National Park Notes 



481 



protection of the public health, for instance, the destruction of insect 

 pests in the forests, the care of wild animals, and the propagation and 

 distribution of fish, you should utilize their hearty co-operation to the 

 utmost. 



You should utilize to the fullest extent the opportunity afforded by 

 the Railroad Administration in appointing a committee of western rail- 

 roads to inform the traveling public how to comfortably reach the na- 

 tional parks; you should diligently extend and use the splendid co- 

 operation developed during the last three years among chambers of 

 commerce, tourist bureaus, and automobile highway associations for the 

 purpose of spreading information about our national parks and facilitat- 

 ing their use and enjoyment; you should keep informed of park move- 

 ments and park progress, municipal, county, and state, both at home and 

 abroad, for the purpose of adapting, whenever practicable, the world's 

 best thought to the needs of the national parks. You should encourage 

 all movements looking to outdoor living. In particular, you should 

 maintain close working relationship with the Dominion parks branch of 

 the Canadian department of the interior and assist in the solution of 

 park problems of an international character. 



The department is often requested for reports on pending legislation 

 proposing the establishment of new national parks or the addition of 

 lands to existing parks. Complete data on such park projects should be 

 obtained by the National Park Service and submitted to the department 

 in tentative form of report to Congress. 



In studying new park projects you should seek to find "scenery of 

 supreme and distinctive quality or some natural feature so extraordi- 

 nary or unique as to be of national interest and importance." You 

 should seek "distinguished examples of typical forms of world archi- 

 tecture," such, for instance, as the Grand Canon, as exemplifying the 

 highest accomplishment of stream erosion, and the high, rugged portion 

 of Mount Desert Island as exemplifying the oldest rock forms in Amer- 

 ica and the luxuriance of deciduous forests. 



The national park system as now constituted should not be lowered 

 in standard, dignity, and prestige by the inclusion of areas which express 

 in less than the highest terms the particular class or kind of exhibit 

 which they represent. 



It is not necessary that a national park should have a large area. The 

 element of size is of no importance as long as the park is susceptible of 

 effective administration and control. 



You should study existing national parks with the idea of improving 

 them by the addition of adjacent areas which will complete their scenic 

 purposes or facilitate administration. The addition of the Teton Moun- 

 tains to the Yellowstone National Park, for instance, will supply Yel- 

 lowstone's greatest need, which is an uplift of glacier-bearing peaks ; 

 and the addition to the Sequoia National Park of the Sierra summits 

 and slopes to the north and east, as contemplated by pending legislation, 



