Making Your Voice Heard: 5 Issues Important to Historic Preservation
“The National Trust stands resolutely for the power of preservation to serve the public good.”
Carol Quillen, President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation
We live through unprecedented times, and at the National Trust, we recognize the need to provide our supporters with the tools and information necessary to effectively advocate for preservation. We also know that with multiple information streams, it can be difficult to cut through the noise to find out how to support specific federal programs.
So with the resource list that follows (which touches on some, but not all, the issues facing historic preservation today), we are looking to connect preservationists with key messaging and information from organizations across the country that are, together, supporting the power of preservation in all its forms.
Your voice matters, and the National Trust has several resources at your disposal to keep you up to date and informed:
photo by: Priya Chhaya
- Get tips and tools around grassroots advocacy. This includes a new video series and accompanying training materials about how you can make your voice heard.
- Support our national advocacy efforts by sharing examples of how federal actions are affecting you and your community.
- Members of Congress will be in their home districts between legislative sessions and for all of August. Take advantage of this opportunity to invite members to onsite visits, schedule direct conversations with them in their district offices, and attend any public meetings they may have.
- If you have not already, make sure to sign up for the Advocacy Newsletter and sign up for text messages.
Follow the National Trust and the organizations listed below on social media to stay up to date as new issues arise.
1. Supporting Our National Parks and Public Lands
Challenges: Understaffing due to unplanned retirement and removal of staff at all levels of the National Park Service (NPS) and other governmental agencies, anticipated opening of National Parks and Monuments to oil, gas, and mining, and reduced funding.
Take Action:- Share Your Story (National Trust for Historic Preservatoion)
- Prevent Further Cuts to Park Staff and Funding (National Parks Conservation Association)
Organizations
- Trust for Public Lands
- The Wilderness Society
- National Parks Conservation Association
- Monuments for All
News Source: National Parks Traveler
2. Historic Preservation Fund
Challenges: Reauthorization, stalled Congressionally-approved grants and projects, anticipated consolidation of staff.
Take Action: Historic Preservation Fund
3. Protecting Museums and Historic Sites
Challenges: Loss of staffing and investments in innovation and interpretation at historic sites due to funding reductions from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), reduced funding for community engagement.
Take Action;
- Grant Terminations, Appeals and Other Activities (American Association of Museums)
- Send in your grant cancellation letters and Take Action (American Association of State and Local History)
Organizations
- American Association of Museums
- American Library Association
- National Humanities Alliance
- National Federation of Humanities Associations
- American Association of State and Local History
Find Projects and Grants in Your State
4. Telling the Story of All Americans
Challenges: Removal of source materials, lack of transparency in the archive, records at risk, censorship of history that tells the history of all Americans.
Organizations
- Organization of American Historians (OAH)
- American Historical Association (See also OAH/AHA Joint Statement on Federal Censorship of American History)
- National Council on Public History
- American Association for State and Local History:
Records Retention Projects
5. Historic Tax Credit
Challenges: Advancing the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act in emerging tax legislation; ensuring uninterrupted administration of the historic tax credit incentive by the NPS.
Take ActionOrganizations
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