104 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



Charles D, Walcott, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, was chair- 

 man, to perform necessary work in connection with the national parks 

 which lies outside the province and the function of the National Park 

 Service of the Department of the Interior. It was proposed by the pres- 

 ent executive secretary, and its organization was encouraged by Mr. 

 Mather, then assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, as long ago as 

 the autumn of 1916, but war prevented its inception. To-day it is 

 working in hearty partnership with the National Park Service; never- 

 theless, it is wholly outside of Government control, and is so organized 

 that it can never fall under political influence. 



In brief, its purposes are to organize and develop the fullest uses of 

 the national parks for all the people, to take advantage of their oppor- 

 tunities for popular education, to study them and interpret their scenery, 

 to place special emphasis on the conservation of wild life, to make the 

 name National Park a trademark in the competition for the world's 

 travel, and to maintain the ideals of the present enlightened adminis- 

 tration of the parks during periods of stress and change which future 

 years may bring about. 



The distinction between the functions of the National Park Service 

 and the National Parks Association is clear and definite. The Govern- 

 ment promotes access to and between the parks, builds roads and trails 

 within them, protects their wild life, polices them, and, through conces- 

 sions, provides transportation and hotel accommodations at reasonable 

 prices. In effect, it says to the people : Here are your national parks ; 

 now enjoy them. There its functions and appropriations end, and there 

 the National Parks Association begins its function of organizing their 

 popular uses and enjoyment and turning them to the best account of 

 the people and the nation. 



In practice the association is already producing incisive results. It 

 has a powerful publicity machine, and is using it. It is leading several 

 strong eastern associations to the rescue of the endangered Yellow- 

 stone elk herd. It is assisting the American Bison Society in its move- 

 ment for the saving of the antelope, now almost extinct. It has pro- 

 moted the establishment of the first regular course on the meaning of 

 scenery in Columbia University. It has established a strong committee 

 to develop a system of national monuments which shall commemorate 

 the early exploration and history of the nation. It has begun work on 

 sets of national-park lantern-slides for university extension which sfiall 

 popularize the geology of these regions. It has begun a traveling ex- 

 hibition of national-park photographic enlargements which shall make 

 plain the creative processes of nature — these to pass from library to 

 library. It has begun to issue popular publications, the very first num- 

 ber of which has attracted the attention of a national scientific society. 



The practical reactions of its work upon increasing travel are already 

 so evident that the Denver Chamber of Commerce is carrying out at 

 its own expense a lively campaign throughout Colorado for association 



