(The Center Square) – A new effort to redesignate the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as a national park and preserve has reignited old controversies among property owners wary of further government intrusion.
Facing off on the issue are the Delaware River National Park & Lenape Preserve Alliance – who is spearheading the congressional petition for the redesignation – and the Delaware Water Gap Defense Fund, also known as No National Park, who feel the area’s current status is satisfactory.
Bob Fitch, media liaison for the Lenape Preserve Alliance, says it wants to place “this gem of our national heritage into the jeweled crown of the national park system where it has always belonged,” enhancing its protection and prestige.
The recreation area spans 70,000 acres along a 40-mile stretch of the Delaware River, from northeastern Pennsylvania to the western edge of the Kittatinny Mountains in New Jersey’s Warren and Sussex counties. At the time of its original designation, it did not fit the characteristics of a national park.
The petition calls for 9,760 acres – 14% of the area – to become a national park, the majority of which surrounds the river. Over 56,000 acres would become a preserve on which hunting would be allowed.
Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve’s proposal to redesignate portions of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area as a national park, as illustrated in this map.
Delaware River National Park and Lenape Preserve
No National Park worries, however, that doing so will increase traffic, damage infrastructure in the park and surrounding communities, cost too much money, restrict hunting and farming, and lose more property through eminent domain.
The group’s concerns stem from historical precedent – the memory of which causes…
Chief Chuck DeMund of the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania. (Submitted Photo) 
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