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Quoted from appended:
[The project has the backing of a senior appropriator, Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), as well as the Interior Department.]
Mr. Regula and the Interior Department are the two strongest proponents of pay-to-play, but this article is not about fee-demo. It's about a closely related topic --- industrial tourism.
Also quoted from this article:
["This project is both an absurd and improper use of taxpayers' money," Ruch said. "It is not the business of the Park Service to help the great state of Ohio acquire a reputation for winemaking."]
Neither Regula nor Interior are interested in making wine or raising chickens. What they are interested in, is putting on a good show for paying tourists. This federally subsidized project should be recognized as a mechanism for priming Ohio's tourism pump by funneling federal tax dollars to private interests in Regula' home state in order to create public-private partnerships that will lure paying visitors.
It's worth noting that entrance fees are NOT charged at Cuyahoga Valley National Park making it a rare exception in the pay-to-play world Regula helped create. I somehow doubt that Cuyahoga Valley National Park has experienced the severe shortfall in allocated funding experienced by parks from coast to coast. I suspect that Regula of the House Appropriations Committee has been taking care of this park as if it were somehow special.
Scott
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August 27, 2004
U.S. Finances Vineyard on National Parkland
Group Questions Ohio Venture
By Juliet Eilperin - Washington Post Staff Writer
Northeast Ohio is not famous for its viticulture, but now a public
watchdog group has turned its spotlight on a winery on the grounds of
Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
That's because the National Park Service has, since 1999, spent more
than $475,000 to fund the winery, along with two organic vegetable and
free-range chicken farms and other activities on park grounds,
according to documents released Wednesday by Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The winery has yet to produce wine, and internal documents from Sarah's
Vineyard raise questions about the operation's financial viability. But
park officials said the broad farming project, known as the Countryside
Initiative, is a way to preserve the region's agricultural character,
saying it could serve as a model for the country.
PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose group obtained the park
documents through a Freedom of Information Act request, questioned why
taxpayers should fund a $55,000 line to bring municipal water to the
vineyard, as well as $99,000 to rehabilitate its farmstead.
"This project is both an absurd and improper use of taxpayers' money,"
Ruch said. "It is not the business of the Park Service to help the
great state of Ohio acquire a reputation for winemaking."
But Cuyahoga Valley National Park's superintendent, John Debo, said the
initiative was an innovative way to recapture the region's agricultural
history while attracting visitors to the 30-year-old park.
"It's our way of responding to the need to preserve the cultural
landscape of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park," Debo said. "It clearly
is part of our mandate to preserve agriculture heritage."
The park has leased out three farm properties on park grounds,
including the vineyard, at market rates. Debo said he hopes to lease
out up to 30 farm properties over the next decade. In the case of the
winery, the park receives $466 a month rent for the residence and a
percentage of the gross farm product, which will increase from 5 to 10
percent over the next 10 years.
Darwin Kelsey, executive director for the nonprofit organization that
advises the park on the Countryside Initiative, said the three farms
now generate about $25,000 in annual revenue but the figures should
rise rapidly in future years.
"These dudes are just getting off the ground," Kelsey said, adding that
his group, the Cuyahoga Valley Countryside Conservancy, has raised
close to $500,000 from area private foundations to finance the
initiative. "We're off and running."
The project has the backing of a senior appropriator, Rep. Ralph Regula
(R-Ohio), as well as the Interior Department. The Park Service also
spent three years preparing an environmental impact statement on the
leasing project and has concluded that farming will not hurt the
parkland.
The winery has a residence as well as vineyards. Its 2.25 acres of
grapes include varieties such as Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin and
Traminette. The couple running the winery, Mike and Margaret Lytz, plan
to produce 625 cases of wine from their current property by 2008,
according to park officials.
According to Sarah's Vineyard's 2003 annual operating plan, the winery
operators have some doubt about its future. They wrote in one passage:
"How do we justify more expenditures given this current situation of no
return on investment? Are we expected to keep throwing time and money
into our enterprise with the hope that some day our partners . . . will
be able to devote the necessary resources to produce the required
Environmental Assessment?"
Debo said the Park Service is hoping to wrap up the assessment, which
differs from the impact statement, to determine how constructing the
barn and a small parking lot for the winery will affect parkland. Park
officials must approve the construction before it can take place.
"They have been frustrated, I will admit, with the slow pace of the
Park Service," he said. "The good news is, we're getting close to
wrapping it up."
Lytz, a schoolteacher who learned winemaking from his Italian
grandfather, said he was optimistic that he and his wife would
eventually produce 10,000 cases of wine a year. He said they had
already invested $100,000 in the project and hoped to produce 200 cases
next fall. An Ohioan, he noted that the state was the leading grape
producer in the mid-1800s.
"It will be very viable if we can get it off the ground," Lytz said.
"It's a place for people to come in and sit down and enjoy the scenery."
Debo, who has devoted 16 years to promoting the initiative, said PEER
has made "a sordid misrepresentation of these small, sustainable
farmsteads" because the group wants the park to return to "wilderness
condition."
"We're not going to let that happen," he said.
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- Land management 
