NPS Mission - National Park Service

National Park Service FY 2013 Budget Justifications
Fiscal Year 2013 National Park Service Federal Land Acquisition Program
Program or Park Area: American Battlefield Protection Grant Program
Location: Civil War sites outside of the National Park System
Land Acquisition Limitation Amount Remaining: N/A.
Cost Detail: FY 2013 $8.986 million requested
No estimated annual operating and maintenance costs are associated with this acquisition.
FY 2012 $8.986 million appropriated
FY 2011 $8.982 million appropriated
FY 2010 $9.000 million appropriated
Improvements: Various
Description: Funds provided in FY 2013 will be used to provide grants to States and local communities for
the purpose of acquiring lands or interest in lands from willing owners to preserve and protect Civil War
battlefield sites located outside of the National Park System. Since 1990, the American Battlefield
Protection Program (ABPP) and its partners have helped protect and enhance more than 100 battlefields
by co-sponsoring 429 projects in 42 states and territories. Individual project funding has ranged from
$5,000 to more than $80,000; the average grant is $32,000. The ABPP encourages, but does not require,
matching funds or in-kind services to these projects.
Public Law 107-359 (December 2002) amended the American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996 and
authorized $10 million in Battlefield Protection Grants to be appropriated each year FY 2004 through FY
2008. The act noted that well over half of the 384 principal Civil War battlefields (as identified by the Civil
War Sites Advisory Commission in 1993) were already lost, or were in imminent danger of being lost
entirely or fragmented by development. Another 17 percent were cited as being in poor condition. Public
Law 111-11, enacted March 30, 2009, extended this appropriation authority through FY 2013.
Need: The number of unprotected sites and the rapid growth of development in the eastern United States
create an urgent need to move this program forward as quickly as possible. Identifying and developing
partnerships, raising funds, and finalizing land transactions is time-consuming. Given the immediacy of
the threat to these sites, the requested funding will be needed without delay as the previous amounts are
committed, in order to maintain continuity and momentum.
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