10 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



THE PURPOSE OF NATIONAL PARKS 



National parks are popularly called Playgrounds, but that is not their 

 definition. National forests are playgrounds, also, and of high degree. 

 Irrigation, water power, forestry and hunting in season are permitted in 

 national forests, but not in national parks. 



National parks are NATIONAL MUSEUMS. Their purpose is to 

 preserve forever, in their original untouched condition, certain few, small, 

 widely-separated examples of the American Wilderness of the pioneer and 

 the frontiersman, of the works and processes of Nature unblemished by 

 man's hands ; of our native wild animals living natural lives in the natural 

 homes of their ancestors. 



We can pass on to posterity no other gift of such pleasure- giving and 

 profit-giving quality, combined with unique usefulness to history and 

 science, as these Museums of Native America. 



This Nation is rich enough to afford them. In area they are, altogether, 

 less than four per cent of the National Forest and LESS THAN ONE 

 AND THREE-FIFTHS PER CENT of the remaining Public Lands, the 

 commercial water opportunities in both of which are less than ten per cent 

 developed. 



The relation of the national parks to the national forests, may be likened 

 to that of a museum of natural history to the great city park in which it 

 stands. 



HOW TO SAVE OUR NATIONAL PARKS 



To save these unique National Museums (the world has no other like 

 them) we must personally insist that our Senators and Representatives in 

 Congress — ■ 



First, amend the Water Power Act so that it shall not apply to national 

 parks and monuments. This will have the effect of throwing the power 

 over them back in Congress where it has rested for half a century and 

 where it belongs ; and 



Second, defeat the Falls River Basin Bill, the bill for the privilege to 

 dam Yellowstone Lake, and any other bills of similar purpose affecting any 

 national parks which appear before the next session. 



Cook County Forest Preserve Zoological Gardens 



The Forest Preserve of Cook County received on December 30, 1919 

 from Mrs. Edith Rockefeller McCormick the gift of a tract of 105 acres 

 of land on condition that it be used for zoological gardens within five 

 years. This land lies west of Riverside between the DesPlaines River and 

 Salt Creek. Since the Forest Preserve Commissioners have no right under 

 the Forest Preserve law to spend public money for such a purpose, the 

 gardens will have to be established and maintained by a zoological society 

 such as the one in New York which conducts the gardens in the Bronx, 

 of which Mr. William Temple Hornaday is Director. 



President Reinberg of the Forest Preserve Commission has called a 

 preliminary meeting on November 30th for the formation of such a society. 

 And there are ready for their use the reports made by the committee of the 

 Forest Preserve Commission who made a trip last summer to visit Cin- 

 cinnati, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo and St. Louis to 

 investigate the work and methods of their Zoological Gardens. 



