LANDS PROBLEMS 813 



National Park agitation, covering such places as Mount Hood, Mount 

 Baker, Lake Chelan, Mount Olympus, additions to the Crater Lake 

 Park, additions to the Mount Rainier National Park, etc., have afforded 

 considerable of a problem. The attitude of this department in the 

 matter of the creation of these new parks and additions has been 

 worked out and is about as follows : 



When the proposed park is inside the National Forest, the Forest 

 Service naturally is interested, because the land is already reserved pri- 

 marily for timber and watershed purposes and has been protected and 

 improved for years. It must also consider the proper administration 

 of any remnants left in the Forest. First consideration should be given 

 to the needs of the nation as a whole. There are some areas in the 

 National Forests, such as the Grand Canyon, which should be made 

 National Parks. However, to be desirable as a National Park, it is 

 necessary that an area should (i) contain natural wonders of a genuine 

 national importance ; (2) its paramount utility should be for recreation 

 and landscape features; (3) it must be a practical administrative unit 

 as a park and its creation must not so seriously disturb National Forest 

 administration as to offset any possible advantages in the change of 

 administration. The creation of National Parks should result from a 

 national demand and not merely as a result of local exploitation for the 

 purpose of securing advertising and federal road aid. 



In closing, one point I wish to add is that the disposition of National 

 Forest lands is fundamental. It determines where the Forest Service 

 is and what it is able to do. The reservation of public lands in the 

 National Forests, the eliminations therefrom and the additions thereto 

 are points which touch the public interests and all that concerns Lands 

 work is continually looked into by the public. Private individuals have 

 much to gain or lose by decisions in thousands of cases coming before 

 the office. Numerous bills are introduced, and some of them are ap- 

 proved by Congress, vitally affecting in one way or another the integ- 

 rity of the National Forests, in all of which it is the duty of the office 

 of Lands and of the Forest Service to know its import and its scope 

 and to formulate a policy and procedure commensurate with its intent, 

 the good of the Service, and the benefits intended to be conferred upon 

 the people. 



