Mammoth Cave National Park Boundary Adjustment Act of 2025
Summary
HB 3286, the Mammoth Cave National Park Boundary Adjustment Act of 2025, would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to acquire approximately 551.14 acres of land and any associated interests in land for addition to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. The bill identifies the acreage on a referenced map covering a proposed southern boundary expansion in Edmonson and Barren Counties.
The bill also updates an existing statutory land-acquisition cap by indexing the $350,000 limit for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. In practical terms, this would modernize the park’s boundary-adjustment authority and make the acquisition threshold more flexible over time, while preserving the park’s ability to expand through voluntary land acquisition for conservation and park-management purposes.
Impact
If enacted, the bill would amend Section 11 of the 1942 Mammoth Cave National Park Act, changing federal law governing the park’s boundary and land acquisition authority. It would allow the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior to incorporate additional private or other lands into the park, potentially affecting landowners within the mapped expansion area in Edmonson and Barren Counties, Kentucky. The inflation adjustment would also affect how future land acquisitions are evaluated under the statute’s monetary limit.
Sentiment
The available record suggests generally favorable or routine support rather than controversy: the bill advanced to subcommittee hearings and there are no recorded votes or committee transcript objections in the provided materials. The measure appears to be a targeted park-boundary adjustment, which typically draws support from conservation, tourism, and local economic interests tied to the national park.
Contention
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided materials. Potential areas of concern, based on the bill’s substance, would likely involve land acquisition, property rights, and the scope of federal expansion into local land areas. However, the record supplied does not identify any named opponents, disputed provisions, or amendments.