Various acts of Congress and regulations set up by
the Department and the Service have, during the years, become resolved
into general policies for the protection, conservation, and
administration of the national park and monument system. These policies
were best set forth by Louis C. Cramton, special attorney to the
Secretary of the Interior, the results of whose studies were
incorporated in the annual report of the Director to the Secretary for
the fiscal year ended June 30, 1932. They are:
1. A national park is an area maintained by the
Federal Government and "dedicated and set apart for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people." Such Federal maintenance should occur only
where the preservation of the area in question is of national interest
because of its outstanding value from a scenic, scientific, or
historical point of view. Whether a certain area is to be so maintained
by the Federal Government as a national park should not depend upon the
financial capacity of the state within which it is located, or upon its
nearness to centers of population which would insure a large attendance
therefrom, or upon its remoteness from such centers which would insure
its majority attendance from without its state. It should depend up on
its own outstanding scenic, scientific, or historical quality and the
resultant national interest in its preservation.
2. The national-park system should possess variety,
accepting the supreme* in each of the various types and subjects of
scenic, scientific, and historical importance. The requisite national
interest does not necessarily involve a universal interest, but should
imply a wide-spread interest, appealing to many individuals, regardless
of residence, because of its outstanding merit in its class.
* Under present interpretation of this policy,
any number of super lative areas may be included in the national system.
3. The twin purposes of the establishment of such an
area as a national park are its enjoyment and use by the present
generation, with its preservation unspoiled for the future; to conserve
the scenery, the natural and historical objects and the wild life
therein, by such means as will insure that their present use leaves them
unimpaired. Proper administration will retain these areas in their
natural condition, sparing them the vandalism of improvement. Exotic
animal or plant life should not be introduced. There should be no
capture of fish or game for purposes of merchandise or profit and no
destruction of animals except such as are detrimental to use of the
parks now and hereafter. Timber should never be considered from a
commercial standpoint but may be cut when necessary in order to control
the attacks of insects or disease or otherwise conserve the scenery or
the natural or historic objects, and dead or down timber may be removed
for protection or improvement. Removal of antiquities or scientific
specimens should be permitted only for reputable public museums or for
universities, colleges, or other recognized scientific or educational
institutions, and always under department supervision and careful
restriction and never to an extent detrimental to the interest of the
area or of the local museum.
4. Education is a major phase of the enjoyment and
benefit to be derived by the people from these parks and an important
service to individual development is that of inspiration. Containing the
supreme in objects of scenic, historical, or scientific interest, the
educational opportunities are preeminent, supplementing rather than
duplicating those of schools and colleges, and are available to all.
There should be no governmental attempt to dominate or to limit such
education within definite lines. The effort should be to make available
to each park visitor as fully and effectively as possible these
opportunities, aiding each to truer interpretation and appreciation and
to the working out of his own aspirations and desires, whether they be
elementary or technical, casual or constant.
5. Recreation, in its broadest sense, includes much
of education and inspiration. Even in its narrower sense, having a good
time, it is a proper incidental use. In planning for recreational use of
the parks, in this more restricted meaning, the development should be
related to their inherent values and calculated to promote the
beneficial use thereof by the people. It should not encourage exotic
forms of amusement and should never permit that which conflicts with or
weakens the enjoyment of these inherent values.
6. These areas are best administered by park-trained
civilian authority.
7. Such administration must deal with important
problems in forestry, road building and wild life conservation, which it
must approach from the angles peculiar to its own responsibilities. It
should define its objectives in harmony with the fundamental purposes of
the parks. It should carry them into effect through its own personnel
except when economy and efficiency can thereby best be served without
sacrifice of such objectives, through cooperation with other bureaus of
the Federal Government having to do with similar subjects. In forestry,
it should consider scenic rather than commercial values and preservation
rather than marketable products; in road building, the route, the type
of construction and the treatment of related objects should all
contribute to the fullest accomplishment of the intended use of the
area; and, in wild life conservation, the preservation of the primitive
rather than the development of any artificial ideal should be
sought.
8. National park administration should seek primarily
the benefit and enjoyment of the people rather than financial gain and
such enjoyment should be free to the people with out vexatious admission
charges and other fees.
9. Every effort is to be made to provide
accommodations for all visitors, suitable to their respective tastes and
pocketbooks. Safe travel is to be provided for over suitable roads and
trails. Through proper sanitation the health of the individual and of
the changing community is always to be protected.
10. Roads, buildings, and other structures necessary
for park administration and for public use and comfort should intrude
upon the landscape or conflict with it only to the absolute minimum.
11. The national parks are essentially noncommercial
in character and no utilitarian activity should exist therein except as
essential to the care and comfort of park visitors.
12. The welfare of the public and the best interests
of park visitors will be conserved by protective permits for utilities
created to serve them in transportation, lodging, food, and
incidentals.
13. The national interest should be held supreme in
the national-park areas and encroachments conflicting therewith for
local or individual benefit should not be permitted.
14. Private ownership or lease of land within a
national park constitutes an undesirable encroachment, setting up
exclusive benefits for the individual as against the common enjoyment by
all, and is contrary to the fundamental purposes of such parks.
15. National parks, established for the permanent
preservation of areas and objects of national interest, are intended to
exist forever. When under the general circumstances such action is
feasible, even though special conditions require the continuance of
limited commercial activities or of limited encroachments for local or
individual benefit, an area of national-park caliber should be accorded
that status now, rather than to abandon it permanently to full
commercial exploitation and probable destruction of its sources of
national interest. Permanent objectives highly important may thus be
accomplished and the compromises, undesired in principle but not greatly
destructive in effect, may later be eliminated as occasion for their
continuance passes.
16. In a national park the national laws and
regulations should be enforced by a national tribunal. Therefore,
exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Government is important.
17. National monuments, under jurisdiction of the
Department of the Interior, established to preserve historic landmarks,
historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of scientific or
historical interest, do not relate primarily to scenery and differ in
extent of interest and importance from national parks, but the
principles herein set forth should, so far as applicable, govern
them.