TIDE TURNS IN FIGHT FOR BATTLEFIELDS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 6, 1993                   TAG: 9303060118
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DAVID REED ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TIDE TURNS IN FIGHT FOR BATTLEFIELDS
It'll take longer establishing Shenandoah Valley National Battlefields than fighting the Civil War, but supporters said Friday they've finally gathered the political ammunition needed to move through Congress.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, said this week he'll co-sponsor the Shenandoah Valley battlefield preservation bill with Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Fairfax County.
Goodlatte, who shares representation of the Shenandoah Valley with Wolf, pulled behind the project after holding public hearings in his 6th District.
All of the local governments where the 12 battlefields are located have officially endorsed the plan, said A. Wilson Greene of the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites in Fredericksburg.
"It's essential that the two congressmen in the district where the park would be located are in support," Greene said.
The battlefields are within Augusta, Clarke, Frederick, Highland, Rockingham, Shenandoah and Warren counties and the city of Winchester.
The legislation introduced by Wolf in January establishes a commission that would spend the next two years establishing the park's boundaries and sites for two visitor centers. The commission includes representatives of local government, the tourism industry and business - as well as landowners and historians.
An informal group with similar representation spent last year establishing and revising the framework for creating Civil War battlefield parks.
The biggest changes made, Greene said, were dropping Piedmont Battlefield in Augusta County from the list at the request of landowners and putting another landowner on the commission.
The primary concerns have been whether private lands making up the battlefields would be acquired through condemnation and whether control of the project would be maintained at the local level, Greene said.
The legislation stipulates that no land can be acquired without the explicit consent of the owner, Goodlatte said.
"Under this bill, local people - landowners, business persons, local elected representatives - will set the boundaries of the battlefields to be preserved and not the federal government," Goodlatte said.
That grass-roots approach is unusual, and possibly unprecedented, in preserving Civil War battlefields as national parks, Greene said.
That's also why the process, which began in the summer of 1990 as an effort to preserve battlefields and generate heritage-tourism revenue, is taking so long, he said.
"When you look at the story of national park preservation of Civil War battle sites, the only major chapter that is missing is the Shenandoah Valley and the impact of the war on people in the valley," Greene said.
A study by Virginia Tech estimates that preserving significant battlefield sites within a regional framework - with site improvements, visitor centers and interpretive programs - could generate up to $65 million in annual sales, $22 million in tax revenue and 1,600 jobs.
The regional coalition estimated last year that it would take anywhere from $15 million to $40 million to provide compensation for property owners and develop the parks and two visitor centers.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB