NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Research in the Parks NPS Symposium Series No. 1

The year 1972 marks the centennial of an idea-come-to-life in the form of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park. There can be no question but that the idea emerged, submerged, and re-emerged many times throughout recorded history—that a place, because it possesses such importance or grandeur, be set aside essentially as Nature created it for the use and enjoyment of a particular group of people. In this respect, Yellowstone was a culmination of evolving thought. Since Yellowstone's establishment, however, some 1200 or more national parks and equivalent natural area reserves have been established "for the people" throughout the world, in an ever-evolving concept that makes it increasingly possible for all people to partake in the magnificence of earth. In this latter respect, Yellowstone's establishment was a quantum leap toward a true earth culture.

The past 100 years have witnessed more than the establishment of natural area parks, of course. The technological advances in communication, transportation, and information processing that have emerged have been astounding—quite beyond the comprehension of the creators of Yellowstone in 1872. Technological advances and population increases have combined to bring trampling, pollution, smog, exotic plant and animal introductions, congestion, and a host of other immense problems to many national parks and natural areas. The goal of maintaining a national park in those ecological conditions that would now prevail were it not for the advent of modern technological society—i.e., in a "natural condition"—becomes possible only if modern science and technology are employed to counteract the problems wrought by technology and population increase.

Science was first employed in an organized way in the 1930s to combat the problems in national parks. That first effort possessed high ideals, high hopes, high quality, and high potential. The fauna of the National Parks series began at that time, attesting to the productivity of the fledgling group of scientists. Then, George Wright's death and later World War II brought a close to effective science in the national parks for over two decades.

The 1960s brought renewed alarm about the condition of national parks: long-established practices of extinguishing all wild fires; fighting naturally-occurring diseases, parasites, and insects; baiting large mammals into view for the visiting public—all produced an artificiality quite in opposition to the goal of naturalness. In the decade since, a great deal has been learned about methods and means of maintaining natural ecological systems, and these are now being applied as rapidly as possible to correct past misunderstandings and present use pressures.

The papers in this volume attest to the quality and sincerity of this most recent effort to utilize science and technology in the formulation of a management philosophy and in the development of management practices for the Nation's national parks. Yet, this effort is but a beginning of what must inevitably come to be.

Robert M. Linn

Houghton, Michigan
March 1976