STRATFORD—The Northern Neck officially launched the Northern Neck National Heritage Area with a celebration at Stratford Hall on July 17, more than two decades after the Northern Neck Planning District Commission (NNPDC), working with numerous stakeholders, elected representatives and the National Park Service, began the effort to earn National Heritage Area (NHA) designation for the region.
An NHA defines “’places where historic, cultural and natural resources combine to form a cohesive, nationally-important landscape.’ That perfectly describes the Northern Neck,” said NNPDC executive director Jerry W. Davis.
Erik S. Kreusch, NHA coordinator at the Northeast Regional Office of the National Park Service (NPS) in Philadelphia, addressed the next step in the process. “We have three years to develop a management plan,” said Kreusch. The goal is to make the organization sustainable to allow….
