Scenic America Names the Birthplace of the American Revolution and the American Environmental Movement a Last Chance Landscape

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2003

CONTACT:
Meg Maguire, Scenic America, 202-543-6200 ext. 11
Marty Pepper Aisenberg, Save Our Heritage, 978-369-6662

Expansion of the Hanscom Field airport and roads serving the airport threatens the distinctive character of four internationally renowned New England towns.

Washington, D.C. – Scenic America, the only national organization dedicated solely to preserving the natural beauty and distinctive character of America ’s com-munities and countryside, today named the historic towns of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln and Bedford as one of America’s ten most threatened scenic landscapes. The organization released its annual list of ten Last Chance Landscapes today.

Within the four towns are Minute Man National Historical Park, where the American Revolution began and “the shot heard round the world” was fired; Thoreau’s Walden Pond and Walden Woods, widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the American conservation movement; Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women; Emerson’s Old Manse; Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge; and over 1,000 other historical and natural resources, all located within three miles of the Hanscom Field airport.

These nationally important sites, drawing more than 1.6 million visitors a year from around the world, have been heavily impacted by the tripling of corporate jet flights at Hanscom since 1996 and the recent opening of the airport to commercial airlines. The Massachusetts Port Authority, which owns and operates the airport, has actively promoted this growth, despite unanimous community opposition.

“It is time for the unnecessary commercialization and expansion of Hanscom Field to come to a halt,” said Anna Winter, executive director of Save Our Heritage, the citizens’ group that nominated the towns for the designation. “Responsible and enforceable guidelines for the operation of the airport are essential to prevent noise, traffic and pollution from overwhelming these vitally important places.”

Historians and environmentalists who serve on Save Our Heritage’s national advisory board agreed with Winter’s assessment. “Concord is being threatened by the expansion of a nearby airport. And this expansion has to be stopped,” said historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough. “Once the spell, the spirit, of these treasured places is violated or destroyed, they’re never the same again. You can’t bring them back.”

“The expansion of Hanscom Field is one of the worst threats to historic Walden Woods,” said recording artist and Walden Woods Project founder Don Henley. “If we can’t protect Thoreau’s Walden, the birthplace of the environmental movement, we risk losing all our national parks and all our monuments of freedom to commercial development and corporate greed.”

And historian Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, said, “We talk of defending freedom and democracy around the world, but we are doing very little to safeguard the very cradle of those ideals here at home.”

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns hailed the designation as a breakthrough. “Now that Scenic America, a respected national organization, has recognized the unique value of the four towns’ natural and historical resources and the serious threat posed by airport expansion, Massport and the state government must finally come to understand that the preservation of these resources is not a local issue, but a matter of significant national concern, just as the proposed Disney theme park at the Manassas battlegrounds was,” he said. “Considering Massport’s aggressive plans for a commercial/corporate jetport at Hanscom, as revealed in its latest environmental report, this year is truly our last chance.”

Added actor Christopher Reeve, “We’re already ruining so much of this country by our carelessness. This above all others, the place where we began, must not be destroyed. If you don’t care about the place where our country was created, then what else should you care about?”

Scenic America’s president, Meg Maguire, explained that “each Last Chance Landscape is a place of beauty or distinctive community character chosen because it faces imminent and potentially irrevocable harm. But each winner also possesses a potential solution, a ‘last chance’ for people at the local, state and national levels to step forward and preserve its scenic beauty before it’s too late.

“Americans need airports – in the right places,” Maguire continued. “But Americans don’t need airports that destroy our historic and scenic heritage. If the Hanscom Field airport continues to grow, it will bring intolerable jet noise, sprawl and increased road traffic to the birthplace of the American Revolution and the American conservation movement.”

“We will be calling upon all concerned parties to work together in the coming year to find positive, creative solutions,” said Save Our Heritage’s Anna Winter. “Possibilities include federal legislation, like the law that regulates sightseeing flights over all national parks; state legislation imposing limits on what Massport can do at Hanscom; an enforceable agreement among the towns, Massport, and the FAA to limit airport growth; or transferring Hanscom from Massport to an alternate authority that would operate the airport in balance with its sensitive environs.”

Scenic America is a national, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to preserve and enhance the scenic character of America’s communities and countryside. For more information about Scenic America and a detailed description of this year’s Last Chance Landscapes, visit www.scenic.org, or call Meg Maguire at 202-543-6200 ext. 11.

Save Our Heritage is a nonprofit citizens’ group based in Concord, Massachusetts whose mission is to protect the birthplace of the American Revolution, the cradle of the American environmental movement, and the home of the American literary renaissance. For more information, visit www.saveourheritage.com, or call Anna West Winter at 978-369-6662.

===========================
Scenic America Announces Ten Endangered American Landscapes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 24, 2003
CONTACT: Meg Maguire 202-543-6200 x11

Uncontrolled Growth, Airport and Road Expansion, Billboards, Coastal Erosion and Logging Threaten the Beauty and Distinctive Character of American Communities

Annual List of Ten Last Chance Landscapes 2002-03 Will Be Released Feb. 24, 2003.

(Washington, D.C.) – Scenic America, the only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to preserving the natural beauty and distinctive character of America’s communities and countryside, today released its annual list of ten of the nation’s most threatened scenic landscapes.

Each Last Chance Landscape is a place of beauty or distinctive community character chosen because it faces imminent and potentially irrevocable harm. However, each of the winners also possesses a potential solution, a “last chance” for people at the local, state and national levels to step forward and preserve its scenic beauty before it’s too late.

“Each of our Last Chance Landscapes has a story to tell,” said Scenic America’s President, Meg Maguire. “We hope that we can help write a much happier ending for all of them.”

Some of the threats highlighted in this year’s list include airport expansion affecting four historic New England towns; cell towers jutting their unsightly necks into the Potomac River viewshed; forest clear-cutting erasing the visual context of an historic 19th century southern plantation; and sprawling residential and commercial development stripping the Blue Ridge Parkway of its spectacular views.

Maguire emphasized that Scenic America does not seek to put an end to growth or development. “Development can be done in a way that doesn’t destroy the character or the natural beauty of a place that drew people there to begin with,” she said. Nominators for each winning landscape have outlined ways to solve that community’s problems.

Scenic America is dedicated to the principle that “change is inevitable; ugliness is not.”

This year’s Last Chance Landscapes are:

·State Highway 99 Corridor, San Joaquin Valley, California ·Gaviota Coast, California ·Jordan River Conservation Corridor, Utah ·Creole Nature Trail National Scenic Byway, Louisiana ·Historic Towns of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln and Bedford, Massachusetts ·Schuylkill Marsh, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ·Middle Potomac Scenic Corridor, Maryland and Washington, D.C. ·Blue Ridge Parkway Viewshed, Roanoke County, Virginia ·Lower Marks Creek Rural Landscape, North Carolina ·Glen Mary Plantation Historic Site, Georgia

Maguire emphasized that each of the ten landscapes chosen highlights a problem that may be occurring in dozens of communities across the country.

“Unfortunately, much of the natural beauty and distinctive character of America’s cities, towns and natural areas is disappearing in a sea of uncontrolled, cookie-cutter residential development and shopping malls,” Maguire said. “Haphazard growth gobbles up open space at a frightening pace. Cell towers and enormous billboards -- the 'litter-on-a-stick' of the American highway – puncture our scenic vistas. The threats posed to this year’s landscapes are but an illustration of what’s happening to communities all over America, every day of the year.”

Scenic America is a national, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. whose mission is to preserve and enhance the scenic character of America’s communities and countryside. Since 1978, Scenic America has helped citizens and public officials in thousands of communities nationwide protect their scenic heritage. Scenic America advocates for federal, state and local laws and policies that support scenic conservation and community livability.

For more information about Scenic America and a detailed description of the threats posed to each of this year’s Last Chance Landscapes, please visit www.scenic.org or call Meg Maguire at 202-543-6200 x 11.

=========================
(The following text, plus photographs of the sites, are posted on Scenic America’s website, www.scenic.org, together with similar materials for all of the Last Chance Landscapes for 2002-03.)

Historic Towns of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln and Bedford, Massachusetts

Expansion of the Hanscom Field airport and roads serving the airport threatens the distinctive character of four internationally renowned New England towns.

The Landscape: The historic towns of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln and Bedford, located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, are the birthplace of the American Revolution, the cradle of the American environmental movement, and the home of the American literary renaissance. Each year, more than 1.6 million visitors come to experience over 1,000 sites on the National Register of Historic Places and 8,000 acres of protected public open space, including Minute Man National Historical Park; Thoreau's Walden Pond and the 2,680-acre Walden Woods; Alcott's Orchard House; Emerson's Old Manse; the federally designated Wild and Scenic Concord, Sudbury and Assabet Rivers; and Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

The Threat: The historic and natural sites are all located less than three miles from Hanscom Field and are heavily impacted by the tripling of jet flights since 1996 and the relentless, incremental growth of the airport. The Battle Road is the primary resource that Congress intended to protect when it established Minute Man National Historical Park; it is also the public access road to the airport. The road is narrow and winding, with 18th century stone walls adorning much of its length. Increased commercial aviation would bring more ground traffic, resulting in a predictable demand for rotaries, turning lanes, or other changes that would destroy historic landmarks within the Park.

Noise from low-flying jets is also a tremendous problem. Noise levels are often so extreme that they drown out of the voices of park rangers and tour guides, who must halt their presentations until the aircraft have passed overhead. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), owner and operator of the airport, has refused to sign a binding Memorandum of Understanding with the towns to control noise and expansion, and continues to aggressively promote the growth of corporate, commercial and cargo aviation at Hanscom.

Last Chance to Save the Historic Towns of Concord, Lexington, Lincoln and
Bedford: The four towns -- together with five other nearby cities and towns, the area’s state and federal legislators, and two citizens’ groups -- have called for a moratorium on any additional civil aviation at Hanscom pending the development of a multi-modal transportation plan for the New England region. Citizens’ groups are seeking federal and state legislation and commitments to permanently protect the area's irreplaceable scenic, historic and natural resources; and are looking into the possibility of transferring Hanscom Field from Massport to an alternative agency that would operate the airport in balance with its sensitive environs.

For More Information Contact: Anna West Winter, Save Our Heritage, (978) 369-6662