The National Park Service is pleased to announce that Regional Director Christine Lehnertz has signed the Record of Decision for the General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (GMP) for Golden Gate National Recreation Area, including Alcatraz Island, and Muir Woods National Monument. This action authorizes Golden Gate National Recreation Area to implement the new GMP. The plan replaces the 1980 general management plan which effectively guided the park for more than three decades.
“Golden Gate National Recreation Area is one of the most heavily visited sites in the National Park System - for good reason," said Regional Director Lehnertz. “What people have loved about the park will be enhanced even more through the vision in the park’s outstanding new GMP," she added.
The GMP is the culmination of several years of effort involving the thoughtful input and participation of thousands of individuals, dozens of public agencies, and numerous outside organizations and stakeholder groups. A general management plan is a key document for any unit of the National Park System, because within the plan can be found the general framework that will direct and sustain more detailed planning, and guide management decisions over the next 20 years. The vision in this plan reinforces the importance of the park’s recreational, historical, and natural resources. It carries on and refines the vision established in the park’s early years, and provides a general framework for enhancing visitor opportunity and experience and protecting park resources for the future.
“Golden Gate was created with the notion that a person living in an urban area doesn’t have to travel hundreds of miles for a National Park experience," said Superintendent Frank Dean. “From world class recreational pursuits of almost every description, to breathtaking scenery, to magnificent natural areas, to exceptional historic resources - a person can find it all in this park. The new GMP gives us a framework to make this great park even greater. We’re grateful for all of the input by the public over the 10 years of planning that led to the creation of this inspiring plan."
The GMP does not address specific management issues, such as dog management or equestrian operations. Those uses have specific planning processes with public involvement and documentation. The new GMP identifies the preferred alternatives - Connecting People with the Parks for parkland in San Mateo, San Francisco, and Marin counties; and, Focusing on National Treasures for Muir Woods and Alcatraz Island - as reshaped by public comments on the Draft and Final GMP/EIS. The plan includes a summary of comments and the NPS responses to them. The Record of Decision signed by Regional Director Lehnertz, documenting the decision rationale, and the Final GMP are available on the park website. Click on https://www.nps.gov/goga/parkmgmt/index.htm to see both documents.
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
