National Park Service renews support for Rota nat’l park bill

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Rota Cultural and Natural Resources Study Act was one of only two bills that the National Park Service supported during yesterday’s hearing by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on National Parks. The Park Service had also testified in favor of the bill, H.R. 1141, during a hearing in the House of Representatives last year. The House then passed the measure in January 2012, sending it to the Senate.

“[Yesterday’s] hearing is a clear indication of the importance the Park Service places on the archeological and historical resources on Rota,” said CNMI Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, who authored the Park study bill.

“There was another park study bill on the Subcommittee agenda [yesterday] and a number of bills creating National Heritage Areas. But only the Rota bill and one other got the support of the Park Service.”

H.R. 1141 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to study the “suitability and feasibility” of designating areas of Rota as a unit of the National Park System. In 2005 a Park Service reconnaissance team reported that Rota definitely had areas and resources of “national significance” that warranted a more detailed study.

“Rota preserves striking examples of the 3,000-year-old Chamorro culture,” Dr. Stephanie Toothman, associate director of Cultural Resources for the National Parks Service, testified yesterday.

“The Mochon Latte Village, the Chugai Pictograph Cave, the Taga Latte Stone Quarry, and the Alaguan Bay Ancient Village prehistoric sites include architectural features unique to the ancient Chamorro culture and represent outstanding examples of the territory’s cultural resources.”

Along with his own testimony, requesting the Subcommittee to report the bill to the full Senate for passage, Sablan also submitted statements and letters from Rota residents and from previous visitors to the island, backing the bill.

“There is no doubt of the enthusiasm on Rota for the idea of a national park,” Sablan said. “In fact, my understanding is that the idea really got its start with Rota senator Diego Songao, who requested the reconnaissance survey almost 10 years ago. That is the foundation that we have been building on.”

Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Rep. Teresita A. Santos, and Rota Mayor Melchor A. Mendiola are among other officials who have supported the Rota national park.

H.R. 1141 will allow for even more public input.

“The suitability and feasibility study, if approved by the Senate and signed by President Obama, will include opportunities for residents of Rota to put forward ideas on how best to preserve the significant cultural and natural resources of their island” said Sablan.

The hearing was webcast live on the subcommittee’s website (http://www.energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings-and-business-meetings?ID=b5cdeda0-cb0e-4980-a97b-effa495f01fe#) and an archived video will be available shortly. (PR)