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Fauna Series No. 1
Methods
Fauna of the National Parks
of the United States
PROBLEMS OF GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN
CONDITIONS CAUSED BY FAILURE TO INCLUDE THE COMPLETE
ANIMAL HABITAT
Unfortunately, most of our national parks are mountain-top parks. During the summer, game retreats to the higher elevations. With the coming of winter the game drifts down below the park, away from protection. For a wild-life preserve this is obviously an unsatisfactory condition. It is utterly impossible to protect animals in an area so small that they are within it only a portion of the year. It is just as fundamental to protect the whole range of the resident fauna of any park as it is to protect the watershed of any stream for its water supply. One would not think of just protecting a narrow zone across which the water flows, but would extend the protection to the natural boundaries of the watershed. In like manner, it is useless to draw up imaginary and arbitrary boundaries for a park and expect to protect the animal life drifting through. This is exactly what has been done in creating the national parks – a little square has been chalked across the drift of the game, and the game doesn't stay within the square. In order that our parks may be able to adequately protect and preserve their wild life as part of our national heritage, it is essential that they be formed principally of natural boundaries, and not arbitrary boundaries. Natural boundaries in this case mean natural barriers limiting the range of the wild life concerned. While the natural boundaries are not definite lines, they are sufficiently tangible in character to be capable of practical establishment. It is now, perhaps, too late to establish natural boundaries completely around all parks, but that is no reason why they should not be established where it is still possible.
If natural boundaries are natural barriers limiting the range of the wild life of any particular area, more definite designation of what these natural barriers should be is necessary. The natural barriers are different for each park, and must be treated as individual problems in each case. But if there is any value in a generalization, this much might be said: As a natural barrier, a mountain crest is better than a valley or stream, but the lowest zone inhabited by the majority of the park fauna is probably the best of all.
All of the western parks are mountain areas. Some of them are a fringe around a mountain peak; some of them are a patch on one slope of a mountain extending to its crest; and some of them are but portions of one slope. All of them have arbitrary boundaries laid out to protect some scenic feature. But our national heritage is richer than just scenic features; the realization is coming that perhaps our greatest national heritage is nature itself, with all its complexity and its abundance of life, which, when combined with great scenic beauty as it is in the national parks, becomes of unlimited value. This is what we would attain in the national parks. In order to attain it, their boundaries must be drafted to meet the needs of their wild life. The entire complexity of wild life can be protected only within natural barriers. In establishing the boundaries, natural barriers should be followed.
Because so many of the national parks are in the high mountains, the seasonal habitat usually lacking is winter range. One exception where the reverse is true is Grand Canyon; but as it is such an uncommon case, it is discussed under that park only. Lack of summer habitat is not one of the major types of wild-life problems.
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Last Modified: Tues,
Feb 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/fauna1/fauna3b1.htm
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