USES OF NATURAL AREAS 



47 



value, in the remote future, of large 

 areas for the educational and scientific 

 value of true wilderness waters. Some 

 of the same persons who are very eager 

 to maintain a wilderness forest about 

 their homes have never realized that 

 others are equally interested in an 

 aquatic wilderness untouched by man. 



THE WILDERNESS POLICY 



The Council of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, 

 at the Toronto meeting, December, 

 1921, passed the following resolutions, 

 which have a very direct bearing on 

 the policy of our National and State 

 Parks in maintaining their native 

 plants and animals in natural condi- 

 tions. These resolutions read (Science, 

 N. S., Vol. 55, p. 63, 1922): 



Whereas, One of the primary duties 

 of the National Park Service is to pass 

 on to future generations for scientific 

 study and education, natural areas on 

 which the native flora and fauna may be 

 found undisturbed by outside agencies; 

 and 



Whereas, the planting of non-native 

 trees, shrubs or other plants, the stocking 

 of waters with non-native fish, or the 

 liberating of game animals not native 

 to the region, impairs or destroys the 

 natural conditions and native wilderness 

 of the parks; 



Be It Resolved, That the American 

 Association for the Advancement of 

 Science strongly opposes the introduc- 

 tion of non-native plants and animals 

 into the national parks and all other 

 unessential interference with natural 

 conditions, and urges the National Park 

 Service to prohibit all such introduction 

 and interferences. 



If parks are to be managed so as to 

 pass them on to future generations un- 

 harmed, they must in the main remain 

 wild. No one can safely assume that 

 he is able to tell how valuable these 

 regions, when properly stocked, will 

 become in the future. When once a 

 plant or an animal becomes extinct 

 it is beyond human power to restore 

 it. 



Although there are considerable areas 

 of the National Forests which are likely 

 to remain virgin wilderness this is not 



a sufficient guarantee that we will have 

 all that we need. The chances are that 

 in the near future foresters will, with 

 increasing emphasis, strive to retain 

 valuable examples of representative 

 virgin forests within our National 

 Forests and State Forests, in a virgin 

 condition for special study. These 

 areas will also act as preserves for 

 many animals but they will not neces- 

 sarily provide for the larger animals 

 unless they coincide, as they well 

 might, with wild life preserves. Some 

 foresters have already observed the 

 need of the forest "wilderness" as a 

 part of the recreational policy of the 

 National Forests (Leopold, 1921), and 

 others for the purpose of teaching and 

 investigation (Ashe, 1922), and if such 

 areas give complete protection to both 

 plants and animals great progress will 

 be made. The grazing of domestic 

 animals must be restricted or excluded 

 from such preserve areas or the her- 

 baceous vegetation will soon be greatly 

 modified (Korstian, 1921). The ex- 

 periences in the National Forests clearly 

 show just what will certainly happen 

 in our National Parks if they are not 

 strictly guarded, from the wilderness 

 point of view. These experiences also 

 clearly show the great caution that 

 must be exerted even with the present 

 customary grazing in our National 

 Parks. No doubt this should now be 

 under the closest supervision of a 

 forage ecologist. The same ideas apply 

 even to living and dead trees, that at 

 any time may be cut in these parks. 

 At present we have only one official park 

 forester in any of these great National 

 Parks, and very few connected with 

 State Parks and not all of these are 

 fully alert to the value of virgin forests. 

 European experience (Oonwentz, 1909, 

 pp. 118, 131), has clearly shown that 

 clear cutting of the forests is very harm- 

 ful to many kinds of native plants, 

 and this is equally true for many ani- 

 mals, for we know that the vegetation 

 exerts a powerful influence upon most 

 forest animals. (Of. Pearson, 1922.) 

 In certain State Parks commercial 



