706 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1460 



And whereas, Such a violation of tfhe integrity 

 of our national park system sets an extremely 

 dangerous precedent, and gives heart to those 

 interests which are continually striving to invade 

 the public domain and to destroy our natural 

 scenery for the gratification of purely selfish ends, 

 therefore, 



Be it resolved, That the San Diego Natural 

 History Society strongly opposes the Barbour 

 Bill, in its present form, as being a serious blow 

 to our national park system and to the principle 

 of conservation in general, and that it advises 

 the amendment of this biU so as to exclude its 

 provision for the relinquishment of any portion 

 of the present Sequoia Park, while retaining its 

 constructive features, according to which large 

 tracts iOf high scenic value would be added to the 

 present park. 



Be it further resolved, That copies of this reso- 

 lution be sent to the two senators from Califor- 

 nia, and to the congressman representing this dis- 

 trict; as well as to such organizations as may 

 seem appropriate to the society's conservation 

 committee. 



Designs on the fine forests o£ tile national 

 parks are not confined to those of the Sequoia 

 Park. A shif tiaig back of the western boundary 

 of the Yosemite Park is recommended by the 

 director of national parks in his report for 1921 

 (page 72), and if carried out as there recom- 

 mended, would eiliminate from that park all its 

 three sequoia groves and most of its magnificent 

 sugar pine and yeillow pine forests, whUe a sim- 

 ilar (treatment of Crater Lake Park has also 

 been under discussion. These three parks con- 

 tain most of tlie forest Avith really large trees 

 that the entire national park system possesses. 



The wonderful primeval forests of the Pa- 

 cific states are disappearing with astonishing 

 rapidi'ty, and it is of the highest importance 

 from a scientific as well as from an esthetic 

 and scenic standpoint that at least the few 

 tracts of them that are in the national parks 

 should be presei-ved. The immense trees of 

 ■these forests (there are at least fifteen species 

 ■that become under favorable eii-cumstances 200 

 feet tall or over, and at least four that some- 

 times reach or exceed 300 feet) were never 

 found except in tracts of limited extent where 

 they had good soil and other conditions and 

 had escaped serious fire damage for long 

 periods. Those few that still survive are 



mainly in the haaids of the Imniber interests 

 and a few years wil see the ilast of them. 



We must not be deceived by the assertion 

 that the forests now in the parks "will be just 

 as safe in -the hands of the Forest Service as 

 in 'the Parks." The totally different purposes 

 of the Park Service and Forest Service 

 bureaus should not be lost sight of in judging 

 of the results of such a transfer. The parks 

 are required to be maintained in as nearly as 

 possible their natural, wild state. The lands 

 under Forest Service control are managed from 

 a purely commercial standpoint to produce as 

 much lumber as possible, the trees being sold 

 and cut when mature and all esthetic, scien- 

 tific or other co'usiderations being subordinafte 

 to that of dollare and cents. This poliey is the 

 right and necessary one for the greater part 

 of the 'national forests, but for areas that are 

 parks, or will in the future be needed for 

 parks, it is fatal. The folly and daniger of 

 subjecting things that should be preserved per- 

 manently in their natural state to a bureau 

 conducted for purely praetical and commercial 

 purposes and officered by men who by train- 

 ing, association and interests see in the won- 

 derful trees of the Pacific states only so many 

 feet of lumiber, or so many cross ties, and who 

 moreover will be subjected to constant and 

 powerful political pressiu'e to allow their sale 

 and destruction, need not be discussed. 



No promise made by the present Forest 

 Service administration to protect certain of 

 the trees has any standing in 'law, nor can it in 

 any way bind future administrations. No 

 promise has been made to pi-otect anything ex- 

 cept the sequoias, which constitute less than 

 five per cent, of the forest that the Barbour 

 Bill will open up to the lumbermen. Forest 

 Service and Park Service officials do not deny 

 that the magnificent sugar pines and yellow 

 pines (trees 200 feet tall and 200 to 500 years 

 old) of the Sequoia Park are to be cut. In 

 proof of this the following quotations may be 

 given : 



' ' In conceding the new territory to the National 

 Park Service the Forest Service has contended 

 that those sections which would be eliminated 

 from the present Sequoia National Park are re- 

 quired for the commercial needs of that section 



