2017-07
In 2013, the National Park Service initiated a series of conversations about the types of landscapes listed in the National Register, the National Register’s guidance on nominating landscapes, and the issues that its partners in federal, state, and tribal agencies have with landscape documentation and evaluation. The conversations, held via webinars, were the essence of the National Register Landscape Initiative (NRLI). There was early consensus among participants that the conversations should result in a strategy for revising, updating, and augmenting the existing National Register landscape guidance.
Topics were selected by participants who volunteered to discuss one or more nominations that featured a particular type of landscape. For certain categories of landscapes, knowledgeable individuals were recruited to present. The first couple of sessions featured presentations by National Register staff, who explained current practices and existing guidance that pertain to the nomination of landscapes.
Subsequent sessions featured topics such as trails and corridors, tribal landscapes, maritime cultural landscapes, evocative landscapes, and more. Several sessions focused on processes, including a discussion of landscape inventory and treatment programs used by NPS and a session on viewsheds, which reviewed the techniques and usefulness of viewshed studies.
This publication provides an introduction to each topic, summaries of each presentation, and links to video presentations and transcripts. To the extent possible, links are also provided to the National Register and National Historic Landmark nominations mentioned in the presentations.