Blackstone River Valley corridor inching closer to being approved as a national park

A PADDLER is seen on the Blackstone River canal in this 2011 photo. The Blackstone River Valley corridor is inching closer to being approved as a national park now that it is being added to the National Defense Authorization Act. / FILE PHOTO COURTESY CHERYL THOMPSON
A PADDLER is seen on the Blackstone River canal in this 2011 photo. The Blackstone River Valley corridor is inching closer to being approved as a national park now that it is being added to the National Defense Authorization Act. / FILE PHOTO COURTESY CHERYL THOMPSON

WOONSOCKET – The Blackstone River Valley corridor is inching closer to being approved as a national park now that it is being added to the National Defense Authorization Act.
This week, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, attached two key public lands initiatives for Rhode Island to the act. According to a press release issued Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives and then the Senate will vote soon on the bill, which could be sent to President Barack Obama to be signed into law as early as next week.
One piece of the bill includes Reed’s Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park Establishment Act, which would establish a new unit of the National Park System along the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor.
Already designated as a National Heritage Corridor in 1986 by Congress, the area links twenty-four communities along the Blackstone River from Providence, R.I. to Worcester, Mass. As a national park, it would include areas of the Old Slater Mill in Pawtucket and nearby mill towns in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The bill also includes Reed’s and Rep. James Langevin’s Wood-Pawcatuck Watershed Protection Act to make federal restoration and conservation resources available to the Pawcatuck River, as well as other South County and Southeast Connecticut streams.
If fully authorized, the park would be run collaboratively through a special partnership with the National Park Service, which would manage and operate facilities and educations services, working with regional and local preservation groups.
Reed said bipartisan agreement on a package of long-standing public lands bills, including two key Rhode Island public lands priorities, has been a long time in coming but is well deserved.
“The Blackstone Valley is a national treasure that deserves to be preserved,” he said. “It is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and includes thousands of acres of beautiful, undeveloped land and waterways that are home to diverse wildlife, cultural sites and numerous recreational opportunities for Rhode Islanders.”
Reed also chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior & Environment, which oversees federal funding for the National Park Service.
“This designation could help bring more visitors to Rhode Island and ensures the federal government will partner with the state and local communities to protect these resources,” Reed added.
Over the years, Reed has led efforts to keep the Corridor eligible for federal funding. Last year, he secured $650,000 in federal funding for the Blackstone Heritage Corridor through the National Heritage Area program.

No posts to display