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Sierra Club Bulletin 



Semite Valley ; also a reservoir and diversion at an elevation of 4000 feet, just 

 below Wawona, with a conduit leading from this point to a power-house on 

 the South Fork of the Merced River, at an elevation of 3500 feet. 



Every thinking American, East and West, strongly favors the long-neglected 

 development of our national water resources, and any attempts to make it ap- 

 pear that the defenders of our national parks are opponents of irrigation and 

 water-power development are bound to fail. This is not a sectional question, 

 and it can not be made one. The fullest possible development of western water 

 resources is a national policy of the utmost importance to the whole people. 

 So, also, is the development to its modest logical limits of the national-park 

 system. The fact that the national-park system will hold out from cormnercial 

 use an extremely small proportion of the enormous undeveloped water re- 

 sources of the country does not prove that the parks' defenders are opponents 

 of national water development. On the contrary, it shows that they are the 

 discriminating seers of a use for this small part of the national waters which 

 is of far greater value to the nation at large than they could ever be to certain 

 communities living on park borders. 



The devotion of the mountaineering clubs to the high ideals of the National 

 Park Service and their affection for the snow-capped mountain ranges of the 

 parks have been repeatedly emphasized. By friendly suggestions and constant 

 enthusiastic support in the solution of our problems, these ever-alert friends 

 have, since the establishment of the national-park system, been ready to render 

 aid in maintaining the integrity of the parks and the policies of the service. 

 Even as they in the past lielped to defeat determined sheep raids against some 

 of the parks, they have fought against the indiscriminate invasion of the parks 

 for commercial purposes during the past year. The Sierra Club, the Mountain- 

 eers, the Mazamas, the Boone and Crockett Club, and others determinedly op- 

 posed the opening up of the Yellowstone for irrigation and stood against the 

 application of the Federal water-power act to our national parks and monu- 

 ments as a whole. 



The legislature of the State of California, by the act of April 15, 1919, ceded 

 exclusive jurisdiction to the United States of the territory within the metes 

 and bounds of the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant national parks, and 

 by act approved June 2, 1920, Congress accepted the cession by the State of 

 California of exclusive jurisdiction of the lands embraced within the above- 

 mentioned national parks. As required by section 7 of said act, the United 

 States District Court for the Northern District of California has appointed a 

 commissioner to reside in Yosemite National Park, who has jurisdiction to 

 hear and act upon all complaints made of any violations of law, or of rules and 

 regulations made by the Secretary of the Interior, for the government of Yo- 

 semite National Park, and for the protection of the animals, birds, fish, and 

 objects of interest therein, and for other purposes authorized by the act. As 

 required by section 8 of said act, the United States District Court for the 

 Southern District of California has appointed a commissioner for the Sequoia 

 and General Grant national parks, to reside in one of the said parks, who has 

 similar jurisdiction over these parks. 



Mr. C. A. Degnan is the United States commissioner for Yosemite National 



