Decide the story you want to tell. Convince others of its importance. Get the politicians on board.

That was the advice two experts had Wednesday for the Lawrence-Douglas County National Heritage Area Committee.

Members of the Lawrence-Douglas County National Heritage Area Committee listen to successes and suggestions from Dennis Rice, left foreground, director of the Ohio and Erie Canal Corridor Coalition, and Paul Labovitz, lower right, midwest region of the National Park Service. Committee members around the table are, clockwise from lower left, Nancy Hiebert, Bill Tuttle, Dan Low, Virgil Dean (partially obscured), committee chairwoman Deanell Tacha, Ranita Wilks and Karl Gridley. Casey Liebst is seated at top left.

“People will not protect something they don’t know about, and they have to appreciate that it’s there,” said Paul Labovitz, program leader of rivers and trails for the National Park Service Midwest region.

The committee, chaired by Deanell Tacha, chief judge of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, is working on a feasibility study to convince Congress to label the Douglas County area one of only 24 National Heritage Areas in the country.

The area would probably emphasize Lawrence’s “Bleeding Kansas” history of pre-Civil War days. But Dennis Rice, director of the Ohio & Erie Canal Corridor Coalition that administers a heritage area there, told committee members to think bigger perhaps to the point of including the National Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Cottonwood Falls.

And the communities involved should work to sell those features, Rice said.

“What you have here is really cool,” he said. “I never would’ve expected that.”

Labovitz emphasized the need to get the help of Lawrence’s federal representatives.

“We have some National Heritage Areas that are dogs,” he said. “But because Sen. (Robert) Byrd decided to push it through, West Virginia has a heritage area.”

The committee hopes to produce an initial report by July.