THE NATIONAL PARKS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THEIR VISITORS (By Fred M. Packard, executive secretary, National Parks Association) Since 1872, when the vast wonderland of the Yellowstone was reserved by the Congress of the United States, the national park system of this country has grown to include 28 national parks, 85 national monuments, and a variety of historical areas, parkways, etc. The system now includes 175 reservations, comprising 22,334,915 acres. It is administered by the National Park Service, a Federal agency in the Department of the Interior. In addition to the national park system, many millions of acres have been reserved for special uses. Among these are 78 wild and wilderness areas of national forest lands, which are given complete protection from artificial development and exploitation. These total 13,783,062 acres. They are administered by the U.S. Forest Service, in the Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in the Department of the Interior, protects 17,409,968 acres comprising 272 national wildlife refuges. The individual States have set aside 1,346 State parks covering 4,614,082 acres (1950 figures). "The largest State park system in the United States, from the standpoint of land administered for park purposes, is in New York, with a total acreage of 2,419,614. California is next with 589,538 acres, followed by Maine with 160,199 acres, Michigan with 150,367 acres, and Pennsylvania with 106,005 acres. The 10 largest State parks in the country are as follows: (1) Adirondack Park, New York, 2,017,016 acres; (2) Anza Desert State Park, California, 299,157 acres; (3) Catskill Park, New York, 232,423 acres; (4) Borrego State Park, California, 161,980 acres; (5) Baxter State Park, Maine, 141,712 acres; (6) Custer State Park, South Dakota; Palisades Interstate Park, New York and New Jersey, 47,602 acres; (9) Porcupine Mountains State Park, Michigan, 46,991 acres; and (10) Itasca State Park, Minnesota, 31,976 acres." There are also many privately owned parks and wildlife sanctuaries, some of them covering thousands of acres. All of these areas have been reserved to protect their natural features and plant and animal life, and are used for the enjoyment of the people. The act of August 1916, establishing the National Park Service, states the duties of this agency as follows: "The Service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." It is significant that these instructions give primary emphasis to protection of natural features and wildlife, with public use an important but secondary consideration. Because of the number of visitors entering the national parks in recent years, it has been necesasry to provide reasonable accommodations for them, and these have caused some local impairment of natural values; but the Congress and the National Park Service have consistently supported the thesis that the primary purpose of the park system is protection, rather than serving as tourist resorts. It should also be noted that since 1916, in spite of increasing efforts by many interests to gain access to the national parks and monuments for exploitive commercial purposes, no major attack on the national park system has succeeded. This is due to the high integrity of the Members of Congress and the officials of the Park Service, and to the strong support given these policies by the people of the United States, expressing their views through such civic organizations as the National Parks Association and the Wilderness Society. Before the automobile became a normal family possession in the United States, the national parks were a source of pride to the people, but as far removed from their personal experience as the Taj Mahal. Fewer than 10,000 people a year made the arduous trek into the Yellowstone at the turn of the century. The first real impetus to tourism came from the transcontinental railroads. They recognized that the national parks located near their lines could be publicized to induce people to travel by train; and helping tourists plan trips to the parks is still a major function of the railroad companies. Several of the companies built large hotels and other accommodations in and near the parks to serve their passengers. It was not until the 1920's that the family automobile came into its own. During that decade the idea of spending one's vacation in the national parks developed, and rapidly the tour of the national parks replaced the "Grand Tour of Europe" as the epitome of American travel. Even during the straitened years of the depression, this surge of people to the parks accelerated. It was slowed by World War II, although even then many people went to the parks and some of the areas were used as places where war veterans could recuperate. Some special military training, such as of ski troops and mountain patrols, was given in the parks, but no military activity was permitted there that would injure the natural environment. Since the war, the national parks have become tourist meccas, and some of them have suffered because of their "fatal beauty." Records are kept of the number of people entering each area by automobile, and while these are not actually accurate figures of the number of individuals concerned (because many people travel from one park to another and are counted more than once, while others enter on foot or at times when entrance records are not kept) it does indicate the visitor pressure to which the parks are subjected. In 1942, 9,370,969 visitors to the park system areas were recorded. In 1946, after the war, 21,752,315 were counted. By the summer of 1952, the number had risen to 47,379,438. The greatest pressure is exerted during May, June, July, and August, when all of the roads are free of snow and when most people have their vacations; but hundreds of thousands also visit the parks in the winter. The 10 most popular national park system areas reported the following number of visitors during 1952: Blue Ridge Parkway, Va. and N.C... Great Smoky Mountains National Park, N.C. and Tenn___. Shenandoah National Park, Va--- Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo‒‒‒‒‒ Yellowstone National Park, Mont., Wyo., and Idaho__. Yosemite National Park, Calif. Mount Rainier National Park, Wash. 3,558, 139 2, 322, 152 1, 947, 204 1, 494, 647 1,364, 503 1, 350, 295 973, 971 877, 388 785, 343 737, 159 It is somewhat ill advised to attempt to assess the value of national parks and similar areas on an economic basis, because the fundamental values for which they are reserved are intangible, contributing to the cultural, physical, and spiritual needs of the people and the Nation itself. Undue emphasis on the number of people attracted to such areas, and the amount of money they spend, leads to an attitude that appraises national parks as tourist resorts and to demands for artificial developments for their entertainment of visitors that are out of place in such areas. Also when these figures are used to justify requests for appropriations, legislators are inclined to believe that the amount of funds made available should be in ratio to the number of visitors, rather than based on the true significance of the areas as national treasures in their own right. However, national parks do contribute importantly to the economic welfare of the Nation and to the communities in their vicinity. The tourist trade, by its support of innumerable major industries-automobile manufacture, oil companies, production of photographic equipment, hotels and restaurants, etc.-has been calculated to be the fourth largest enterprise in the United States, and in a number of States it is first in importance. This is due, in large measure, to the attraction afforded by our national park system, which has stimulated a naturally peripatetic people to undertake trips of thousands of miles annually to see the beauty of their country. The total annual expenditures of the millions of people who travel over the country for pleasure aggregates in the billions of dollars. The American Automobile Association reports that in 1950 personal expenditures by people engaged in travel totaled $43,993 million. Transportation costs accounted for $21,191 million; meals and beverages for $11,991 million; clothing and jewelry (including watches) for $6,174 million; personal items for $2,291 million; and sports and recreation for $599 million. The remaining $1,747 million was accounted for by foreign travel; in 1951, 31⁄2 million residents of the United States visited Canada alone. To serve these travelers are some 16,000 hotels and 45,000 motor courts. The development of motor courts, where the traveler may rent a separate cabin overnight or for a period of time, is a new industry, representing a capital investment of $3,300 million, with a gross income in 1952 of $1,150 million. Rec ognizing that tourism is a major business benefiting the community, the State legislatures appropriated about $5 million in 1951 alone to publicize their attractions and to encourage people to visit them (the Federal Government does not provide funds for this purpose). The national parks were opened to automobiles in 1916; today 96.5 percent of all visitors arrive by passenger car. Others travel by bus, train, boat, airplane, or on foot. Entrance station figures at Yellowstone, according to a study made by the State of Wyoming, indicated that 1,109,926 people visited the park during 1950; 48.9 percent came there exclusively to visit the park and another 43 percent were vacationists who included other national parks on their itineraries. They spent $18,994,301 for food, lodging, transportation, and souvenirs, in and near the park. The park stimulated 504,900,000 miles of travel by private vehicles. The total expenditure by these tourists on their trips to and from their homes was $121,129,630. It should be remembered that these figures relate to a single national park that in 1900 was visited by fewer than 10,000 people. Yellowstone, of course, is one of the most famous parks in the world. It is interesting to find that smaller and less world-famed national parks also contribute importantly to the economic welfare of the country. Travel figures to Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, an area considerably removed from the main transcontinental highways, recorded 309,000 visitors during the summer of 1950. They spent $27,663,000 on their vacations, of which $3,945,000 was spent in the southwestern section of Oregon. To administer and maintain the national park system, the Congress of the United States is currently appropriating more than $33 million to the National Park Service annually. The National Park Service is one of the most efficiently operated agencies of the Government and uses these funds to achieve maximum benefits in protection and patrol of the parks and monuments, naturalist interpretation programs for visitors, provision of museums, trails and roads, and maintenance of structures. It has a permanent staff of about 3,500 personnel, which is augmented in summer by appointment of temporary employees to a peak of 6,500. There are 335 permanent rangers, naturalists, and historians, and 600 additional rangers and ranger-naturalists are employed each summer. A permanent force of 1,000 workmen, skilled and unskilled, take care of the physical property and facilities in the park, and 1,500 more are hired during the main travel season. The administrative staff includes 150 superintendents and assistant superintendents, 350 people working in the regional offices, and 285 in the Director's office in Washington. This is an impressive organization, but it is decidedly too small to handle all the responsibilities assigned to the Park Service and there is urgent need for appropriations in more adequate balance with the use made of the parks. The Government does not provide accommodations or similar facilities for the visitors, except public campgrounds, roads, trails, and similar essential services for which there is no charge to the visitors other than a moderate automobile entrance fee. The hotels, lodges, dude ranches, restaurants, bus lines, souvenir stores, etc., are operated by private enterprise under contract with the Park Service, which has some authority to govern the types of facilities provided, the rates charged, and other factors to insure that the public receives fair treatment. In some cases the Government may own the property and lease it to a concessioner, or it may invite a private business firm to provide the concession. There are a number of privately owned tracts of land within many national parks and monuments; and the owners have almost complete freedom to build structures of their choice and to provide such services as they see fit; this has sometimes led to the establishment of unsuitable developments and "tourist trap" operations that are embarrassing to the Park Service and that impair the enjoyment of the visitors, and such instances represent an abuse of the doctrine that "every man's property is his own to use as he sees fit." The tremendous popularity of the national parks has resulted in pressures that have inevitably impaired their natural features. Fortunately, such damage is usually localized to the immediate vicinity of places where crowds of visitors congregate Examples are the environment of Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone and the Yosemite Valley in California (where 33,000 people gathered on the Fourth of July alone). An increasingly disturbing problem is vandalism, both thoughtless and malicious, with special emphasis on what the British aptly describe as "litterbugging". It has been said that if one could not see the highways themselves, one could follow the path of the American tourist across the country by the trail of paper and debris he throws from his automobile windows. A national campaign is underway to arrest this nuisance, and it is hoped that offenders can be taught to respect proper outdoor manners. Space does not permit adequate appraisal of the impact of tourism on the national parks and on the outdoors in general. Mr. Paul Shepard, Jr., has prepared a thoughtful discussion of certain aspects of this subject, which has been submitted as one of the documents for the International Union for the Protection of Nature's conference at Salzburg. The experience of the United States shows clearly that the first goal of a sound national park program must be to protect the natural features of an area, not to establish them as resorts for the recreation of human beings. It is usually entirely proper for the national parks to be open to public use, provided that the people go to them to enjoy the benefits that are intrinsic to the areas, to be re-created mentally, physically, and spiritually, to develop and renew that reflective quality that can best be gained in an environment of undisturbed nature. STATEMENT OF THE APACHE SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT, SPRINGERVILLE, ARIZ. EAGAR, ARIZ., March 21, 1959. Hon. JAMES MURRAY, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. DEAR CHAIRMAN MURRAY: It has been brought to our attention that Senate 1123, titled "A bill to establish a national wilderness preservation system," is referred to the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. We We are vitally interested in use of basic renewable natural resources. believe that the multiple-use principle on public lands should not be destroyed. In no way can we see where this bill, if passed, could add to our economic wellbeing or add to our recreational facilities. In our free country we believe that the present system will give more security and recreation to the masses over the years. We of the Apache Soil Conservation District respectfully urge your opposition to this bill. Sincerely yours, MELVIN S. CROSBY, Chairman. STATEMENT OF THE UPPER ARKANSAS SOIL CONSERVATION DISTRICT SENATE INTERIOR COMMITTEE, SALIDA, COLO., March 14, 1959. GENTLEMEN: We have noticed in the Pueblo Chieftain that hearings will be held on Senate bill 1176 in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 2, 1959. It is evident that urban and eastern self-appointed conservationists are proposing a bill to establish on public lands of the United States a national wilderness preservation system, which they claim is for the permanent good of the whole people. We disagree with this and feel the whole people are now being well served by existing agencies. Directly serving the people are the Forest Service, Soil Conservation Service in cooperation with soil conservation districts, planning boards, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, and others. We see no need for more bureaus or individuals to be put into business at public expense to duplicate work now being done. We believe public resources should be administered by the people working together in our communities, in our watersheds, and in our counties to protect and improve the Nation's most vital resource-soil and water. We stand for local leadership in doing this job. From the beginning, Americans have fought for a great principle that free men can govern themselves successfully. We are determined that our families shall have the opportunity to live in peace and safety without fear of compulsion. We believe in the principle of multiple use of all Government resources as well as conservation development and self-government. We are vigorously opposed to Senate bill 1176 and request that this protest be a part of the record developed at the hearing in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 2, 1959. Sincerely yours, GEORGE G. EVERETT, President. D.C. STATEMENT OF THE GENERAL FEDERATION OF WOMEN'S CLUBS, WASHINGTON, The General Federation of Women's Clubs, an organization of more than 5 million women in the United States, was chartered by Congress in 1901. The purpose as stated in the charter is "to unite the women's clubs and like organizations throughout the world for the purpose of mutual benefit, and for the promotion of their common interest in education, philanthropy, public welfare, moral values, civic, and fine arts." Conservation has, from the beginning of the General Federation of Women's Clubs' activities, been of concern to club members, because we know it is for the mutual benefit of all our people, and also is for the welfare of the public. This organization has consistently worked for the conservation of our national resources. They not only belong to all of us, but to future generations. It is the obligation of our generation to conserve and preserve them. We come here today to urge that the wilderness areas of this country be preserved. We, as an organization, through convention action, urge that there be economy in Government expenditures and, while we urge that wilderness areas be protected, we do feel it is entirely unnecessary to set up any additional councils to protect them. We believe the forestry services, under the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior, are well qualified and are doing a splendid job in work relating to wilderness areas. The General Federation of Women's Clubs has consistently worked with the forestry services in their diversified program and, by convention action, passed a resolution urging continued support of these services. It would seem they should have a better knowledge of the whole picture of conservation of our forests, and wildlife in them, than any other group with only one interest-that of conserving some one phase of the whole. The General Federation of Women's Clubs urges support of the forestry services, and further urges that they be charged with the full responsibility of maintaining the wilderness areas in the manner so as to guarantee this and future generations that their heritage will not be destroyed. Congress can always check on any Government agency and take necessary action by requiring regular reporting to Congress. We believe that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior will always realize their obligation to the Ameircan people. We feel they have the power to establish and maintain wilderness areas for the benefit of the people. The General Federation of Women's Clubs can support the principles set out in H.R. 8018 as being sound and in the interest of the people of the United States. We urge passage of such legislation. |