Act by Oct. 12: Ask NNTC to Add Navigable Waterways & Maintenance to NNK Natl Area Heritage Plan

Deadline October 12: Ask NNTC to Include Navigable Waterway Maintenance in the Northern Neck’s 15-Year Heritage Area Plan

Please send NNTC a comment by October 12 asking that maintenance of existing navigable waterways, channels, and protective structures be included in the Northern Neck National Heritage Area Management Plan.

Decisions made in this Plan will shape the Heritage Area’s priorities and partnerships through its 15-year planning horizon, making it important that navigable waterways and navigation infrastructure are recognized now. Including navigation maintenance would strengthen future dredging and jetty-repair requests by documenting regional policy, public support, prior planning, and project readiness.

The Northern Neck National Heritage Area was established on January 5, 2023, recognizing the region as a nationally important landscape shaped by its waterways, people, history, working traditions, and natural resources. The Northern Neck Tourism Commission (NNTC), overseen by the Northern Neck Planning District Commission (NNPDC), serves as the local coordinating entity and is now seeking comments on its draft Management Plan.

For more than four centuries, the Northern Neck’s navigable waterways have sustained watermen, seafood and marine businesses, marinas, public landings, tourism, emergency response, and working-waterfront communities—economic activity and living maritime culture central to the National Heritage Area designation. Preserving these existing investments requires navigable channels, safe harbor entrances, and functioning jetties and protective structures that maintain access to the Chesapeake Bay.

See the NNTC Announcement here:  https://www.northernneck.us/northern-neck-national-heritage-area/ 

The NNK NHA Management Plan is located here:   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JuIEPJpeagqrAoBB72fZ9a6M97qVoLqc/view 

Email your comment:

To: nntc@northernneck.org
Subject: Public Comment on the Northern Neck National Heritage Area Management Plan

Include your full name, mailing or street address, email address, and connection to the Northern Neck so your submission can be treated as an identifiable public comment.

Comment template for your use if desired:

Dear Commissioners and Ms. Hull:

Thank you for your work developing the Northern Neck National Heritage Area Management Plan.

Please strengthen the Plan by recognizing the navigable channels and existing accesses that are available in the Northern Neck and stating that maintaining these navigable waterways and navigation infrastructure—including channels, harbor entrances, jetties, ferry approaches, public landings, and boat ramps—is essential to its heritage, tourism, public-access, safety, and economic-development goals.

Navigable channels support existing watermen, seafood and marine businesses, marinas, emergency responders, residents, visitors, and access to the Chesapeake Bay, which is critical to the waterman and coastal culture of the National Heritage Area.

Please also connect NNPDC’s existing dredging, bathymetric, sediment-management, water-access, and working-waterfront studies to the Plan. This would build upon completed work and strengthen future demonstrations of regional need, public support, and project readiness to support federal and state funding requests.

Because this Plan will guide the Heritage Area for 15 years, please include these priorities in the final Plan.

Sincerely,

Full name
Mailing or street address
Email address
if desired, list your connection to the Northern Neck (waterman, tourist, property owner, business owner, etc.)

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Let’s Dredge the Little Wicomico, Repair the jetty, and Plan now to keep this vital Chesapeake Bay access open for generations to come!