I04 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



EDITORIALS. 



Stockmen and Last April application was made to the Secretary 



YosEMiTE National of the Interior by two California Livestock As- 

 Park. sociations for the temporary opening of Yosemite 



National Park to stock grazing on account of 

 the existing drought in Southern and Central California. The Sierra 

 Club and other organizations and individuals immediately entered 

 strong protest against any such movement, and various communica- 

 tions relating to it will be found among the notes and correspondence. 

 The Secretary denied the application on the ground that "under exist- 

 ing law the Secretary of the Interior has no authority to grant grazing 

 leases or permits in the Yosemite National Park." 



Much as one may sympathize with the troubles of stockmen in a dry 

 season, it would be nothing less than a calamity to return to the old 

 / conditions when it was doubtful whether the park was administered 

 primarily for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, or for the benefit 

 of those who desired to use and ruin the people's playgrounds for private 

 gain. In the Rainier National Park campers and tourists are not even 

 allowed to pick flowers or destroy vegetation. What could be the mean- 

 ing of such a provision if the Secretary were to permit wholesale 

 destruction of the undergrowth and floral covering of the park by 

 cattle and sheep? 



A Questionable On account of the drought conditions complained of 

 Experiment. in the above application, the Secretary of Agriculture^ 

 as an emergency measure, has permitted cattle and 

 sheep men access to certain high Sierra ranges included in national 

 forests that are ordinarily closed to stock. Certainly as far as sheep 

 are concerned we shall watch the experiment with a great deal of 

 apprehension. No animal is quite so destructive of the purposes for 

 which forest reservations are established. It was largely owing to 

 efforts of the Sierra Club that sheep have been excluded from the 

 Sierra for many years past. It is proposed to care for flocks number- 

 ing about forty thousand head. The amount of damage these will be 

 able to inflict upon the reproductive growth of the affected ranges may 

 easily prove greater than the value of the sheep. If this turns out to be 

 the case, there will be little solace in the knowledge that the profit is 

 private and the loss is national. In a State like California it is unfor- 

 tunately too easy to claim necessity for the continuance or repetition of 

 such a precedent. 



