I40 Conservation Reader 



Parks were created for the purpose of preserving for all 

 time the most beautiful and attractive scenic features of 

 our country. Among the most important of these are the 

 Yellowstone, Grand Canon, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater 

 Lake parks. They include many thousands of square 

 miles of forested mountains, cliffs, lakes, waterfalls, and 

 rivers, which are open to all of us with no restrictions except 

 that we do not injure them. 



How delightful it is to have these wild and picturesque 

 parts of our country left unspoiled and just as Nature made 

 them, and to be able to wander through them at will ! In 

 the parks we can become acquainted with the flowers, trees, 

 birds, and animals as they were before the country was dis- 

 covered and settled by white men. Here the wild creatures 

 are protected from the himters. The deer no longer fear 

 the sight of men, and the mother grouse can raise her brood 

 in safety from them. 



When summer comes we feel a strange and mysterious 

 longing to get out of doors and live in the forests with the 

 wild creatures. The parks offer just the opportunity to 

 satisfy this longing, for in them we can get away from the 

 worries and perplexities of our everyday Hffe. 



We feel the "call of the wild," perhaps, because long ago 

 our savage ancestors dwelt in the forests among the hills. 

 They were a part of Nature and lived much as the animals 

 do in caves in the hillsides, or in homes of the rudest sort 

 made of the bark of trees or the skins of animals. 



Our ancestors spent nearly all of their time out of doors 

 in the pure, fresh air. Their eyes and ears were trained to 

 every sign of the forest, for upon the sharpness of their 

 senses their very lives depended. 



