B attling blazes in the wooded terrain of the Kootenai National Forest, forest rangers called the Raven Ranger Station home for decades, long before it fell into a state of disrepair.

Built in 1934 the station served as an outpost for generations of bucket brigades who patrolled the vast wilderness. When a fire devastated the surrounding forest in the mid-1980s, the building miraculously survived, only to be retired a few years later in favor of more modern structures.

While the outpost sat, deteriorating, a coalition of community organizations, businesses and schools envisioned rebuilding the station. Together, they worked to renovate and expand the building as a place for students across the country to learn about the region’s history and natural resources.

Last month, President and Mrs. Bush awarded these local groups one of four inaugural Preserve America Presidential Awards for their efforts in creating the Raven Natural Resource Learning Center as a historic and educational resource for our nation’s youth.

The Raven Ranger Station illustrates the risk that a vital part of America’s heritage will slip away from us, unless we make a concerted effort to preserve the places and stories of small communities. It also provides an example of how celebrating our common heritage can be an economic engine for these communities. For example, the influx of students from around the country is contributing to an upstart tourism industry in communities near the national forest.

President Bush has made it a priority to promote this kind of heritage tourism. Last year, he signed an executive order establishing the Preserve America initiative to provide recognition and resources to local communities and citizens eager to preserve and share their history and culture. The primary goal is to empower communities to capture what is unique in their heritage in an age of homogenization, where every mall guarantees the same fast food restaurants and clothing chain stores.

Given encouragement, we have found that many communities will rise to the challenge of telling the stories of the people who built America, including last month’s three other winners of the Presidential Preserve America Award: In Pennsylvania, the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority, a community organization, invested $42 million to capture the lives of the 19th century men and women who mined and transported the coal that powered the Industrial Revolution. The Blue Ridge Heritage Initiative, a partnership among the North Carolina Arts Council, the Cherokee Tribe and other local groups and businesses, provides visitors with guidebooks and tours to explore the rich culture of the southern Appalachians across four states. Local entrepreneurs in Ouray, Colo., restored and reopened a historic hotel that had fallen into disrepair and was on the verge of being condemned.

Likewise, local groups are taking over ownership and operation of 300 historic lighthouses along our coasts. Recently, for example, I handed over the historic Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse to the City of Annapolis, Md., and a group of partners. The 1875 lighthouse will become a museum to tell the story of the watermen, merchants and other peoples of the Chesapeake Bay.

Every community has a story waiting to be told. What has become apparent in recent years is that history can be an economic boon.

Spurred by federal preservation tax incentives, private groups pumped $3.2 billion into historic rehabilitation projects approved by the Interior Department last year. The cost to the Treasury was less than $520 million. Each project created an average of 42 jobs, or more than 50,000 jobs nationally.

The White House, in partnership with the Department of the Interior, the Department of Commerce and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, already has designated 80 Preserve America communities across the country that will be eligible to apply for grants if Congress approves the President’s $10 million request to fund the Preserve America grants program.

We have a long list of communities awaiting designation and are expecting many more. Communities interested in applying for grants can go to www.PreserveAmerica.gov for information.

We are eager to help Americans tap into the richness of our shared heritage. Our past is also our future.