United States S 4693: National Discovery Trails Act

Bill Text

II
117TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION S. 4693
To amend the National Trails System Act to include national discovery
trails and designate the American Discovery Trail, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
AUGUST 1, 2022
Mr. COONS (for himself, Mr. YOUNG, and Mr. BRAUN) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on En-
ergy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the National Trails System Act to include national
discovery trails and designate the American Discovery
Trail, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Discovery 4
Trails Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. NATIONAL TRAILS SYSTEM ACT AMENDMENTS. 6
(a) NATIONAL DISCOVERY TRAILS.—Section 3(a) of 7
the National Trails System Act (16 U.S.C. 1242(a)) is 8
amended by inserting after paragraph (4) the following: 9
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‘‘(5) National discovery trails, established under 1
section 5, which— 2
‘‘(A) shall be extended, continuous, inter-3
state trails so located as to provide for out-4
standing outdoor recreation and travel and to 5
connect representative examples of America’s 6
trails and communities; 7
‘‘(B) should provide for the conservation 8
and enjoyment of significant natural, cultural, 9
and historic resources associated with each trail 10
and should be so located as to represent metro-11
politan, urban, rural, and back country regions 12
of the Nation; 13
‘‘(C) may be designated on Federal lands 14
and, with the consent of the owner thereof, on 15
any non-Federal lands; and 16
‘‘(D) shall not be construed to modify, en-17
large, or diminish any authority of the Federal, 18
State, or local governments to regulate any use 19
of land as provided for by law or regulation.’’. 20
(b) DESIGNATION OF THE AMERICAN DISCOVERY 21
TRAIL AS A NATIONAL DISCOVERY TRAIL.—Section 5(a) 22
of such Act (16 U.S.C. 1244(a)) is amended by adding 23
at the end the following: 24
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‘‘(ll) The American Discovery Trail, a trail 1
of approximately 6,000 miles extending from Cape 2
Henlopen State Park in Delaware to Point Reyes 3
National Seashore in California, extending westward 4
through Delaware, Maryland, the District of Colum-5
bia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, where near 6
Cincinnati it splits into two routes. The Northern 7
Midwest route traverses Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 8
Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado, and the Southern 9
Midwest route traverses Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, 10
Kansas, and Colorado. After the two routes rejoin in 11
Denver, Colorado, the route continues through Colo-12
rado, Utah, Nevada, and California. The trail is gen-13
erally described in Volume 2 of the National Park 14
Service feasibility study dated June 1995 which 15
shall be on file and available for public inspection in 16
the office of the Director of the National Park Serv-17
ice, Department of the Interior, the District of Co-18
lumbia. The American Discovery Trail shall be ad-19
ministered by the Secretary of the Interior in co-20
operation with at least one competent trailwide vol-21
unteer-based organization and other affected Federal 22
land managing agencies, and State and local govern-23
ments, as appropriate. No lands or interests outside 24
the exterior boundaries of federally administered 25
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areas may be acquired by the Federal Government 1
solely for the American Discovery Trail. The provi-2
sions of sections 7(e), 7(f), and 7(g) shall not apply 3
to the American Discovery Trail.’’. 4
(c) COMPREHENSIVE NATIONAL DISCOVERY TRAIL 5
PLAN.—Section 7 of such Act (16 U.S.C. 1246) is amend-6
ed by adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(l)(1) For purposes of subsection (5)(b), a trail shall 8
not be considered feasible and desirable for designation 9
as a national discovery trail unless it meets all of the fol-10
lowing criteria: 11
‘‘(A) The trail must link one or more areas 12
within the boundaries of a metropolitan area (as 13
those boundaries are determined under section 14
134(c) of title 23, United States Code). It should 15
also join with other trails, connecting the National 16
Trails System to significant recreation and resources 17
areas. 18
‘‘(B) The trail must be supported by at least 19
one competent trailwide volunteer-based organiza-20
tion. Each trail should have extensive local and 21
trailwide support by the public, by user groups, and 22
by affected State and local governments. 23
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