Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden today announced the National Park Service (NPS) is awarding a total of $1,697,354 in Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) investments to help preserve treasured historical and cultural places in the state. These investments include $1,161,729 for State and Local Preservation Grants and $535,625 in Tribal Preservation Grants.
“A core pillar of ensuring Oregon’s future success is preserving its rich past, places, and culturally significant sites, including for Tribes who have been here since time immemorial,” said Merkley, who oversees the budget for the National Park Service and annual funding for the Historic Preservation Fund as chairman of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. “These investments are key to helping our communities and Tribes take the reins of local preservation and protect our beloved resources for generations to come.”
“Ensuring that local and tribal communities have the resources they need to protect important historical sites is essential to creating a brighter future and a well-informed public,” Wyden said. “Oregon has a long and complex history. I applaud this federal investment to communities across Oregon, and will continue to advocate for resources to help safeguard our state’s historical sites.”
Since launching in 1977, the HPF has provided more than $2.7 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. These investments support a variety of historic preservation programs and projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources and history. Further, the HPF is supported by Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease revenues, not tax dollars, with the intent to mitigate the loss of a non-renewable resource to benefit the preservation of other irreplaceable resources.
In the latest HPF investment announcement from the NPS, they awarded $62.15 million in nationwide grants to historic preservation offices in states, territories, the District of Columbia, and partnering nations, which includes the $1,161,729 in State and Local Preservation Grants for Oregon that will be administered by the State.
The NPS also awarded $23 million to Tribal historic preservation offices around the country, $535,625 of which has been awarded to the following seven federally recognized Tribes in Oregon:
- $127,740 – Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
- $118,119 – Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
- $102,393 – Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians
- $100,491 – Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians
- $99,117 – Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde
- $97,254 – Coquille Indian Tribe
- $92,021 – Burns Paiute Tribe
These Tribal Preservation Grants will help enable the Tribes to assume Oregon State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) responsibilities on Tribal lands and save important cultural places and traditions.
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