E. ADMINISTRATION OF WILD LIFE 



1. THE ADMINISTRATION OF WILD 



LIFE IN STATE AND NATIONAL 



PARKS 1 



By Chas. O. Adams 



The administrative aspect of the 

 wild life in our parks is a large and im- 

 portant subject. The problem of prop- 

 erly caring for and using wild life to 

 the best advantage in our parks is be- 

 coming increasingly more serious and 

 difficult. With the increasing number 

 of park visitors new problems are com- 

 ing up all the time. By decreasing the 

 congestion— by enlarging the parks— 

 or by temporarily closing other parts 

 as intensive use threatens to wear them 

 out— recovery can be secured, but the 

 general drift, with increasing popula- 

 tion, is always to encroach upon the 

 wilderness. Thus we see that to main- 

 tain park wildernesses can only be 

 accomplished by a struggle, and the 

 eternal vigilance needed to preserve our 

 liberty is the same price which must 

 be paid for the free wild nature of the 

 wilderness. The wilderness, like the 

 forest, was once a great hindrance to 

 our civilization, but now the tide has 

 turned and wildernesses and forests 

 must be maintained, even at much 

 expense, because human society needs 

 them. Not infrequently have I talked 

 with enthusiastic friends of our parks, 

 who feel that in this struggle the odds 

 are so much against the parks and their 

 wild life, that there is perhaps no use 

 to continue what they feel to be a losing 

 fight. But it seems to me that this 

 is only another aspect of that constant 

 struggle for any high ideal — the only 

 kind worth striving for; this is not at 



• Extracted from "The Relation of Wild Life to 

 the Public in National and State Parks." Pro- 

 ceedings of the Second National Conference of State 

 Parks. 1922. pp. 129-147, 1923. Revised edition, 

 Roosevelt Wild Life Bull., Vol. 2, pp. 371-402. 1925. 



all a peculiar feature of our park prol)- 

 lems. 



European experience furnishes us 

 with a number of examples of the value 

 of wild areas because so little of the 

 original conditions now remain there. 

 But in spite of the unfavorable condi- 

 tions the appreciation of these original 

 conditions has not yet died out. This 

 is worthy of special mention because 

 of the fear one hears expressed that this 

 is a hopeless cause. In several Euro- 

 pean countries there are active organi- 

 zations, endowments devoted to this 

 cause, and even governmental bureaus 

 devoted exclusively to it (cf. Ahrens, 

 1921; Conwentz, 1909). 



Some of the main administrative prob- 

 lems concerned with wild life are, the 

 maintenaiice of this resource, including 

 all protective aspects of vegetation and 

 its animals, the formulation of policies, 

 the education of the public on wild 

 life, and the perpetuation of its ideals. 



MAINTENANCE 



The maintenance of wild life in the 

 park, in a normal, healthy state, is a 

 relatively new art in America. This 

 involves proper protection, by rules, 

 rangers or police, and by all educational 

 devices available. But this protection 

 is not all a question of restrictions, for 

 there is the i)roductive and construc- 

 tive aspect. Favorable conditions must 

 be maintained, so that the animals 

 will breed normally. If fishing is 

 permitted, the maintenance of the 

 stock in the streams must be looked 

 after continuously, and the supply 

 maintained. Careful supervision of all 

 this must be given and definite policies 

 followed or great blunders will be made, 

 and much damage will be done. A 

 competent park official sliouUl super- 

 vise all this fish work. 



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