1460 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



training the Xational Parks and Forests will likely play value of our forests. Inestimable is the value of the 

 an important role. And here it is well for us to be work carried on in this direction, value for the present 

 thankful for having a government which in its park and as well as for the future generations, and still greater 

 forestry policy has already shown itself to be a leader, good will come from these reserves as the vital point of 

 rather than one which reluctantly drags along the rear 

 end of civilization's procession. To be sure, national 

 parks were set aside as places in which the most beautiful 

 scenes of the country are preserved for posterity, and 

 only secondarily for recreative purposes. 



But under the tremendous stimulant of the European 

 war, we have begun to realize that we had not done 

 everything there was in our power to do for those boys 

 of ours who 

 gallantly took 

 up the chal- 

 lenge of autoc- 

 r a c y and 

 fought the vic- 

 tory of free- 

 dom. We have 

 realized, and 

 very late at 

 that, how large 

 were the num- 

 bers among 

 these boys, who 

 were physically 

 unfit to join 

 their comrades 

 and had to be 

 sent back to 

 the homes they 

 had left so en- 

 t h usiastically. 

 And there is 

 the task we 

 must set to 

 work on now. 

 We must cure 

 these u n t"i t . 

 probably, but 

 more than that 

 we must stop 

 raising the un- 

 fit. 



Un i versal 

 training — not 



for armies, not for killing, but for the higher develop- 

 ment of man and woman, is already knocking at the 

 door. In a very few years it will become an estab- 

 lished fact. 



These few remarks about the growth of our civiliza- 

 tion were necessary, in order to better approach my sub- 

 ject. For though our national forests were set aside for 

 economic reasons, be they for lumbering purposes, for 

 water conservation or otherwise, and though the national 

 parks were set aside for the conservation of scenic beauty, 

 they both give the nation service in recreation. I do not 

 want to belittle the work done in developing the economic 



.■\ CUUK WHO LAKES HIS JOli (_ U.MIUK 1 AULV 



Domestic relations are reversed and it is father who is doing the housework in this little family scene. 

 The picture is taken in the Municipal Camp, Denver Mountain Parks. Such tents may be rented from 

 the city of Denver for $2.50 a week. 



a nation's health and energy is given a place alongside 

 the economic interests, and great progress in this direc- 

 tion is being made. 



Theoretically there is a boundary between the national 

 forests and the national parks. There is a diiTerence of 

 purpose, but to the visitor they are both alike. The 

 national forests contain so many places of scenic beauty 

 that to the visitor it is immaterial whether he is in a 



national park 

 or forest. He 

 enters both 

 with the same 

 feeling of rev- 

 e r e n c e and 

 security creat- 

 e d by the 

 knowledge that 

 these beautiful 

 spots are pro- 

 tected through 

 him and for 

 him by his gov- 

 ernment. 



There are 

 [jlaces in the 

 forests, valua- 

 ble for eco- 

 nomic purposes 

 only. There are 

 others valuable 

 tor recreative 

 purposes more 

 than for any- 

 thing else. And 

 there are large 

 areas valuable 

 for both alike. 



Land scape 

 a r c h i t ecture 

 may not have 

 any suggestions 

 for the eco- 

 nomic sections ; 

 it does have a few ideas for the recreative areas. 

 For years the slogan has been in cases of mountain and 

 other wild scenery "Leave nature alone." The landscape 

 architect has been mistrusted in such places — a mistrust 

 probably caused by the number of exotic designs which 

 have been copied and transplanted into our country. 

 There is a fear that if our mountain regions, with their 

 native scenic beauty, are turned over to the landscape 

 designer, he will fill the mountain tops with stone 

 civic centers, with ornamental fountains and maple 

 trees. And still this is an unfounded distrust. For the 

 man, who through his training and artistic development 



