Draft General Management Plan/Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Public Meeting; Saint Croix Island International Historic Site

National Park Service, Interior.

ACTIONS: (1) Availability of draft general management plan (DGMP)/draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for Saint Croix Island International Historic Site located in Calais, Washington County, Maine, U.S.A., and (2) a public meeting in Calais, Maine, for public review and discussion of the DGMP/DEIS.

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Pursuant to section 102(2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the National Park Service (NPS) announces the availability of the draft general management plan/draft environmental impact statement for Saint Croix Island International Historic Site, the only international historic site (IHS) in the National Park Service. In 1604, Pierre Dugua Sieur de Mons and 78 other men, including Samuel Champlain, established a colony on St. Croix Island in the St. Croix River, now the boundary between Maine, U.S.A., and New Brunswick, Canada. Isolation and a harsh winter severely tested the colonists. Almost half died of scurvy before mild weather brought Native peoples to the island with fresh game, and a supply vessel arrived from France. Sieur de Mons moved his colony to a more favorable setting at Port Royal in what is now the Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia. St. Croix Island was authorized as a national monument in 1949, dedicated in 1968, and redesignated an international historic site in 1984. A memorandum of understanding between Canada and the United States recognizes the international significance of the site and commits both nations to joint planning and commemoration. The document describes four management alternatives, each of which would preserve and protect significant site resources. Site interpretive media would be in both English and French. All alternatives would encourage visitors to view the site with respect. Alternative 1No Action, would entail no new facilities development. Alternative 2Walk in the Footsteps, would provide an outdoor interpretive experience emphasizing the natural setting. Alternative 3--NPS Contact Station, the preferred alternative, would provide increased visitor services and interpretive programs by developing a modest visitor contact station on the mainland. Alternative 4Regional Resource Center, would promote development of a cooperative, community- supported regional resource center located in downtown Calais, Maine.

Comments on the DGMP/DEIS should be received no later than November 25, 1996. A public meeting on the DGMP/DEIS will be held in Calais, Maine, on October 24, 1996.

MEETING: NPS staff will present the DGMP/DEIS at a meeting to be held in the assembly room of Washington County Technical College on River Road (U.S. Route 1), Calais, Maine, at 7:00 p.m. October 24, 1996. The public is invited to comment on the preferred and other alternatives and their potential impacts. The meeting will be announced in local news media in October 1996. Citizens of both nations are invited to attend.