In one of the largest expansions of the National Park System in decades, a nearly 1,700-page bill to fund the Defense Department carries amendments to add roughly a half-dozen units to the park system and add acres to others.

But the measure also raises concerns over whether Congress is micro-managing National Park Service decisions when it comes to wildlife management under the Endangered Species Act, and how donors to the system should be recognized.

Also uncertain was where the Park Service would get the funding necessary to get the new units up and running. Congressional Budget Office estimates indicate those costs would surpass $75 million during the initial five years' of operations, and that number does not include annual operational funding.

Passed by the House of Representatives last week, the measure should face a Senate vote this week. While some senators oppose the measure -- Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has said it shouldn't be bogged down by "an extreme land grab" and "congressional pork" -- the bill isn't expected to encounter significant opposition as the Senate moves to wrap up work before the holiday recess.

At the National Parks Conservation Association, Chief Operating Officer Theresa Pierno praised the legislation in general, but also acknowledged concerns over the donor recognition provision and another aimed at undoing years-long studies, legal wranglings, and debate over how to manage both threatened and endangered species and off-road vehicles at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina.

If passed, the provision pertaining to Cape Hatteras would require within six months the "modification" of wildlife buffers to the smallest size and shortest period that environmental studies have shown were necessary to protect both sea turtle nests and their eventual hatchlings, as well as piping plover nests and their chicks. The measure also directs the Interior Secretary to "consider" opening areas of the seashore closed to night driving "each morning on a rolling basis as daily management reviews are completed." Also to be considered by the secretary is "modifying the size and location of vehicle-free areas."

“We were extremely disappointed to see that (the Cape Hatteras provision) included in the package. We do not support that, and that is a problem, that is a serious problem," she told the Traveler late last week. "Nesting turtles, I can’t imagine shortening that time period or extended the use of ORVs while the turtle nesting season, or even on the edges of that season, so I think it’s a signfiicant issue and one we were disappointed that it was put in the package.”

Overall, though, the NPCA is pleased the parks contained within the legislation are moving beyond ideas.

“It could turn out to be quite a historic moment," Ms. Pierno said.

And while lumping them all in an unrelated defense bill might not be ideal, she said each of the parks listed in the legislation had been considered at various times by Congress.

“These new parks that have been put in this bill were all parks that went through the process, went through the legislative process, were supported, all had hearings, so I think that in that case these parks have kind of had some kind of process and were clearly supported by citiizens and supported by legislators," Ms. Pierno said. “It’s never ideal the way it's moving forward, but I think ultimately these are parks that deserved to become parks, and had tremendous support, and bipartisan support, so we’re really pleased to see them move forward now.”

But Harry Butowsky, a historian who recently retired from the Park Service, opposes the legislation.

"I think it is irresponsible for Congress to create so many new parks, heritage areas and expansions of existing units and not provide the funding and manpower necessary to manage what we now have," he said. "There is a buyout in the Cultural Resources Washington Office and 16 senior people are leaving and I assume these positions will not be filled. When I retired almost three years ago my position was not filled and the NPS e-library I worked on so many years to create just collapsed and should be taken down. It is a disgrace. 

"I think the National Park System should not be added to or expanded until we can fund and staff all of our parks and programs. To add more units at this time is just not responsible. It is the opposite of good management," he went on. "Perhaps what Congress should do is an analysis of the entire National Park System and start getting rid of marginal units that cost many dollars and have few visitors."

If passed by the Senate as sent by the House, the legislation would:

* Create the Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park "to help preserve, protect, and interpret the nationally significant resources that exemplify the industrial heritage of the Blackstone River Valley;"

* Designate a Coltsville National Historical Park in Connecticut;

* Would redesignate the First State National Monument in Delaware as the First State National Historical Park;

* Would adjust the boundaries of the Stephen Mather Wilderness at North Cascades National Park in Washington state to allow for realignment of the Stehekin Valley Road out of the flood plain;

* Enlarge Oregon Caves National Monument by 4,070 acres, which would be contained in a "National Preserve" attached to the monument;

* Would establish Tule Springs National Monument near Las Vegas;

* Create Lower East Side Tenement National Historic Site in New York City;

* Establish the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park in New York and Maryland;

* Designate the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which would spread across a handful of states, from Washington state to New Mexico and on to Tennessee;

* Would create a nearly 90,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico and transfer it from the U.S. Forest Service to the National Park Service, and;

* Would add 137 acres to San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in Texas.

It also would add the Ashland Harbor Breakwater Light to Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in Wisconsin, expand Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, add Hinchliffe Stadium to Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park in New Jersey, and add the Gettysburg Train Station to Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. Special resource studies, the early stage of considering additions to the National Park System, would be conducted on Revolutionary War and War of 1812 sites, the role of Buffalo Soldiers in the national parks, "prehistoric, historic, and limestone forest sites on the island of Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands," the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument in Brooklyn, New York, and several other sites.

While the Defense Authorization Bill would provide more than $570 billion to the military, it contains no funding for the Park Service to administer the parks the measure would create or the studies it calls for. Exactly how much would be needed was not immediately clear, though the Congressional Budget Office has calculated that the Coltsville park would cost $9 million over five years; the Blackstone River Valley park is estimated by CBO to cost $8 million over five years; Tule Springs National Monument would cost $10 million over five years; Valles Caldera would cost $27 million over five years, and; the Manhattan Project park would cost $21 million over five years, and then $4 million a year.

A possible wild card involving the Blackstone River Valley park is part of the property has been designated a Superfund Site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency due to wastes and chemical spills at an aerosol manufacturing plant that arose there in 1959. Cleanup could begin in 2016.

At NPCA, Ms. Pierno said the costs of acquiring new parks shouldn't necessary block additions to the system.

“I think NPCA has been a leader in advocating for more funding for national parks, and we’ve had some success in the past," she said. "But parks are woefully underfunded and we completely agree with that and the needs are significant.

“... I think if you look at the history, even during the Great Depression, during very difficult times in this nation, national parks were created because these places deserve to be protected, these stories need to be told," Ms. Pierno added. "How can you argue that you don’t want to protect a place like Tule Springs? Harriet Tubman, that that isn’t important enough to protect? So I think the history doesn't stop and these places are so critical to our country and to Americans that we have to be able to continue to move forward, even during tough economic times.”