Terie owe Ue DF Ut: O Nae Bt Us lel IFN. 27 
TODAY AMERICA OWNS MORE THAN 280 national parks, monu- 
ments, historic sites and recreation areas. They are host to millions of 
persons annually, but the overcrowding is destroying the fragile values of 
our national parks: Wildlife is vanishing, trails are worn out in some areas, 
and scenic treasures are defiled. Unlimited access of the parks impair them 
for the people. Even the back country is feeling the pressures of too many 
people: One campground in the Grand Tetons is now occupied almost solely 
by scores of mountaineers planning to scale the 13,300 foot peak, a rare 
sight when we topped it almost twenty years ago. Recently, 140 hikers in 
the Great Smoky Mountain National Park tried to spend a night at a 
trailside shelter originally designed for only 14 persons. 
Noise, crime and pollution — the curses of our urban areas — are now 
being visited upon our national parks, the crown jewels of this nation. 
Already a system of permits has been established for back-country use 
of Rocky Mountain National Park, Kings Canyon, and the Great Smokies. 
IN YOSEMITE, which we visited late this spring, a shuttle-bus service, 
designed to cut down the use of private automobiles, has been in operation 
since 1970. It has been adopted in Grand Canyon and Mount McKinley 
National Parks. In the Everglades, the Shark Valley Tram Service has 
been offered to visitors. Members of the Miccosukee Indian Tribe drive the 
rubber-tired trams into the Florida wilderness areas of the park, and 
visitors are able to see great numbers of aquatic birds and other wildlife 
at close hand, leaving the family car behind. 
We have departed from the admirable standards set up by Langford 
and Mather in the operation of the National Park Service. The present 
director, George Hartzog, has come under severe criticism from the 
National Audubon Society and the National Parks and Conservation Asso- 
ciation; the Friends of the Earth has become so incensed that it called for 
the ouster of Hartzog. 
THE FEELING IN the Wilderness Society, for example, is that Hartzog 
is less a defender of the beauty of the national parks, and more a builder of 
roads — obsessed with the urbanization of our national preserves. For 
example, there is the proposed extension of the Jackson Hole Airport to 
accommodate large jet. planes in Grand Teton National Park. Conservation- 
ists have demanded that President Nixon impound all funds for the exten- 
sion of this airport, which would bring in more tourists, creating a traffic 
jam at the southern end of the park. 
Conservationists have also asked that a wilderness buffer be created 
between Yellowstone Park and the Grand Tetons, but the National Park 
Service is intent upon creating a huge highway between the parks which 
could lead to the further urbanization of the area. It was not long ago 
that an Everglades Coalition was formed to prevent the Army Corps of 
Engineers from further drying up the Everglades National Park, and also 
to thwart the efforts of promoters to build a huge jetport for Miami which 
would have created havoc in that area. 
NATIONWIDE PROTEST was necessary to prevent the National Park 
Service from building a highway on Assateague Island National Seashore, 
a move which could have led to the degradation of the new park; constant 
pressure by the Save the Dunes Council has been required to obtain needed 
funding for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, signed into law in 1966 
