Craters of the Moon Administrative History

Chapter 6:
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Resource Management At Craters Of The Moon:
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT: MISSION 66

With the 1950s came not only new physical development but also a definitive resource management program at Craters of the Moon. Contributing to this trend were improved national highway access to the monument, a postwar surge in tourism, and establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission's facility east of Arco. The subsequent exponential rise in visitation exposed the area's resources to increased impacts. Along with an emerging environmental ethic in American society and the Park Service's efforts to accommodate rising visitation, these catalysts led to concerted resource management planning efforts at the monument.

Mission 66 provided the necessary facilities and staffing for a resource management program. As part of the program, the monument outlined its resource management philosophy. Superintendent Everett Bright in his 1956 prospectus, for example, stated that management should protect the primary volcanic resource, and should also recognize the biological elements contained in the lava landscape as worthy of preservation and management because animals and plants were valuable for their adaptation to the harsh environment. Although a day-use principle would be employed to manage the resources, the installation of an interpretive program was essential so that formal education of the public could commence and be effective in the battle for resource protection.

Building upon the prospectus, the Mission 66 master plan, drafted in 1960 by Superintendent Floyd Henderson, followed up on the biological emphasis, calling out the importance of adding the Carey Kipuka because the site complemented the monument's scientific and educational mission. The plan also expanded the scope of resource management to include cultural resources, both prehistory and history, for what human activity revealed of the lava region. But natural resources received primary attention over the next several decades.

The watershed year in resource management proved to be 1966. As part of the Park Service's systemwide initiative, the monument prepared its first resource management plan, which was also the first of its kind in the Park Service's Western Region. Written by Superintendent Roger Contor and staff, the Resource Management Plan for Craters of the Moon National Monument formalized resource management at the monument. It addressed the resource itself instead of development, and thus represented a new direction in management. For the first time, one document defined the monument's resource management philosophy and guidelines, inventoried existing resources, attempted to gauge their original conditions, and analyzed appropriate management of those resources. [9]

In general, the principal objective of the monument was to preserve the remarkable and weird volcanic phenomena of scientific value and general interest, as first witnessed by European explorers and pioneers in the early 19th century, in addition to conserving the formations for the enjoyment of future visitors. As a result, Contor's plan mandated the control of human use and development so as not to degrade the original conditions, or, in other words, the "vignette of primitive America." All people, the document asserted, should have the opportunity to witness this landscape of suspended violence, for all its starkness and surprising forms of life.

Conceptually, these resource management principles expressed the main tenets of the 1963 Leopold Report. In this sense, management framed policies necessary to preserve and possibly restore the ecological scene as first viewed by Europeans. In keeping with the monument's designation as a natural area, the document concerned itself primarily with natural resources, and secondarily with cultural resources for what the latter illuminated about the "original" landscape of the previous century. The plan recorded four basic areas of resource management: geologic, wildlife (plant and animal), resource use (recreation and development), and research.

Overall, these resources were analyzed for change over time through historical and scientific methods. And it was determined that, save the extirpation of grizzly bears, wolves and bison, and the presence of the water system in the Little Cottonwood Creek drainage, no significant disturbance of original conditions existed, and thus there was no foreseeable reason why the scene from the early 1800s could not be perpetuated. Therefore, protection of existing rock, wildlife, plant, water, and human-related resources rather than environmental manipulation constituted resource management's major focus. Guidelines stressed that fragile geologic features were to be considered a "non renewable" resource and managed as such. Biological resources were to be considered "renewable," highlighting the fact that fire and wildlife restoration, for instance, could occur if they fit the original scene. Finally, comprehensive research was to form the backbone of the embryonic program.