By J.B. Smith

Tribune-Herald staff writer

City officials are encouraging public support for adding the Waco Mammoth Site to the national park system, a proposal that could go to Congress by the end of the year.

The National Park Service has published a report from its “special resource study” on the 68,000-year-old collection of mammoth skeletons and is seeking public comment. A public meeting on the report is scheduled for Baylor University’s Mayborn Museum on Sept. 4 from 7 to 9 p.m.

The site, which includes two dozen ice-age Columbian mammoths, is being developed as a science education attraction by the city of Waco and Baylor University. By fall 2009, city officials expect to have the partly excavated skeletons at the site protected by a climate-controlled structure and open to the public.

Backers of the project hope to have more trails and visitor enhancements in the future, and have been seeking national park status for both prestige and possible financial help.

The study finds that the site meets at least three of the four requirements for inclusion in the national park system. It possesses nationally significant resources and is a suitable and feasible addition to the park system.

The fourth criterion — whether it requires direct National Park Service management instead of protection by another agency or private party — is still open for discussion.

National Park Service officials are offering four possibilities for the site:

* Leave the site in the hands of Baylor University and Waco.

* Seek “natural landmark” status for the site, allowing for technical assistance from the National Parks Service.

* Operate the site as a partnership among Baylor, the city and the park service, with the park service taking the lead on preservation and interpretation. The city could staff the visitors center and work to develop surrounding areas with trails and visitor amenities.

* Put ownership and operation of the site completely in the hands of the National Park Service.

City Manager Larry Groth on Tuesday said the third option seems to strike the right balance, allowing the city a say in the development while benefiting from National Park Service resources.

Michele D’Arcy, NPS project manager for the Waco Mammoth Site, said the federal government probably would be limited to preservation and interpretation, not to developing trails and other visitor amenities.

“Faced with our funding issues, our trends are to focus more on the core resource,” she said. “Our energy would be on interpretation. We wouldn’t really be looking at expanding that” into development beyond the immediate excavation site.”

This fall, the National Parks Service is expected to make a recommendation on the site to the Department of the Interior, which would make a recommendation to Congress. U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, has been a strong proponent of the site.

City parks director Rusty Black said everything appears to be lining up for getting a federal designation for the mammoth site.

“We’ve got very high hopes that by the end of this year, Congress will be giving it due consideration,” he said. “We have a tremendous amount of community support.”

D’Arcy said public input is taken seriously in the designation process. She said this is the first project she has seen in which the community seemed united in wanting a national park site.

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

757-5752