The National Parks are America's jewel in the crown. They are a national treasure owned by the American people, and one we ought not to relinquish, abandon, or forsake. Their preservation and independence from the incursion of destructive land management retains for future generations the incalculable gifts of America's wilderness, a safeguarded frontier that we choose never to fully tame.
Our National Parks lay claim to our sovereignty, both as a nation and as a people, in asserting that the fierce beauty of the country's landscape, like the fierce insistence of the American spirit, will not be readily undone.
Yet at the current time, there are pressures to defund America's National Parks, to remand their management to the states, which can ill afford their administrative requirements for conservation and sustenance, and, ultimately, to sell their mineral, oil, and grazing rights to the private interests of mining companies, energy conglomerates, and ranching interests, whose concerns are private profit, not environmental conservation.
Are America's National Parks a balance sheet, or are they an irreplaceable legacy consisting of a promise to the public, one without which our national character would be indisputably diminished?
I believe they are a promise -- a promise that we as Americans have made to one another.
And I like to keep my promises.
Accordingly, I extend to the Congress of the United States this challenge.
I hereby direct that a non-profit foundation dedicated to the preservation of the National Parks of the United States be created, and I further ask that it be utilized to ensure the preservation and expansion of our National Parks in perpetuity.
The formation of this foundation is contingent upon Congress' yearly public commitment that our National Parks will not be remanded to the states, neglected, abandoned, sold in part or in full, or exploited for non-renewable natural resources.
Not more than five percent of the endowment of the foundation is to be spent in any calendar year on the historic goals of the National Parks, unless valuable acquisitions on which the Board agrees can be added to the National Park system in perpetuity.
Operating costs plus acquisitions should not exceed ten percent of the total value of the endowment in any calendar year.
The foundation is encouraged to invest in non-dollar assets at this time in recognition of inflationary pressures.
The DoD is to be prohibited from constructing any facilities on National Park land, whether above ground or underground, by agreement with Congress, given the risk that these facilities could be utilized by foreign interests, thus contradicting the intention of the National Parks.
The goals of the foundation are to keep the National Parks fully staffed and operational, safe, conserved, open to the public throughout the year, with protection for wildlife, endangered species, unique ecosystems, freedom of related land, air, water, flora and fauna from pollution or contamination, preservation of wildlife corridors, and prevention of widespread wildfire destruction of National Park territory, in addition to expansion of the National Park system through the acquisition of contiguous and non-contiguous lands.
Those charities which should have governing Board positions on the foundation include The Environmental Defense Fund, The Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy, the National Parks Conservation Association, the World Wildlife Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In addition, I would like to assume a seat on the governing Board as president, as I would wish to consider general Board positions in relation to other causes I have funded.
In order to ensure adequate funding for the preservation of the National Parks in perpetuity, as well as to allow their expansion over time, the foundation should be funded with 200 billion dollars from awards extended in my name or affiliated with my identity through my case under the auspices of the OIG Hotline of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Taxes should not apply to the establishment of this non-profit foundation, as they should not apply to the establishment of the non-profit foundation I have specified for the research and development of fusion energy applications for the United States.
Accordingly, I would ask that any attempt to tax the establishment of these foundations be challenged in court. (Similarly, taxes relating to my gifts to the Smithsonian Institution and PBS should be minimized by all, with the understanding that assessments will be rendered public.)
However, necessary fees for the establishment of this foundation may be drawn conservatively from the foundation's initial assets, ensuring that any such fees are assessed and accounted for publicly in a yearly report and in documentation provided to the Smithsonian Institution pertaining to full records of my case before the Supreme Court.
With the establishment of this foundation intended to ensure the preservation and expansion of the National Parks of the United States, the Congress is assured that conservation efforts regarding America's wilderness and wildlife can endure in perpetuity as a promise to the American people that will never be abandoned.
I will be communicating with the organizations identified above in order to inform them of this allocation, and will forward this documentation to your Office.
I look forward to further communication from the DOJ concerning this commitment to the preservation of America's magnificent gifts to the American public as manifested by the National Parks.
Thank you for your support for the wellbeing of our nation in this critical matter.
Most sincerely,
Lane MacWilliams
