An "Emerald Necklace of Parks"
THIS MAP SHOWS CAPE COD NATIONAL SEASHORE (WHICH PRESIDENT KENNEDY HELPED CREATE) WHICH COMBINED FOUR FORMER STATE PARKS INTO A NATIONAL TREASURE.
What President Kennedy did for Cape Cod transformed it forever, preserving 40 miles of beaches. St. Augustine can be transformed into a National Treasure for all Americans and the world. Now is the time for St. Augustine to set out to be the benchmark for Historical Landscape Preservation. If not now, when? If not here, then where? All Americans have a stake in preserving St. Augustine Forever™.
Imagine a map like that on the left (which shows the Cape Cod National Seashore) for America's St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway.
Make no little plans, for they do not inspire people to carry them out.
Daniel Burnham, architect of Union Station in Washington, D.C.
A combination of 61 miles of beautiful beaches from Ponte Vedra to Marineland, historic sites from the Castillo de San Marco to Fort Matanzas, five state parks (Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Reserve or GTM-NERR, Anastasia State Park; Deep Creek State Forest; Faver-Dykes State Park; Fort Mose State Park; Watson Island State Forest); the St. Johns River Water Management District's Twelve Mile Swamp, Deep Creek, Matanzas Marsh, Moses Creek and Stokes Landing reservations located in St. Johns County, Florida; the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument and the associated Cubo Line and St. Augustine City Gate sites; Fort Matanzas National Monument; the Plaza de la Constitutión (Slave Market Square); Government House and State Historic properties . . .
We can preserve and protect St. Augustine and the surrounding areas forever by harnessing the power of the National Park Service (America's favorite federal agency).
On September 27, 2009, watch the PBS documentary: "Our National Parks: America's Best Idea Ever," produced by Ken Burns.
As Cape Cod National Seashore Act co-sponsor Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. (later Speaker of the House) wrote in his memoirs: "To anyone who would listen, we pointed out that our plan would preserve the beauty of Cape Cod and would increase tourism. The magnificent .... unbroken beach was one of the great marvels of this country, and it would be criminal not to protect it from commercial development. At that time, there were not more than twenty-six miles of public beach in all of Massachusetts. And although nobody talked much about ecology and the environment in those days [1958], we also pointed out that the area we wanted to save included moors, marshes, forests, and freshwater ponds---home to many species of birds, fish, animals and plants."
