NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES for Natural Areas of the National Park System

UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of the Secretary
Washington, D.C. 20240

January 15, 1969

Memorandum

To: Director, National Park Service
From: Secretary of the Interior
Subject: The National Park Service

In my memorandum of July 10, 1964, I set forth management principles, consistent with specified Congressional enactments, for the three categories of areas now included in the National Park System—natural, historical and recreational.

Before establishing these management guides, I restated the "Magna Carta" of the National Parks, enunciated in a letter of May 13, 1918, from Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane to the first Director of the National Park Service, Stephen T. Mather. I would like to quote again the statement of Secretary Lane, and to emphasize my support for the philosophy:

For the information of the public an outline of the administrative policy to which the new Service will adhere may now be announced. This policy is based on three broad principles: First, that the national parks must be maintained in absolutely unimpaired form for the use of future generations as well as those of our own time; second, that they are set apart for the use, observation, health, and pleasure of the people; and third, that the national interest must dictate all decisions affecting public or private enterprise in the parks.

For Natural Areas, in addition to the guidelines in the 1918 directive of Secretary Lane, I stipulated that indigenous plant and animal life should be protected and if need be, reestablished; that where significant historical resources exist in natural areas, management of those resources should be along historical management lines to the extent compatible with the primary purpose of the area; that provisions be made only for those appropriate visitor activities that can be accommodated without impairment of the natural values, that park management recognize and respect wilderness as a total environmental value in itself; and that physical developments be carefully regulated and controlled, to insure the least possible damage to park values will result.

The italics are mine, added four and one-half years later, to underscore the absolute need to seek new solutions in such areas as the search for alternate means of transportation into and through the parks; the establishment of one-way roads where roads are necessary; the development of "carrying capacities" for parks (here the wild river float trips down the Snake River in Grand Teton and the Colorado River in Grand Canyon immediately come to mind)—the determination of visitor loads that can be handled "without impairment of the natural values"—and the limitation of development or organized activities in accordance with these carrying capacities.

Other immensely important and significant steps in natural area management have been taken since the 1964 memorandum, and because they follow logically the guidelines set forth in 1964 and because the pressures dictating their necessity are so profound, I want to review their policy implications with you before I leave office.

We have established the limits of development through master planning; we have eliminated artificial attractions such as the Yosemite Firefall; we have established standards to guide the construction of park roads; we have begun to turn over campground operations to concessioners and set limits on the numbers of campers that can be served; we have established multi-disciplinary study teams to conduct master planning; we have made regional planning a part of master planning; and we have instituted alternative studies as a preliminary to master planning of new areas prior to authorization.

In the management of historical and cultural sites of outstanding significance, we have continued to build and strengthen programs of cooperation with the several states and private organizations also interested in restoring and maintaining these values. While the scenic grandeur of our natural park areas gives sweeping breadth to our national landscape, it is the historic structures, sites and objects that provide cultural depth. Management, use and development of the resources that make up this vital dimension of our country must continue to follow the dictates of authenticity and integrity. We are well set on the correct course; we need however to intensify our efforts.

Recreation areas are those in which outdoor recreation is the primary resource management objective. With growing numbers of people, increased mobility, higher income, and longer leisure hours, usage in this category has swelled enormously. You should continue and expand your efforts to provide high-quality diversified recreational programs in these areas.

We have progressed in cooperation with our concessioners to maintain high standards, compatible with the excellence which must be the overriding mandate in all national park operations. I endorse the recent report of the Souvenir Committee which recommended that all souvenirs sold in National Parks should relate to the interpretive and environmental themes of the National Park System. These in-park concessions must serve to upgrade the out-park competition and further the attainment of a new mission—that of improving the overall national environment.

It is in discharging your interpretive responsibility, where the most dramatic strides have been made in recent years. A maturing concept of the Service's role in interpreting the National Park System has led to the acceptance of a broader, deeper mission—the development of an acute environmental awareness among park visitors. The inspirational and educational resources inherent in our park areas are basic ingredients in the development of our national culture. Consequently, we have given new focus to our environmental responsibilities by looking at all of our park operations and activities through the lens of environmental awareness.

The long-range objectives stated in the memorandum of July 10, 1964, remain essentially the same. The new emphasis on environmental education is simply a critically needed approach to accomplish each of these objectives in the most effective and rational way.

The stimulation among all people of environmental awareness may, in the long run, prove to be the highest function of the National Park System. In effect, it gathers together all the cultural, historic and natural strands of the System to make man aware of his priceless heritage and his own environmental responsibilities to it.

I am particularly pleased over recent moves to establish the National Environmental Education Development program within certain areas of the Park System and to make it available to the Nation's classrooms. The use certain parklands as Environmental Study Areas for organized environmental study activities is another excellent advance.

What we have added, basically, in the last four and one-half years, is the realization that if we do not inculcate in the American people a determination to preserve and restore a quality environment, then all of the National Park values which are an indivisible part of the total environment, will slowly erode and eventually disappear.

STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary of the Interior