I think this is a fantastic idea. Historical sites, and history in general, are the collective property of everyone, held in trust by the historical community, be it historians in universities or tour guides at museums. We preserve history to keep it alive for subsequent generations, so everyone experience where we came from and who we are. What's the point of preserving history if it is going to be locked up in a stuffy old archive? Public engagement in history is such an important part of keeping history alive, since if no one cares about it, why should it be preserved?
It should be noted that the National Trust is also concerned with the natural environment as well as historic sites. For example, their Enterprise/Project Neptune campaign is focussed on securing the British coastline.
What's nice about the NT is that they're not an in-you-face political campaign group, they just go about conservation on a daily basis.
