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Presenting Nature
MENU
Design Ethic Origins
(1916-1927)
Design Policy & Process
(1916-1927)
Western Field Office
(1927-1932)
Decade of Expansion
(1933-1942)
State Parks
(1933-1942)
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Presenting Nature:
The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916-1942 |
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VI. A DECADE OF EXPANSION, 1933 TO 1942 (continued)
EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK
On March 31, 1933, President Roosevelt signed the Federal Unemployment Relief Act, calling for Emergency Conservation Work on public lands and the creation of a body of unemployed and generally unskilled men called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Emergency Conservation Work was immediately organized, and in mid-May 1933, the National Park Service was prepared to open 63 camps accommodating 12,600 men for work in national parks and monuments. Chief Forester John Coffman was placed in charge of ECW in national parks. Headed by Robert Fechner until his death on December 31, 1939, the CCC included camps for work not only in the national parks, but also in national forests, wildlife reserves, and state parks and forests, as well as camps working on soil conservation projects. The work of the state park camps was under the direction of the National Park Service, which hired skilled technicians, using ECW funds, to assist in the development and planning of state parks systems. Conrad Wirth of the National Park Service was placed in charge of the state park ECW program. During the first enrollment period, which extended through September 1933, 105 camps were assigned to state park projects in 26 states. By the end of 1933, those working in state and national parks included 35,000 enrollees and approximately 2,300 men in supervisory and advisory capacities. [9]
From the beginning, the National Park Service fully supported the social program of the CCC. Acknowledging the moral and spiritual value of conservation work in the parks, Superintendent Owen Tomlinson of Mount Rainier wrote,
In all our plans for carrying out the Emergency Conservation Work in this park, the training of these young men in woodsman craft and an appreciation of honest labor go hand in hand. We shall expect them to do a fair day's work to contribute to the improvement and security of the park. In turn we want to contribute to their self-respect and to give them a wholesome outlook on life that comes about from honest labor amid inspiring scenic surroundings. We hope to send them back to their homes better mentally and physically to carry throughout their mature years a love of nature and active desire to help protect and perpetuate the nation's most valued scenic area, the national parks. [10]
As many as six or seven camps were assigned to the larger national parks at one time. Each was composed of 200 men involved in work projects that would last six months. The park service was allowed to hire a small number of skilled locally employed men, called LEMs, who brought a knowledge of local climate, vegetation, building materials and practices, and environmental conditions. At first enrollees were housed in canvas tents rigged upon wooden platforms arranged in orderly rows. Thomas Vint visited some of the parks and helped to select locations for the first camps. As the CCC became more firmly established, these tent colonies were replaced by sturdier wooden structures, such as temporary Army barracks and other facilities, arranged in a quadrangle around a parade ground and flagpole. Evidence of some camps remains today in the form of concrete pads, paths and plantings, and isolated buildings. Once skilled in landscape work, CCC enrollees laid out paths and beautified the grounds of their camps with transplanted trees and shrubs. [11]
Emergency Conservation Work in the national parks made possible work that the park service had been trying to justify under ordinary appropriations, including the landscape naturalization program under Vint's Landscape Division and the forest protection work under John Coffman's Forestry Division. Work undertaken in the first year included forest improvement projects, construction and maintenance of firebreaks, clearing of campgrounds and trails, construction of fire and recreation-related structures, road and trail building, forest fire suppression, survey work, plant eradication, erosion control, flood control, tree disease control, insect control, campground construction, and general landscape work. Although forest protection and fire control were envisioned as the primary purposes of emergency conservation work, scenery preservation and improvements in landscape design were viewed as complementary activities. The director's summary of first year work stated,
Not only was fire hazard reduced, but the appearance of forest stands greatly improved by clean-up along the many miles of park highways. Many acres of unsightly burns have been cleared and miles of fire roads and truck trails have been constructed for the protection of the park forest and excellent work was accomplished in insect control and blister rust control and in other lines of forest protection; improvements have been made in the construction and development of telephone lines, fire lookouts and guard cabins; and landscaping and erosion control has been undertaken. [12]
Emergency Conservation Work was envisioned as a temporary relief measure and continued to be reauthorized through the 1930s. By October 1934, with the expansion of the program and the relaxing of rules regarding the hiring of LEMs, there were 102 camps in national parks and 263 camps in state parks. On September 25, 1935, Roosevelt called for the reduction of enrollees to 300,000 by June 1, 1936, but he modified the figure to 350,000 in response to public opposition. The number of national park camps was reduced from 446 to 340. The number of camps in state parks was also reduced in 1936. The size of camps was cut from 200 to 160 men at this time. [13]
On June 28, 1937, Congress passed new legislation officially changing the name of the program to the Civilian Conservation Corps, giving it status as an independent agency, and extending it three more years. At this time, park service Assistant Director Conrad Wirth was in charge of the CCC program in both national and state parks and was designated to represent the department in meetings of the CCC advisory council. This coincided with the authorization for the National Park Service to undertake a nationwide recreation study in cooperation with state and municipal authorities to determine regional recreational needs and inventory existing and potential park and recreation areas.
Prior to 1937, the supervision of ECW in national parks was entrusted to the Branch of Forestry, under the direction of John Coffman, the chief forester in the Western Field Office. ECW focused on projects for fire control such as the construction of truck trails and telephone lines, protection of trees against white pine blister rust through the eradication of ribes species, road clearing and planting, prevention of soil erosion, and beautification projects (many of which would now be considered ecologically harmful) such as the clearing of dead trees from Jackson Lake in the Grand Tetons and the sites of destructive forest fires in Glacier.
National park policies, including the preservation of scenic values and natural features and the ban on exotic plants and animals, were upheld in the CCC work in national parks from the beginning. They were strongly stated as "fundamentals and policies" in Superintendent Tomlinson's letter welcoming CCC camp superintendents to Mount Rainier as temporary members of the National Park Service. Citing the enabling legislation and the 1918 and 1932 statements of policy, Tomlinson wrote,
The national parks are the most beautiful and interesting scenic spots in our country selected by the Congress and supported by Federal appropriations for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. The use of these national parks is unique in the history of the administration of the Nation's land area. All other lands are used primarily to serve man's economic needs, but in the national parks the law requires that nature shall be supreme and that man must conform to the natural processes.
The twin purposes of the establishment of a national park are its enjoyment and use by the present generation, with its preservation and unspoiled for the future [sic]; to conserve the scenery, the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, by such methods as will ensure that their present use leaves them unspoiled for the future. The administration aims to retain these areas in their natural condition, sparing them all vandalism and disturbance by improvements and developments. Exotic animal and plant life shall not be introduced. There shall be no commercial enterprises of any nature except those necessary for the comfort or convenience of visitors in their enjoyment of the area. Timber shall never be considered from a commercial standpoint but may be cut only when necessary in order to control the attacks of insects, or diseases, or otherwise to conserve the scenery or the natural or historic objects. Trees may be removed in limited number only for the purpose of providing access to outstanding scenic objectives or when necessary to provide shelter or other minor facilities that aid in the enjoyment of the region. [14]
CCC camp superintendents were to cooperate closely with national park staff, including the chief ranger, the park engineer, the general foreman, the park fiscal agent (who was the assistant superintendent), and the naturalist. Service specialists, including the chief architect, the fire control expert, and the chief engineer from the Western Field Office, were also to be involved in camp projects. During the first six periods, which extended from April 1933 to March 1936, the park resident landscape architects, who were employed by the Branch of Plans and Designs, worked closely with the architects and landscape architects hired by the park and assigned to one or more CCC camps within the park.
At Mount Rainier, resident landscape architect Ernest A. Davidson would have "full charge" of all matters pertaining to the protection of the landscape and important natural features. Tomlinson wrote camp superintendents,
Your cooperation with Mr. Davidson is especially required, as this official has full responsibility for carrying out the fundamental policies of the National Park Service for the protection and preservation of the natural features, and it is this work that I desire to emphasize as second in importance only to protection against fire and other destructive elements. [15]
Work was broken into jobs that could be completed during a six-month period, beginning in April 1933. Some parks had active camps all year round, while those in colder, more rugged climates operated camps only from April to October. Camp superintendents and park landscape architects filed quarterly and semiannual reports of the work completed. Progress was measured in terms of man-days spent on each project. Each job received a number based on a classified system of work tasks. This approach favored small projects that could be completed in a relatively short time. Large projects were broken down into a series of smaller ones that could be carried out consecutively. A single project, such as the landscape development at the mouth of Bright Angel Creek in Grand Canyon near Phantom Ranch, would consist of many jobs frequently extended over several enrollment periods.
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| While the Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon was rebuilt in the late 1920s to the advanced standards of the National Park Service's Engineering Division, shelters along the trail were constructed by the CCC in the 1930s. Perched above the trail and fashioned from native stone and juniper thatching to blend with the natural setting, the first shelter was located two miles below the canyon rim. It offered visitors traveling on foot or muleback a shady spot to rest, a cool drink of water, and a scenic view. (National Park Service Historic Photography Collection) |
Jobs were classified according to numbers assigned to different types of conservation work. Landscape projects fell into several categories and frequently overlapped with engineering, architectural, or forest protection work. For example, Job 4 covered roadside cleanup for fire prevention, while Job 11 covered general cleanup not related to fire prevention. Job 46 covered erosion control and included clearing debris from streambanks and sloping and planting them. Job 14 covered the construction and maintenance of trails. Job 27 covered "other public campground facilities" and included items such as the construction of a swimming pool adjacent to the public campground at Phantom Ranch. Job 38 covered the collection of seeds, while Job 11 covered the planting of trees, shrubs, seeds, and sod. Job 132 covered the construction of guardrails along roadways, at scenic overlooks, and along rim trails. Job 53 was a general category for landscaping and included numerous small-scale improvements, such as the grading of parking areas, the installation of curbs and walks, and the construction of seats and water fountains, which were important aspects of the development of park villages, campgrounds, overlooks, trails, and roads.
Distance, natural conditions, and a lack of tools made many projects difficult and time-consuming. One the most extensive cleanup projects was at Jackson Lake in the newly created Grand Teton National Park. When National Park Service Director Horace Albright announced the emergency conservation program for national parks, he specifically cited manmade lakes, such as Jackson Lake, as areas that would greatly benefit from the efforts of the CCC. Large-scale clearing projects were also planned for several locations in Glacier where forest fires had ravaged the landscape and left much timber dead and dying.
The condition of Jackson Lake had been a continual source of concern for Albright, who, as the former superintendent of Yellowstone, had for many years advocated and worked toward making Grand Teton a national park. His advocacy had been fueled partly in recognition of the scenic potential of the lake.
Cleanup projects such as the one for Jackson Lake were guided by a concern for both scenery preservation and the elimination of fire hazards. Punchard had established the precedent for clearing for scenic reasons at Lake Eleanor in Yosemite about 1920, following Charles Eliot's ideas for improving the beauty of public reservations in Massachusetts. As superintendent at Yellowstone, Albright had been a champion of roadside cleanup and had successfully undertaken the first large-scale work of this type in the national parks with private funds donated by John D. Rockefeller.
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| The landscape architect's concern for naturalism extended to the construction of stepped earthen and rock dams to impound water for wildlife and fire suppression. With the help of teams of mules in the backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park, CCC enrollees from the Powell Camp built several dams of dry-laid native rock masonry that were backfilled with earth and blended with the natural surroundings. (National Archives, Record Group 79) |
The cleanup of Jackson Lake took several years. Two separate CCC camps, each with 200 men, were employed over several periods to clear the lake and surrounding shore. Thousands of acres were eventually cleared, and the lake achieved a scenic character that would draw visitors for decades to come. Work entailed removing debris by cutting it and hauling it to places where it could be piled and eventually burned when weather conditions allowed. Camps were set up in remote places. Conditions were primitive, equipment lacking, and the work extremely tedious. The area needing cleanup greatly exceeded the early estimates. One particularly difficult section was the far shore of the lake. Here, at the beginning of the third period in April 1934, an estimated 500 acres were to be cleared by Camp NP-2. A survey of the area after work began, however, indicated that 1,760 acres needed clearing. By October 1, 1,300 acres had been cleared. Meanwhile Camp NP-3, working on the other side of the lake, had piled up 16,300 cords of wood, ready to be burned when autumn weather permitted and when there was little hazard of forest fires. The superintendent of Camp NP-2 described the difficulty his men encountered in this project:
In this cleanup work there was a considerable area of standing timber—large trees which have been killed by the water—and thousands of cords of loose logs, trees, and brush that had been washed into drifts by the waves of the lake and piled in almost inextricable masses. This coupled with wet and boggy ground made an almost impossible task. . . In addition, this camp is short on tools and equipment. No power other than hand has been used in this work, with the exception of two or three weeks when an engine hoist was put into service to clean an old river bed and six teams were used the past two months. The lake shore is so steep and the camp is situated as to make it impossible to use trucks to transport the men to and from work making it necessary . . . for them to walk some three to four miles each way to work. [16]
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| Depicted in August 1933, the clean-up of Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park was slow and tedious, requiring the labor of several CCC camps over three years. It required hauling dead and submerged timber, cutting the debris, and stacking it up to be burned in the autumn. This work created a beautiful lake that would attract visitors for generations to come. (National Park Service Historic Photography Collection) |
At the beginning of the ECW program, park superintendents had been asked to outline the work that the CCC could accomplish in their park. The prospectus for CCC work at Yosemite listed work under the following categories: roads or fire motorways, fire buildings or structures, fire lanes, fire trails, bridle paths and other trails, insect control projects, blister rust control projects, type-mapping projects, forestry projects, proposed telephone construction, planting operations, roadside cleanup and landscaping, cleanup operations in cut-over areas, reclamation of meadows, and miscellaneous operations. Conservation work was dominated by projects for fire control and forest protection. Planting operations included the reforestation of approximately 320 acres in the vicinity of the Crane Flat fire lookout and small planting projects for landscape purposes in Yosemite Valley and other places. Roadside cleanup planned for approximately twenty-eight miles of the new Wawona Road called for the removal of snags, dead trees, and trees felled during insect control work. Especially important were the "flattening, rounding, and planting of cut banks for erosion control." Cleanup operations were slated for areas that had been logged near Chinquapin, Eleven Mile Meadow, Wawona, Crane Flat, and Merced Grove. Old lumber camps were to be removed, dangerous trees cut, underbrush thinned, and old shacks, fences, and trash removed in various areas. Sixteen hundred acres of meadow at Wawona, Tuolumne Meadows, and Yosemite Valley were to be reclaimed by clearing the small growth that was "choking out" the beautiful meadows. Miscellaneous operations included erecting a twelve-mile fence along one side of the park boundary to eliminate grazing, allow reforestation, and prevent erosion. They also included campground construction, the painting of exposed surfaces of fresh rock cuts along the Wawona Road, drainage of meadowland for mosquito control, selective clearing for vistas, and collection of survey data for conservation work. [17]
While the majority of work concerned forest preservation, it was the work called cleanup or intended for "landscape purposes" that most directly affected the appearance of areas frequented by visitors. ECW covered many of the activities that Vint had included under landscape naturalization. It also covered many projects that called for a combination of supervision and unskilled labor, such as the construction of minor roads, particularly truck or fire roads, which were constructed to lay gently upon the land but often allowed steeper grades than public roads. As the CCC program proceeded, more and more attention was given to landscape projects, community improvements, recreational development, and the construction of visitor facilities.
Transplanting and planting wild vegetation was an important activity in most camps, and CCC work followed the best nursery practices of the day. Great care was required in transplanting trees and shrubs from construction sites or obscure parts of the park to areas where screens were needed or construction scars naturalized. Trees and shrubs were dug and balled, wrapped in burlap, and transported either to a site in need of screening or naturalization or to a nursery where they could be held until needed. In some cases, trees were boxed to hold soil intact and prevent damage to roots. The box could then be hoisted onto a truck and transported to a suitable place for planting. Before planting, it was necessary to prepare the soil. In many cases, this meant hauling in loam and soil and fertilizing it. Mulch was spread on the ground around new plantings and areas watered regularly for several months to ensure the survival of transplanted materials. The resident landscape architect for each park directed this work, selecting sources for both loam and plants and ensuring naturalistic and successful results. In some parks, trucks were rigged with tanks from which water could be sprayed onto the roadside and other newly planted areas.
Collecting seeds was also an important ECW activity and entailed gathering seeds from plants and trees in the proper season and propagating the seeds in prepared soil at a later date. At Sequoia and Yellowstone, where large nurseries were developed, evergreen seeds were collected mechanically from cones, planted, and grown under careful supervision. Within several seasons, seedlings could be transplanted to parks where needed.
As a result of master planning and the supply of funds and labor for work at various scales, it was possible for the first time to coordinate large-scale and small-scale projects and treat development in a comprehensive way, from the selection of locations to the grading and planting of building sites to conceal construction scars and blend the final development harmoniously into the surrounding environment. Through this process, park designers achieved an illusion that nature had never been disturbed. Trees and shrubs selected for protection and preservation during the siting process became indistinguishable from transplanted plants. Sod, grasses, and perennial wild flowers were equally important to achieving naturalistic scenery, whether around a residence or administration building or alongside a road. So successful was landscape naturalization that, in most parks, it is impossible today to distinguish the planted vegetation from the natural and the construction site from its undisturbed setting.
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