Plan Will Save 10 Shenendoah Battlefields
WASHINGTON, D.C.

In a major step toward saving the Shenandoah Valley's Civil War battlefields, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed a plan Oct. 4 outlining preservation measures that will be carried out on 10 battlefields in eight counties and four cities.
Also, signaling that the effort is now seriously turning to action, Congress approved $1 million for land acquisition, the first such funding.
"This ended three years of effort" to create the management plan, said Sandy Rives, superintendent at Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. "It was done on time and within budget. And I'm delighted that the community loves it."
Rives represented the National Park Service (NPS) on the 19-member Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Historic District Commission, which included landowners, local government officials, and experts in history and preservation.
Its work done, the commission will cease to exist 60 days from Babbitt's signing; it is being replaced by the nonprofit Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, which will actually carry out the plan.
Congress also approved $400,000 for fiscal year 2001 for the foundation to hire staff and begin to implement the plan.
Rives said several of the same individuals will transfer from the commission to the foundation, which will have a 25-member board. Three thousand copies of the management plan were being readied for release Dec. 2, at the commission's last meeting.
The plan calls for placing the 10 battlefields into five "clusters," each relatively independent and each with an "orientation" center. The clusters will include other Civil War sites in their areas. The Cedar Creek battlefield will become the Valley's single "destination center," with an operations center maintained by NPS.
A major aspect of the plan will be interpretation of the entire district. Howard Kittell, executive director of the commission, commented, "We keep hearing, •Why put money into preserving battlefields if no one sees them?' So there's going to be an emphasis on interpretation right from the start."
As for the $1 million that Congress appropriated for land preservation, Rives said it will be up to the new foundation to determine where to spend it.
"Quick action" is needed at the battlefields of McDowell, Cross Keys, Port Republic, Cedar Creek and Kernstown, just for starters.
"One million is an excellent start," Rives said. "It's really remarkable that Congress passed this, assuming that the plan would be signed and that we'd be moving ahead. It's an extraordinary beginning."
Purchases of land and easements are required to be "absolutely by a willing seller," Rives noted.
Kittell pointed out that the foundation, whose board met for the first time Nov. 6, will be seeking money from a variety of private sources as well as federal, state and local governments to fund interpretive programs, acquire battlefields and create marketing materials.
Kittell joined the new foundation in the same capacity, as executive director, while Rives stayed on as the NPS representative. In fact the entire commission was asked to stay on for a one-year transition period, and 13 of the 19 agreed to do so.
During the transition year a nominating committee will begin identifying names for the foundation's eventual 25-member board. Kittell said he hoped that "a substantial number" of the 13 transitioning members will agree to stay on the foundation board after the initial year.
Rives chuckled over the impatience of many Valley residents to begin carrying out the plan. Babbitt's action, the culmination of three years of work, called for congratulations all around, he said, "but the minute the plan was signed people were saying, what are you going to do next? Why hasn't it happened yet? Don't celebrate ã just keep moving."