great aerial shot of the property corresponding with an older map. Its in the same situation. We have 40 acres of property and we are looking forward to developing a master plan that will help us develop a plan to integrate all of that landscape with the historic fabric that is in this. And so archaeology is a major factor in how this is going to play out. We are fortunate that we have this farmland and forest through the four centuries that the structure ofs castle has existed. The original was in 1965 and pretty much in an agricultural peace ever since. One of the products we are working on in collaboration with the state park is a historic road. The plan is to reopen the 3. 5mile road trail that would go from Bacons Castle in addition to thisot aerial shot u can see the james river. This gives you an idea that Bacons Castle is not built on the water. Theres a creek and any navigable channels with to go to the deeper river. So we are working with landowners to see if we can reopen the property up to horse trails. So definitely a partnership. Moving onto another historic way of smiths ford. Smiths ford has a house built in the 18 50s but it comes from overlooking a creek. He became part of the john smith water trail and in the righthand corner you can see commemorating this event taking place. We have a walking trail that goes from smiths fort and other ways that we utilize the property to local landowner has our property for several years which is a great way for people to see it. Omoving on the cape henry is located on active military base and we have worked in partnership with the military and also the National Parks for a Memorial Park site. Our interpreters provide a walking tour that takes people through different areas as you can see on the bottom right hand corner. Theres a world war ii era mining casement built into the lighthouse and working with the joint expeditionary we have been able to utilize that space with our interpreters to include that area and really to get an idea of how this cape henry area was used over the past years. In the last project i want to talk about is coming up next week. The John Marshall house in Richmond Virginia has the least amount of property out with all of the great sites. And so theres not much landscape and smack dab in the middle of downtown richmond however the freedom constellation project is taking place next week where knight and marshall street 910 marshall street presenters are presenting a project to work towards ending juvenile incarceration. This project is in partnership with the Mayors Office and the Marshall House it is an augmented reality project. They w are working with landscas and you can download it and youll be able to see it come to life. It will go up into the sky and the clouds. This is very much a partnership but its really a great way to to the chief justice John Marshall. Thats just as quick sampling of some of the ways we are using it. Thank you jen. Panel we will hear from Elizabeth Vehmeyer with the National Park service in d. C. Along with administering the Technical Assistance to 55 of these areas and 34 sites. Eshe is also working, sorry although technical issue here. Along with 55 of these areas and 34 states the Program ProvidesTechnical Assistance from the capability study process. She has also worked as an archaeologist specialist with the National Park service and the American Protection program. Elizabeth. Thanks chuck and i want to say thank you to preservation virginia and ime happy to be here but im going to give an overview of the National Heritage area program and where the National Heritage areas are and a little bit about what they do that benefits the heritage areas and a little bit about how their designated in the process. First what our National Heritage areas . The quick answer is they areby large landscapes of National Importance and designated by congress. Heritage areas are both a place and an organizational model for conservation and preservation efforts. The organizing model which is done through a local management is at the grassroots level. Its a communitybased decisionmaking model on interdisciplinary approaches programs and projects. A Management Entity or what we call local coronation as busy by the legislation that creates the heritage area and those entities can be nonprofit state or local government academic institutions are federal commissions. In the legislation that creates the heritage areas the Management Entity along with partnership with the federal government is recreation cultural and historicst research preservation education and the last one which isnt sometimes always noted in the legislation by the direct byproduct of the other processes of the National Heritage areas as Economic Development of that region. Many activities address multiple Conservation Strategies more than one single project while these are looked at separately ladder programs designed them and i can give more examples later on. In general this is a broad approach for a larger landscape and it sometimes can cultivate new ways of seeing and learning from landscapes on resources and is at the forefront of people. Where are they . The nhas are not only in organizing model but also a place. As tripp mentioned there different sized heritage areas across 34 states in the country. You can tell from this map if they vary in size but in general care and strategic a semblance of resources that allows an important interplay to tell a story through the landscape and its features. They aree usually nationally distinctive land sites meaning this is a place, the best place to tell the story in america. And they can represent different areas and different elements of our story in america and that could be industry, events or a people or persons. Some examples in terms of telling a story of industry and how industry played out across the landscape including motor city National Heritage area in michiganan rivers is still National Heritage area in the pittsburgh area of pennsylvania or silos and smokestacks National Heritage arean in iowa for Agricultural Industries and then youou have events or trends in our history and that can relate to transportation so we have a bunch of canal systems that are part of the heritage area program. We also have the first designate heritage area was in illinois and michigan canal being the great lakes to the mississippi. Then we also have a people or persons Abraham LincolnNational Heritage area in illinois and how his life was changed by that area and then we also have the Cultural Heritage corridor along the coast from North Carolinaa o florida and hope that landscape interacted and influenced them. I encourage anyone to go to a web site and check out the maps and you can see how your life may the director with heritage areas across the country. Maybe you benefited from some of the programs. What did they actually do and how did they make their legislation mandating congress. It really is a model of costeffective way to preserve thesecr important natural histoc resources and its their accretion of workinghi partnerships. The expand upon traditional conservation approaches within a large scale approach Community Driven the grassroots level. Projects are developed and carried out at the same time that grassroots local effort the connection is clear with the missions of the park service in furthering that mission in landscapes and the park Service Boundaries and part of that is making t those connections to other sites so they dont own and manage themselves and it tells a larger story of heritage and some of that is their expanding upon underrepresented at committees and telling stories that havent been told previously. Making connections and partnerships a with groups that havent had an opportunity to tell their story and giving them a platform and a space. Heritage areas are usually providing sub grants as a way to help them network at that local level to connect to carry out certain projects likee Water Quality preservation etc. Today wanted to point out the heritage areas that are locatedlo in virginia and you may be familiar with them. Oh they are heritage area and now i understand what they do