Vancover, Washington USA — The National Park Service has terminated an agreement with the city of Vancouver, putting Pearson Air Museum under management of the park service’s Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
The nonprofit Fort Vancouver National Trust has been operating the museum on behalf of the city.
The museum’s historical artifacts and educational programs won’t be going far, Elson Strahan, president of the national trust, said Monday afternoon.
The trust will move museum-owned exhibits and instructional assets, including a flight simulation lab, to hangar space at adjoining Pearson Field.
The agreement among the park service, city and trust was established in 1995.
“They terminated an agreement that was written to be put in place until 2025,” Strahan said.
Tracy Fortmann, superintendent of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, said Monday that she intends to keep Pearson Air Museum open.
“We’ve identified a 45-day transition period, and I would like to see a seamless transition,” Fortmann said. As far as museum operations go, “It’s our intent to keep the same schedule.”
It will be an empty building “because there’s nothing in there the park service owns,” Strahan said.
“The community built the museum and sustained the museum. The trust owns about half the planes (on display) and the other half are on loan to the trust,” Strahan said.
The termination is the latest event in a disagreement over the role of a community-supported facility on a federally owned piece of property. Some of the disagreements went public in the past few months when the trust rented out Pearson Air Museum for events that had to be canceled. Permit applications for a youth soccer festival and a countywide church picnic were rejected by park service officials.
Without getting into specifics, “There were disconnects regarding use permits. There were challenges,” Fortmann said.
Some activities “don’t fit a national park setting,” she said.
Strahan, however, cited a 1996 agreement establishing Vancouver’s historic reserve to show it was intended to be a partnership. As a portion of the document stipulated, it “shall not be deemed to be a new unit of the National Park System.”