A HALF CENTURY OF CONSERVATION 343 



tunities in Federal Lands jointly by the American 

 Forestry Association and National Parks Associa- 

 tion have been completed at this writing. 



At this writing, after four years, it is as certain 

 as it seemed to be in 1924 that the act of organizing 

 the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation 

 marked the end of the old individualistic and often 

 competitive era in nature conservation and the be- 

 ginning of a new co-operative era. 



That the very first try for a new order should 

 solve its complicated problems was scarcely to be ex- 

 pected, but at least it was amply proved that close 

 and effective co-operation between government and 

 citizen organizations is possible on a really national 

 scale, and that readiness for such co-operation has 

 come. If organization had accomplished nothing 

 more, the knowledge of this alone would fully have 

 warranted the building. But it did accomplish cer- 

 tain very definite achievements. In its so-called 

 "Park-Forest Co-ordinating Commission" which 

 composed rivalries of long standing between the Na- 

 tional Park and National Forest Services, a form 

 of practical co-operation has developed probably 

 capable of handling the most complicated human 

 situations. 



The tendency of the times is strongly toward 

 recognizing one soundly-handled highly-specialized 

 national citizen organization in each field of work, 

 strengthened financially to supplement the work per- 

 formed by the government bureau in the same field. 



