.gif){kind=small}
Cover Page
MENU
SECTION I
SECTION II
History
Needs
Geography
Historic Sites
Competitors
Economic Aspects
SECTION III
Federal Lands
State and Interstate
Local
SECTION IV
Division of Responsibility
Local
State
Federal
Circulation
SECTION V
Recreational Use of Land in the United States
SECTION IV
PROGRAM FOR DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATION'S RECREATIONAL RESOURCES
4. FEDERAL COMPONENTS
Primeval Areas and Their Protection
Primeval America is represented today by a few scattered wildernesses. Their preservation unmodified and unspoiled for the benefit and enjoyment of Americans now and tomorrow is a challenge to our national pride.
The once prevalent idea that natural resources in the form of forests and wildlife were inexhaustible has long since been proved untrue. Man's interference may cause a complete disappearance of some of those living things which form raw materials and furnish man with the necessities of life. Furthermore, it has become evident that the artificial conditions which replace natural ones often prove less useful to man. Drainage of some marshes has proved so destructive of man's interests that restoration is now in order.
Unmodified nature is a distinct inspiration to mankind, and has left its impression upon the pioneer. Art and literature offer abundant proof of the great inspiration which has come from nature. It is no wonder, therefore, that the American people are discovering that some of the primeval must be saved from destructive civilization. The first move to this end was the act of 1872, creating Yellowstone National Park, which prescribed that its forests, minerals, and natural wonders should be preserved in their natural condition. This was assumed to mean all growing cover. The next practical move was the act of 1894 similarly protecting Yellowstone birds and animals. Acts creating succeeding national parks repeated these provisions. The National Park Service, upon its creation in 1916, accepted the ideals established relative total protection for primitive land and life forms, and administration of areas under its jurisdiction is in accord with this policy.
PHOTO 9.—Meadows that have been run over by big game for hundreds
of years without a scar left behind.
The United States Forest Service, recognizing the need, has set aside natural areas of old-growth timber in which human activities have never upset the normal processes of nature. As yet these are inadequate in size and fail to include many vegetative types. Other Government-owned areas administered by other bureaus have no designation indicating this type of use.
It should be noted that too often there is emphasis on the social use of a primeval area rather than upon its ecological status. Under such emphasis a cut-over area by being kept free from further human intervention and use might be considered a primeval area. If the ecological status of the area is used as a criterion, emphasis must lie on its unmodified condition.
The scientific organization which has most consistently urged primeval areas is the Ecological Society of America. It advocates "nature sanctuaries or nature reserves; areas of natural vegetation containing as nearly as possible all the animal species known to have occurred in the areas within historic times * * * surrounded by very slightly modified areas devoted to experiments, recreation, or game culture * * * These areas should be left alone without management and * * * only in the case of an emergency that might arise should control measures be undertaken and then only after most careful consideration and determination as to their practical necessity."1
1 Shelford, V. E., 1932, Nature Sanctuaries; Science, vol. 75, May 6, 1932, p. 481.
According to Robert Marshall, less than 20 wilderness areas of a million acres each remain as an American heritage.2 As people have come to an understanding of the inherent values of wilderness, attention has been directed to the desirability of protecting and increasing such areas. Special emphasis has been placed upon the need for finding areas which can be permanently dedicated to such public use as would furnish outdoor recreation requiring primitive means of sustenance and travel. If recreation is to be a complete change of occupation, then it is suggested that man should sometimes return to a more primitive type of living, in contrast with life in urban communities. It is urged that open spaces be provided where there are no permanent inhabitants, where no roads are allowed to penetrate, and where man is placed largely upon his own resources.
2 Marshall, Robert, 1930, The Problem of the Wilderness, Scientific Monthly, vol. 30, pp. 141—148. (See p. 142, 1933.) The Forest for Recreation, A National Plan for Forestry, S. Doc. No. 12, pp. 463—487.
The United States Forest Service defines wilderness areas as "regions which contain no permanent inhabitants, possess no means of mechanical conveyance, and are sufficiently spacious that a person may spend at least a week or two of travel in them without crossing his own tracks."3 The Forest Service definition of primeval areas is: "Tracts of virgin timber in which human activities have never upset the normal processes of nature."4 These are set aside to preserve virginal growth conditions which have existed for an inestimable period. Here we have emphasis on scientific values, but lest there be overemphasis on vegetation as against animal life, and to give it a general connotation, we should replace the term "tracts of virgin timber" with a broader term and should perhaps make the definition more positive in form, thus: Primeval areas are unmodified tracts of land, with accompanying plant and animal life, where normal processes of nature continue undisturbed by man and where all forms of life are given sanctuary. A shorter definition might be:
Primeval areas are areas in which the ecological processes of nature are not modified by artificial treatment. Consequently a cut-over area might be considered a wilderness but not a primeval area. A wilderness area is free from man-made roads and conveniences, but a primeval area contains unspoiled virgin fauna and flora. The one emphasizes kind of travel possible, the other the type and condition of cover. There is a place for both types of areas.
3 U. S. Forest Service, A National Plan for American Forestry, 73d Cong., 1st sess., S. Doc. No. 12, pp. 473—474.
4 Ibid, p. 471.
Opportunities for preserving the primeval are greatest on large Government reservations like the national forests, but in actual practice, because of emphasis on use, the areas thus far set aside often fail to meet the definition. Too often modification takes place through grazing of domestic stock, killing of predatory animals, or other encroachments which result from commercial pressure.
In the national parks primeval areas are less extensive but are subject to less human use of disturbing effect. The conservation of unspoiled areas is a prime duty of the National Park Service. At present, there is a difference between primeval areas set aside in national forests and those in national parks, because timber cutting and grazing under forestry principles are allowable in a national forest but not in a national park. Likewise, hunting and fishing, subject to existing laws, are allowable within a national forest, but only fishing is permitted inside a national park. In allowing fishing in national parks we have something which heightens recreational value but which modifies certain ecological relationships.
PHOTO 10.—Camping and riding that vanishes when the road grader
moves in.
Within national parks there are designated two special types of unmodified areas:
Sacred Areas.—Sacred areas are spaces set apart to safeguard unique features of national parks, no buildings or roads being permitted.
Research Reserves.—Research reserves are areas within national parks or monuments, unmodified in character, and administratively isolated from entrance, and undisturbed by man-made development. Their purpose is to preserve permanently, in as nearly an unmodified condition, and as free from external influence as possible, representative geologic phenomena and biotic communities, to the end that their characteristic forms shall continue to be available for purposes of scientific investigation and education.
Suitable primeval areas may still be left on Indian lands or on the public domain. Large private holdings should not be overlooked, since, through public purchase or acceptance as a gift, they might be reserved, but wherever located, administration should be governmental so as to obtain stability and assurance of perpetual protection.
Under the increasing pressure of motor travel, control of road building becomes an important factor in the preservation of primeval areas. However, only one motorist in hundreds ventures a mile from his car; the rest are amply content with the road and the museums, lectures, and pleasures of developed centers. For the few, the trail and the primeval; for the many, the points of concentration and comfort. By sacrifices of small areas sufficient to house, interest, and entertain the masses, vast areas are preserved to the student the scientist, and others who appreciate—for today and for generations to come. However elaborate our road systems to the parks and between them may become, the roads within need be only few. Thus is met the problem of preserving our national parks while we also use and enjoy them.5
5 Yard, Robert Sterling, unpublished mss.
There are at least two strong arguments in favor of the protection of primeval areas. First, it can easily be shown that an unmodified wilderness area is a national resource, having both aesthetic and economic values. Second, since the primeval in nature is nonreproducable, fairness to future generations demands that it be protected to assure its preservation for the use of the public of the future.
Man's success is largely determined by his knowledge and ability to make use of natural laws. The best places for scientists to learn first-hand of nature's laws are found where nature's laws still operate undisturbed by man. Many studies of the natural distribution of fauna and flora must be based on that which has been reserved in its natural state. There is need also for a check on rapidly growing artificial development and for the preservation of natural biota to serve as a basis of comparison with artificial growth. Unmodified conditions must be retained as a scientific control on all experimentation that deals with plant and animal life.6
6 Shelford, V. E., The Preservation of Wildlife, Science, vol 52, p. 464, Nov. 12, 1930.
Secondly, natural areas are of economic value be cause they act as a reservoir of natural resources which are saved up for future needs.7 It is reasonable to hope that reserved areas may eventually become a source of enormously important biological information. What man has secured from nature to meet his need is only a small part of what may be secured if biotic conditions be retained intact.8
7 Committee on Preservation of Natural Conditions of the Ecological Society of America, Naturalist's Guide to the Americas, William and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1926, 763 pp. (See Uses, Values, and Management of Natural Areas, pp. 7—53.)
8 Joint Committee on Recreational Survey of Lands, Report to the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, Recreational Resources of Federal Lands, S. Doc. No. 158, 1928, 141 pp.
Still another economic consideration is that of recreation. To be able to turn to inviting woodland and inspiring scenery is a real human need, and the growing interest in virgin tracts of land is evidence of the fact.
We can afford to be careless with those things which are easily replaced, but those which can never be replaced must have special protection and care. When a virgin forest is completely cut, neither our generation nor future ones can expect to see exactly the same type of forest. When a particularly choice rock formation is removed for the building of a road, we can not conceive that it can ever be replaced to please the eye of the observer. Fairness to those who have similar rights to ours, but who will live 100 years from now, demands that we save intact some of primeval America.
Fortunately there is still opportunity afforded for its preservation, for not quite all of America has been despoiled. There are yet within the parks and forests certain areas through which no roads should be built, and direct effort should be made to retain them in their original primeval state.
Aesthetic and economic values recounted above make it a duty of the present generation to protect them. The retention of the primeval in nature is dependent usually upon a minimum of industrial use by the public and continuous protection from encroachment of artificialities.
In connection with the selection of primeval areas a number of problems arise as to size, location, and suitable protection.
PHOTO 11.—Such country is worth more for direct human use than as
raw material for industry.
Experience has shown that to be retained as such they must be of considerable size so as to give continued protection to all forms of plant and animal life. Animals have seasonal migrations, and lands which are insufficient in size to care for animals at all seasons of the year cannot be retained in their truly natural state. Probably one-quarter million acres is about the smallest area which could be considered at all adequate. Some have indicated that areas of 5,000 acres, scarcely 8 square miles, might protect a timber type, but seldom would such a tract form a biotic unit.9 The larger the area, the more likelihood there is of meeting proper scientific standards. Of course, size will have to vary according to conditions.
9 Marshall, Robert, The Forest for Recreation and a Program for Forest Recreation. A National Plan for American Forestry, S. Doc. 12, 73 Cong., 1st sess., 1933. (See Discussion of Primeval and Wilderness Areas, pp. 471—476.)
Many factors come to bear when a selection is made. The nearby presence of human habitation or of human activities is a detriment. Even the nearness of road terminals must be considered. If an area can be surrounded by a zone in which even halfway protection is afforded, better safety is provided. The term "buffer area" has often been used and experience continues to show its value.
Though in general a hands-off policy will best care for a primeval area, a management policy to retain the primeval is necessary. It is still a question as to how far we may safely go in providing artificial protection against fire. Fire control nearly always demands additional trails, telephone lines, and lookout towers. The provision of this equipment furnishes a means of fire protection, but at the same time brings in man-made control as against natural control.
Continued >>>
Top
Last Modified: Fri, Sep. 5, 2003 10:32:22 am PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/recreational_use/chap4-4a.htm
.gif){kind=small}