Guest column: No national park at DWGNRA

This is a guest column by Sandy Hull, who is a founder of the Delaware Water Gap Defense Fund, which seeks to prevent any designation change of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to that of a national park.

The Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve Alliance wants to change the designation of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to a National Park and Preserve. So, what’s the big deal?

National Parks are visited nationwide by millions of tourists every year. Parks provide outdoor experiences like hiking, camping and water recreation in the summer. Some offer winter sports as well. Millions of acres of great geographic cross sections are under the protection of the National Park Service, a division of the Department of the Interior. 

This is the big deal. No one wants this designation change except the Alliance.

Repeated  inquiries over the course of two years as to why those belonging to the Alliance support this proposed change remain unanswered. These groups can’t and/or won’t defend their positions.

The resistance to the redesignation includes sporting and environmental organizations and several citizens groups. New Jersey Congressmen Kean and Gottheimer oppose the designation change.

NJ Assembly resolution AR133 and NJ Senate resolution SR93 both oppose the redesignation. Several municipalities in Sussex and Warren Counties have passed resolutions opposing the change. Pennsylvania Congressman Cartwright opposes the designation change. Representatives and several municipalities in Pike and Monroe Counties oppose the change. 

The Delaware River serves as a boundary for 37 miles along New Jersey, Pennsylvania and a small area of New York State. It’s one of the last free-flowing rivers in the country and is already protected under the NPS’s Wild Scenic Rivers Act. DEWA (Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area) is a survivor of the Tocks Island Dam debacle from the 60s, a project that acquired approximately 72,000 privately owned acres for flooding once the dam was constructed.

The dam was dead in the 1970s  (officially deauthorized in 2002) and the acquired properties were handed over to the National Park Service from the Army Corps of Engineers. The proposed national park would encompass about 14,000 acres and the remaining 58,000 acres would be designated as a preserve. As a side note, hunting is allowed in recreation areas, but prohibited in national parks.

The original proposal says “prestige” is the reason for the change in the opening paragraph. Benefits mentioned are economic prosperity, a new visitor center, a Lenni Lenape Cultural and Educational Center, a wildlife corridor and more.

A revised proposal issued in September of 2023 added more detailed plans that raised a red flag. The implementation of “Forest to Field Conversion” on approximately 58,000 acres in the Lenape Preserve is concerning. Possible timbering, natural habitat destruction, resource extraction and soil erosion could change the landscape of the Delaware forever.

Decreasing the agricultural leasing to local farmers could allow invasive species to overtake approximately 2,000 acres of rich river bottom land. Farmers depend on those leases for crops that feed their livestock over winter months.

Local resistance from surrounding communities on both sides of the river stems from potential loss of tax ratables and impact on local roads. The projected millions of visitors will bring more traffic and maintenance on an already deteriorating infrastructure.  Local EMS personnel have been providing rescue operations on the river and highways in the recreation area for years without any compensation from the NPS.

It’s a stretch on the volunteers and a financial hardship as well on the communities funding equipment for the fire and rescue operations.

Now to the real question – the big “WHY?” We don’t know because no one’s talking. Local officials have requested environmental, agricultural, economic and traffic impact studies from the Alliance. Those requests remain unanswered. The benefits stated in the original and revised proposals are unfounded. There’s no data, only suppositions and an incredible statement that the millions of residents in the New York area need a national park.

There is no reason, no purpose, no need for a national park designation to an area that’s already protected under the Wild & Scenic Rivers Act.

Leave it be.

Read more from Delaware Currents and its coverage of the national park debate.