National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal government's official list of districts, buildings and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property; the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register and the process for adding properties to it. Of the more than one million properties on the National Register, 80,000 are listed individually; the remainder are contributing resources within historic districts. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service, an agency within the United States Department of the Interior, its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate and protect historic sites in the United States.
While National Register listings are symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties. Protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places; the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Historic sites outside the country proper, but associated with the United States are listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, multiple property submissions; the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties; some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service.
These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks, National Memorials, some National Monuments. On October 15, 1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices; the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Register's creation, as well as any other historic sites in the National Park system. Approval of the act, amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy; the 1966 act required those agencies to work in conjunction with the SHPO and an independent federal agency, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, to confront adverse effects of federal activities on historic preservation. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, with director George B.
Hartzog Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law. Ernest Connally was the Office's first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register; the division administered several existing programs, including the Historic Sites Survey and the Historic American Buildings Survey, as well as the new National Register and Historic Preservation Fund. The first official Keeper of the Register was an architectural historian. During the Register's earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small and underfunded. However, funds were still being supplied for the Historic Preservation Fund to provide matching grants-in-aid to listed property owners, first for house museums and institutional buildings, but for commercial structures as well. A few years in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U.
S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two "Assistant Directorates." Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation. From 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs. Jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate, he was described as a skilled administrator, sensitive to the need for the NPS to work with SHPOs, local governments. Although not described in detail in the 1966 act, SHPOs became integral to the process of listing properties on the National Register; the 1980 amendments of the 1966 law further defined the responsibilities of SHPOs concerning the National Register.
Several 1992 amendments of the NHPA added a category to the National Register, known as Traditional Cultural Properties: those properties associated with Native American or Hawaiian groups
East River
The East River is a salt water tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end, it separates the borough of Queens on Long Island from the Bronx on the North American mainland, divides Manhattan from Queens and Brooklyn, which are on Long Island. Because of its connection to Long Island Sound, it was once known as the Sound River; the tidal strait changes its direction of flow and is subject to strong fluctuations in its current, which are accentuated by its narrowness and variety of depths. The waterway is navigable for its entire length of 16 miles, was the center of maritime activities in the city, although, no longer the case. Technically a drowned valley, like the other waterways around New York City, the strait was formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation; the distinct change in the shape of the strait between the lower and upper portions is evidence of this glacial activity.
The upper portion, running perpendicular to the glacial motion, is wide and has deep narrow bays on both banks, scoured out by the glacier's movement. The lower portion runs north-south, parallel to the glacial motion, it is much narrower, with straight banks. The bays that exist, as well as those that used to exist before being filled in by human activity, are wide and shallow; the section known as "Hell Gate" – from the Dutch name Hellegat or "passage to hell" given to the entire river in 1614 by explorer Adriaen Block when he passed through it in his ship Tyger – is a narrow and treacherous stretch of the river. Tides from the Long Island Sound, New York Harbor and the Harlem River meet there, making it difficult to navigate because of the number of rocky islets which once dotted it, with names such as "Frying Pan", "Pot and Cheese", "Hen and Chicken", "Nigger Head", "Heel Top"; the stretch widened. Washington Irving wrote of Hell Gate that the current sounded "like a bull bellowing for more drink" at half tide, whilte at full tide it slept "as soundly as an alderman after dinner."
He said it was like "a peaceable fellow enough when he has no liquor at all, or when he has a skinful, but who, when half-seas over, plays the devil." The tidal regime is complex, with the two major tides – from the Long Island Sound and from the Atlantic Ocean – separated by about two hours. The river is navigable for its entire length of 16 miles. In 1939 it was reported that the stretch from The Battery to the former Brooklyn Navy Yard near Wallabout Bay, a run of about 1,000 yards, was 40 feet deep, the long section from there, running to the west of Roosevelt Island, through Hell Gate and to Throg's Neck was at least 35 feet deep, eastward from there the river was, at mean low tide, 168 feet deep; the broadness of the river's channel south of Roosevelt Island is caused by the dipping of the hardy Fordham gneiss which underlies the island under the less strong Inwood marble which lies under the river bed. Why the river turns to the east as it approaches the three lower Manhattan bridges is geologically unknown.
In the stretch of the river between Manhattan Island and the borough of Queens, lies Roosevelt Island, a narrow 2-mile long island consisting of 147 acres. Politically part of Manhattan, it begins at around the level of East 46th Street of that borough and runs up to around East 86th Street. Called Blackwell's Island and Welfare Island, now named after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it was the site of a penitentiary, a number of hospitals, but now consists of apartment buildings, park land, the ruins of older buildings, it is connected to Queens by the Roosevelt Island Bridge, to Manhattan by the Roosevelt Island Tramway, to both by a subway station. The Queensboro Bridge runs across Roosevelt Island, but no longer has a passenger elevator connection to it, as it did in the past; the abrupt termination of the island on its north end is due to an extension of the 125th Street Fault. Other islands in the river are U Thant Island – Belmont Island – south of Roosevelt Island, named after U Thant, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The Bronx River drains into the East River in the northern section of the strait, the Flushing River known as "Flushing Creek" empties into it near LaGuardia Airport via Flushing Bay. North of Randalls Island, it is joined by the Bronx Kill. Along the east of Wards Island, at the strait's midpoint, it narrows into a channel called Hell Gate, spanned by both the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly the Triborough
Outer Lands
The Outer Lands is the prominent terminal moraine archipelagic region off the southern coast of New England in the United States. This eight-county region of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, comprises the peninsula of Cape Cod and the islands of Martha's Vineyard, the Elizabeth Islands, Block Island, Long Island, as well as surrounding islands and islets. Though the existence of an arc or chain of islands in this archipelago is acknowledged by geographers, it is given a specific name; the Isles of Stirling was the name granted in 1635 when the islands came into the possession of William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling. "Outer Lands" is a term popularized by author Dorothy Sterling in her 1967 natural history guide of the same name, used by natural history authors such as Patrick J. Lynch; the Massachusetts section is called the "Cape and Islands", with the "Islands" subregion specifically referring to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, other smaller islands in Dukes and Nantucket counties.
Long Island is informally considered a part of the "New York islands", together with Staten Island and Manhattan. These islands are geographically contiguous with the broader region. Other islands in Long Island Sound and Rhode Island Sound are included often. Sandy Hook in New Jersey is included; the Outer Lands forms the insular northeasternmost extension of North America's Atlantic coastal plain. The islands of the Outer Lands were formed of terminal moraines deposited on a series of cuestas by the recession of the Laurentide ice sheet during the Wisconsin glaciation; some of the islands are included in the archipelago due to proximity, despite key geological differences, such as Manhattan part of the Manhattan Prong. The islands are separated from the mainland by a series of bays and sounds that used to make up Lake Connecticut, Lake Narragansett, other glacial lakes. For eastern Long Island and areas east, the region is designated Environmental Protection Agency ecoregion 84 for the Atlantic coastal pine barrens, with the majority 84a for "Cape Cod/Long Island", along the Long Island south shore 84c for "Barrier Islands/Coastal Marshes".
Western Long Island and along the north shore is 59g for "Long Island Sound Coastal Lowland", a part of the broader Northeastern Coastal Zone. The region is designated the "Long Island-Cape Cod Coastal Lowland", Major Land Resource Area 149B, by the United States Department of Agriculture, which includes Staten Island; the region has had a strong maritime culture, with an emphasis on fishing. From eastern Long Island east, much of the region has in recent decades taken on a summer colony character. Outer Barrier Islands Thimble Islands Narragansett Bay Cape and Islands New York Islands Sandy Hook, New Jersey
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, lawyer and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had served as the second vice president of the United States from 1797 to 1801; the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy and individual rights motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation. Jefferson was of English ancestry and educated in colonial Virginia, he graduated from the College of William & Mary and practiced law, with the largest number of his cases concerning land ownership claims. During the American Revolution, he represented Virginia in the Continental Congress that adopted the Declaration, drafted the law for religious freedom as a Virginia legislator, served as the 2nd Governor of Virginia from 1779 to 1781, during the American Revolutionary War, he became the United States Minister to France in May 1785, subsequently the nation's first secretary of state under President George Washington from 1790 to 1793.
Jefferson and James Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party to oppose the Federalist Party during the formation of the First Party System. With Madison, he anonymously wrote the controversial Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions in 1798 and 1799, which sought to strengthen states' rights by nullifying the federal Alien and Sedition Acts; as president, Jefferson pursued the nation's shipping and trade interests against Barbary pirates and aggressive British trade policies. He organized the Louisiana Purchase doubling the country's territory; as a result of peace negotiations with France, his administration reduced military forces. He was reelected in 1804. Jefferson's second term was beset with difficulties at home, including the trial of former vice president Aaron Burr. American foreign trade was diminished when Jefferson implemented the Embargo Act of 1807, responding to British threats to U. S. shipping. In 1803, Jefferson began a controversial process of Indian tribe removal to the newly organized Louisiana Territory, he signed the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves in 1807.
Jefferson, while a planter and politician, mastered many disciplines, which ranged from surveying and mathematics to horticulture and mechanics. He was an architect in the classical tradition. Jefferson's keen interest in religion and philosophy led to his presidency of the American Philosophical Society. A philologist, Jefferson knew several languages, he corresponded with many prominent people. His only full-length book is Notes on the State of Virginia, considered the most important American book published before 1800. After retiring from public office, Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Although regarded as a leading spokesman for democracy and republicanism in the era of the Enlightenment, Jefferson's historical legacy is mixed; some modern scholarship has been critical of Jefferson's private life, pointing out the contradiction between his ownership of the large numbers of slaves that worked his plantations and his famous declaration that "all men are created equal." Another point of controversy stems from the evidence that after his wife Martha died in 1782, Jefferson fathered children with Martha's half-sister, Sally Hemings, his slave.
Despite this, presidential scholars and historians praise his public achievements, including his advocacy of religious freedom and tolerance in Virginia. Jefferson continues to rank among U. S. presidents. Thomas Jefferson was born on April 13, 1743, at the family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children, he was of English, Welsh and was born a British subject. His father Peter Jefferson was a surveyor who died when Jefferson was fourteen. Peter Jefferson moved his family to Tuckahoe Plantation in 1745 upon the death of William Randolph, the plantation's owner and Jefferson's friend, who in his will had named him guardian of his children; the Jeffersons returned to Shadwell in 1752, where Peter died in 1757. Thomas inherited 5,000 acres of land, including Monticello, he assumed full authority over his property at age 21. Jefferson began his childhood education beside the Randolph children with tutors at Tuckahoe. Thomas' father, was self-taught, regretting not having a formal education, he entered Thomas into an English school early, at age five.
In 1752, at age nine, he began attending a local school run by a Scottish Presbyterian minister and began studying the natural world, for which he grew to love. At this time he began studying Latin and French, while learning to ride horses. Thomas read books from his father's modest library, he was taught from 1758 to 1760 by Reverend James Maury near Gordonsville, where he studied history and the classics while boarding with Maury's family. During this period Jefferson came to know and befriended various American Indians, including the famous Cherokee chief, who stopped at Shadwell to visit, on their way to Williamsburg to trade. During the two years Jefferson was with the Maury family, he traveled to Williamsburg and was a guest of Colonel Dandridge, father of Martha Washington. In Williamsburg the young Jefferson met and came to admire Patrick Henry, eight ye
Thimble Islands
The Thimble Islands is an archipelago consisting of small islands in Long Island Sound, located in and around the harbor of Stony Creek in the southeast corner of Branford, Connecticut. The archipelago of islands made up of Stony Creek pink granite bedrock were once the tops of hills prior to the last ice age; as a result, the Thimble Islands are much more stable than most other islands in Long Island Sound, which are terminal moraines of rubble deposited by retreating glaciers. Known to the Mattabeseck Indians as Kuttomquosh, "the beautiful sea rocks," they consist of a jumble of granite rocks and outcroppings resulting from glaciation, numbering between 100 and 365 depending on where the line is drawn between an island and a mere rock; the islands serve. The first European to discover the islands was Adrian Block in 1614. Legend says that Captain Kidd buried his treasure here, causing intermittent interest among treasure hunters who believe they have unearthed a clue to its location, although more interest is paid to Gardiners Island, 30 miles away.
The islands themselves - long prized by sailors on the Sound as a sheltered deep-water anchorage - comprise 23 that are inhabited, numerous barren rocks and hundreds of reefs visible only at low tide. Although they are said to be named for the thimbleberry, a relative of the black raspberry, that plant is seen in the area, is more frequent in northern New England. Other species of blackberry and raspberry, are sometimes referred to by residents of the area as thimbleberries. In Reflections in Bullough's Pond, Diana Muir describes the important nineteenth century oyster farming industry that thrived around these islands. Muir spent childhood summers on Lewis Island in a mansion built by an oystering fortune; the Thimble Islands are included in the Stony Creek–Thimble Islands Historic District, a historic district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The 1,400-acre area of the district includes the Thimble Islands plus the access road to the islands and surrounding properties in the Stony Creek section of Branford.
It includes the Stick Style House, separately listed on the National Register. The historic district area includes four other structures. Georgian architecture is represented; the largest Thimble Islands are: Horse Island, the largest island at 17 acres, is owned by Yale University and is maintained as an ecological laboratory by Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Money Island, bears an entire village of a library. Governor Island has 14 houses. Rogers Island known as Yon Comis Island, one of several Thimbles owned by Christine Svenningsen Bear Island is home to a granite quarry, which exported high-quality stone to such constructions as the Lincoln Memorial, Grant's Tomb, the base of the Statue of Liberty. A much larger quarry, Stony Creek Quarry, just north on the mainland is still working and supplied the distinctive pink/orange Stony Creek granite for the Brooklyn Bridge, Grand Central Terminal, Columbia University. Davis Island, President William Taft established his "Summer White House" on Davis Island for two years High Island Pot Island Outer Island is used by Southern Connecticut State University for ecological studies and is part of Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge.
Other named Thimble Islands are Hen Island, East Stooping Bush Island, Potato Island, Smith Island, Cut in Two Island, tiny Phelps Island, Wheeler Island aka Ghost Island, Mother in Law Island aka Prudden Island, West Crib Island, East Crib Island, Little Pumpkin Island, Lewis Island, Kidd's Island, Reel Island, Beldens Island, Burr Island, Jepson Island, Wayland Island, Frisbie Island, maintained as a sanctuary for wild birds. Named after the famed Captain William Kidd, Kidd's Island is one of the many landforms that bear his name in the Thimble Islands off of Stony Creek in Branford, Connecticut, as well as Kidd's Harbor, Kidds Lane, Money Island, named for his treasure; the Thimbles were a favorite roaming ground of his, he may have, as local legend states, buried some of his riches here. As with most of southern New England, the ecology of the islands has been influenced by thousands of years of intermittent human occupation. One intrusive event was the felling of all the trees on every island during the American Revolutionary War to eliminate hiding places for British ships.
The plant species of the islands were extensively studied by Yale botanist Lauren Brown. The exception is large stands of pitch pine, whose airborne seeds are able to travel from the mainland. Poison ivy has established itself in many sites on the islands, in some places thick enough to forbid entire areas from human intrusion. In contrast to the mainland, oaks are absent though blue jays are capable of ingesting acorns and carrying them from place to place; some infrequent oak, maple and other trees do appear in scattered locations about the islands.
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service is an agency of the US Federal Government within the US Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve and enhance fish, wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people." Aurelia Skipwith is Trump's nominee. Among the responsibilities of the FWS are enforcing federal wildlife laws. Sub-units of the FWS include: National Wildlife Refuge System—560 National Wildlife Refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas covering over 150 million acres Division of Migratory Bird Management Federal Duck Stamp National Fish Hatchery System—70 National Fish Hatcheries and 65 Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices Endangered Species program—86 Ecological Services Field Stations International Affairs Program National Conservation Training Center USFWS Office of Law Enforcement Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory Landscape Conservation CooperativesThe vast majority of fish and wildlife habitat is on non-federal state or private land.
Therefore, the FWS works with private groups such as Partners in Flight and Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council to promote voluntary habitat conservation and restoration. The FWS employs 9,000 people and is organized into a central administrative office in Falls Church, eight regional offices, nearly 700 field offices distributed throughout the United States; the FWS originated in 1871 as the United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries, more referred to as the United States Fish Commission, created by the United States Congress with the purpose of studying and recommending solutions to a noted decline in the stocks of food fish. Spencer Fullerton Baird was appointed its first commissioner. In 1903, the Fish Commission was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries. In 1885–1886, the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy was established within the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1896 it became the Division of Biological Survey, its early work focused on the effect of birds in controlling agricultural pests and mapping the geographical distribution of plants and animals in the United States.
Clinton Hart Merriam headed the Bureau for 25 years and became a national figure for improving the scientific understanding of birds and mammals in the United States. Jay Norwood Darling was appointed Chief of the new Bureau of Biological Survey in 1934. Under Darling's guidance, the Bureau began an ongoing legacy of protecting vital natural habitat throughout the country; the FWS was created in 1940, when the Bureaus of Fisheries and Biological Survey were combined after being moved to the Department of the Interior. In 1959, the methods used by FWS's Animal Damage Control Program were featured in the Tom Lehrer song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"; the FWS governs six US National Monuments: Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington state. Pursuant to the eagle feather law, Title 50, Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service administers the National Eagle Repository and the permit system for Native American religious use of eagle feathers.
These exceptions only apply to Native Americans that are registered with the federal government and are enrolled with a federally recognized tribe. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the FWS began to incorporate the research of tribal scientists into conservation decisions; this came on the heels of Native American traditional ecological knowledge gaining acceptance in the scientific community as a reasonable and respectable way to gain knowledge of managing the natural world. Additionally, other natural resource agencies within the United States government, such as the USDA, have taken steps to be more inclusive of tribes, native people, tribal rights; this has marked a transition to a relationship of more co-operation rather than the tension between tribes and government agencies seen historically. Today, these agencies work with tribal governments to ensure the best conservation decisions are made and that tribes retain their sovereignty. Federal law enforcement in the United States Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admini
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is the coastal defense and maritime law enforcement branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's seven uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, multi-mission service unique among the U. S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set. It operates under the U. S. Department of Homeland Security during peacetime, can be transferred to the U. S. Department of the Navy by the U. S. President at any time, or by the U. S. Congress during times of war; this has happened twice: in 1917, during World War I, in 1941, during World War II. Created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue-Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States; as Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue-Marine, whose original purpose was collecting customs duties in the nation's seaports. By the 1860s, the service was known as the U.
S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue-Marine fell into disuse; the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury; as one of the country's five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. The Coast Guard has 40,992 men and women on active duty, 7,000 reservists, 31,000 auxiliarists, 8,577 full-time civilian employees, for a total workforce of 87,569; the Coast Guard maintains an extensive fleet of 243 coastal and ocean-going patrol ships, tenders and icebreakers called "cutters", 1650 smaller boats, as well as an extensive aviation division consisting of 201 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. While the U. S. Coast Guard is the smallest of the U. S. military service branches in terms of membership, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the world's 12th largest naval force; the Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are further subdivided into eleven statutory missions.
The three roles are: Maritime safety Maritime security Maritime stewardshipWith a decentralized organization and much responsibility placed on the most junior personnel, the Coast Guard is lauded for its quick responsiveness and adaptability in a broad range of emergencies. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, "the Coast Guard's most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, most of all, spirit." Wil Milam, a rescue swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, "In the Navy, it was all about the mission. Practicing for war, training for war. In the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself." The eleven statutory missions as defined by law are divided into homeland security missions and non-homeland security missions: Ice operations, including the International Ice Patrol Living marine resources Marine environmental protection Marine safety Aids to navigation Search and rescue Defense readiness Maritime law enforcement Migrant interdiction Ports and coastal security Drug interdiction See National Search and Rescue Committee See Joint Rescue Coordination CentersWhile the U.
S. Coast Guard Search and Rescue is not the oldest search and rescue organization in the world, it is one of the Coast Guard's best-known operations; the National Search and Rescue Plan designates the Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for maritime SAR operations, the United States Air Force as the federal agency responsible for inland SAR. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, have responsibility for both military and civilian search and rescue; the two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators. Located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. Operated by the Coast Guard, the National Response Center is the sole U. S. Government point of contact for reporting all oil, radiological and etiological spills and discharges into the environment, anywhere in the United States and its territories.
In addition to gathering and distributing spill/incident information for Federal On Scene Coordinators and serving as the communications and operations center for the National Response Team, the NRC maintains agreements with a variety of federal entities to make additional notifications regarding incidents meeting established trigger criteria. The NRC takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports. Details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan; the Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution and safety incidents in the nation's ports. The National Maritime Center is the merchant mariner credentialing authority for the USCG under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. To ensure a safe and environmentally sound marine transportation system, the mission of the NMC is to issue credentials to qualified mariners in the United States maritime jurisdiction.
The five uniformed services that make up the U. S. Armed Forces are defined in Title 10 of the U. S. Code: The term "armed forces" means the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard; the Coast Guard is further defined by Title 14 of the United States Code: The Coast Guar
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