NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES for Natural Areas of the National Park System

PURPOSE

The purpose of this booklet is to state in one document the administrative policies of the National Park Service for the management of the natural areas (national parks and national monuments of scientific significance) of the National Park System. Additionally, at the beginning of each major part of the administrative policies, such as for Resources Management Policy, Fish and Wildlife Management Policy, Master Plan Policy, and Physical Developments Policy, there is included a discussion of the background and philosophy on which the administrative policies are based.

It is hoped that this compilation of administrative policies will contribute to better public understanding of the management programs and plans for the national parks and monuments of scientific significance, thereby promoting the knowledgeable use and enjoyment of our Nation's parklands.

The broad foundations for these administrative policies are to be found in the several acts of the Congress establishing the national parks and national monuments and the National Park Service. These congressional policies, of course, are controlling in any given situation in which the Congress has acted. It is the purpose of administrative policy to implement the mandates of Congress and to prescribe guidelines for the day-to day management of the natural areas.

Separate booklets deal with administrative policies for the management of historical areas and recreational areas of the National Park System.

The types of areas included in the historical area category of the System are: national historic site, national battlefield site, national historical park, national military park, national memorial, national memorial park, and national monuments that preserve antiquities, such as prehistoric Indian ruins.

The types of areas included in the recreational area category of the National Park System are prescribed in Policy Circular No. 1, dated March 26, 1963, of the Recreation Advisory Council. The Council lists these types of areas as: "* * * national seashore, national lakeshore, national waterway, national riverway, national recreation demonstration area, and similar names which embody either the physical resource base or the functional purpose to be served."

NATIONAL PARKS AND NATIONAL MONUMENTS

The national park idea is a unique contribution of the United States to world culture. This idea, while expressed first in the Yellowstone National Park legislation, evolved from a long history of concern for the conservation of the natural resources of this new Nation and the preservation of its scenic beauty and scientific wonders.

William Penn took perhaps the first action in this country to preserve parks on a planned scale. He insisted that Philadelphia, in 1682, have large, open squares and that one of every six acres of forest be left uncut. In 1832, the American artist, George Catlin, expressed a wish for "a nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty." A few years later, Ralph Waldo Emerson suggested: "The interminable forests should become graceful parks, for use and delight."

Henry Thoreau asked in 1858: "Why should not we * * * have our national preserves * * * in which the bear and panther, and some even of the hunter race, may still exist * * * for inspiration and our true recreation?"

In the landmark legislation of 1872 establishing Yellowstone National Park, the Congress affirmed as a Federal responsibility the new public land policy it first enunciated in the Yosemite Valley, California, legislation of 1864, namely: that some of the public domain lands should be held in public ownership, perpetually, for other than material gain or riches.

In the Yellowstone legislation, the Congress laid down the criteria for selection of areas that should be set aside as national parks. As a rule, national parks should be broad and spacious lands. Moreover, they must possess several special attributes. Nowhere are the special attributes of a national park summarized more clearly and concisely than by the young officer, Lt. Gustavus C. Doane, who commanded the U.S. Army escort for the Yellowstone expedition. Lieutenant Doane wrote of the Yellowstone:

As a country for sightseers, it is without parallel; as a field for scientific research it promises great results; in the branches of geology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and ornithology it is probably the greatest laboratory that nature furnishes on the surface of the globe.

Lieutenant Doane thus cited four of the primary requirements of a national park: scenic values, uniqueness ("without parallel"), natural values (botany, zoology, ornithology), and other scientific values (geology, mineralogy). He perceived a repository of esthetic, recreational, and scientific significance.

Under the Antiquities Act of 1906, Congress provided for establishment of national monuments. This act authorized the President to set aside by proclamation from lands owned by the Federal Government areas of scientific significance or antiquity.

The term "monument" had been used commonly in Europe to designate any natural object regarded as a monument of nature's handiwork. Alexander von Humboldt, a scientist and explorer, had described tropical trees as "monuments de la nature" early in the 19th century.

A monument in this country generally referred to statuary, such as a soldiers' and sailors' monument. The term "national monument," however, has now gained widespread recognition as an area of unique scientific distinction or antiquity in the National Park System. Millions of people visit our national monuments every year—from Katmai National Monument in Alaska to Buck Island Reef National Monument in the Virgin Islands.

A national monument may range from small acreage, such as the 480 acres in Oregon Caves National Monument, to the nearly 2.7 million acres of Katmai.

A Presidential proclamation is legally sufficient to establish a national monument, but an act of Congress is required to authorize a national park.

Some national monuments are among "the most unique and majestic of nature's marvels," to use Horace Greeley's apt phrase, but, generally, they lack the spaciousness and diversity necessary for national park status. A few national monuments, however, have been endowed with such vastness and range of natural attributes as to be authorized later as national parks.

Grand Canyon National Park, for example, was created in 1919 from the first Grand Canyon National Monument, originally set aside by Presidential proclamation in 1908.

National parks and national monuments, generally, differ in these significant respects:

Parks are relatively spacious—monuments may be any size.

Parks, generally, possess two or more unique scenic or scientific values of superlative quality—monuments need only one attribute of scientific or prehistoric significance.

Parks must be established by act of Congress—monuments may be established by Presidential proclamation. The Congress, of course, may also establish national monuments.

National parks and monuments represent the finest examples of our country's lands and waters, those natural features of such scenic, scientific, educational, and inspirational importance that they merit commitment to national care. They are established to preserve for all time scenic beauty, wilderness, native wildlife, indigenous plantlife, and areas of scientific significance or of antiquity.

National parks and monuments are part of our country's cherished heritage, a living legacy linking generation to generation, and century to century. Protected and used with wisdom and consideration, our national parks and national monuments provide a viable resource of strength, inspiration, re-creation, and scientific discovery for endless generations of Americans.

CONGRESSIONAL POLICIES

The specific policies laid down by the Congress for the management of any particular natural area may be found in the legislation establishing that area. Of direct relevance, too, is the intent of Congress as disclosed in the hearings and reports on the legislation. The Congress, moreover, has made certain pronouncements of broad policy which have special significance on the administrative policies for all natural areas.

For example, in the Yellowstone legislation, we can glean the broad foundations of policies for the management and use of national parks. The Congress decreed that the Yellowstone country is "* * * reserved and withdrawn * * * dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." It is to be managed "* * * for * * * preservation, from injury or spoliation, * * * [and retained] in [its] natural condition." Leases for building purposes are to be granted "* * * at such places * * * as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors * * *." The construction of "roads and bridle paths therein" is also authorized. The act of June 4, 1906, further extended the Secretary's authority to enter into leases for the transaction of "* * * business in the Yellowstone National Park * * * as the comfort and convenience of visitors may require, and to permit the construction and maintenance of substantial hotel buildings and buildings for the protection of stage, stock and equipment."

The policy of the Congress for the management and use of national parks is expanded and clarified in the act establishing the National Park Service, wherein it declared:

The Service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations hereinafter specified by such means and measures as conform to the fundamental purpose of the said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

[The Secretary of the Interior] * * * may also grant privileges, leases, and permits for the use of land for the accommodation of visitors in the various parks, monuments, or other reservations * * *.

To further clarify its policy with respect to reasonable access to all national parks and monuments—not just Yellowstone alone—the Congress, in the act of April 9, 1924, authorized the Secretary "* * * to construct, reconstruct, and improve roads and trails, inclusive of necessary bridges, in the national parks and monuments under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior." Also, the act of January 31, 1931—sometimes referred to as the National Park Approach Road Act—provides, in part, that "whenever the Secretary of the Interior shall determine it to be in the public interest he may designate as national-park approach roads and as supplementary parts of the highway systems of any of the national parks roads whose primary value is to carry national-park travel * * *." Certain other conditions for designation, such as ownership of rights-of-way, are also specified in the act.

The Wilderness Act requires a study of roadless areas of 5,000 acres, or more, within the national parks and national monuments to determine which of these lands may be deemed suitable for inclusion by the Congress in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Wilderness Act, itself, does not include any national parklands in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Separate legislation by the Congress is required to accomplish this purpose. It is pertinent to note, however, that in the Wilderness Act the Congress expressed the following policy:

In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as "wilderness areas," and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness * * *.

In making the Wilderness Act applicable to the national parks and monuments, the Congress clearly did not intend to change the basic purpose of such areas. For example, Section 4 of the Wilderness Act provides that:

The purposes of this Act are hereby declared to be * * * supplemental to the purposes for which * * * units of the national park system are established and administered * * * (Emphasis supplied.)

With respect to the accommodation of visitors to the national parks and monuments, the act of October 9, 1965 (P.L. 89—249), relating to the establishment of concession policies in the areas administered by the National Park Service provides, in part, as follows:

* * * the Congress hereby finds that the preservation of park values requires that such public accommodations, facilities, and services as have to be provided within those areas should be provided only under carefully controlled safeguards against unregulated and indiscriminate use, so that the heavy visitation will not unduly impair these values and so that development of such facilities can best be limited to locations where the least damage to park values will be caused. It is the policy of the Congress that such development shall be limited to those that are necessary and appropriate for public use and enjoyment of the national park area in which they are located and that are consistent to the highest practicable degree with the preservation and conservation of the areas.

These pronouncements of Congressional policy have resulted in three rather clearly defined land zones within natural areas:

First—the enclaves of development "for the accommodation of visitors" connected with roads, bridle paths, and foot trails;

Second—transition zones between these enclaves of development and the wilderness beyond; and

Third—the untrammeled, primeval wilderness.

The task of the Service is, in brief:

To manage the natural areas so as to perpetuate their character and composition;

To promote and regulate appropriate park use, and seek ever to improve the quality of that use; and

To provide the facilities required by the above in a manner complementing the character and special values of each area.

ADMINISTRATIVE POLICIES

The earliest expression of administrative policy is to be found in the letter of May 13, 1918, from Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane, to Director Stephen T. Mather of the National Park Service. (See Appendix A-1 for the full text of Secretary Lane's letter. Later expressions of supplemental policy are contained in Secretary Hubert Work's memorandum of March 11, 1925 (Appendix A-2); and in Secretary Stewart L. Udall's memorandums of July 10, 1964, and January 15, 1969 (Appendixes A-3 and A-4).)

With minor modifications, these guidelines have prevailed to this day. Moreover, they underline much of our current administrative policy, for, as Secretary of the Interior Walter J. Hickel stated in his memorandum of June 18, 1969, to the Director of the National Park Service, "I wish to make it clear that, except in one minor instance, I support the principles, and long-range objectives of my predecessors." (See Appendix B for Secretary Hickel's memorandum.)

MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

The Management Principles for the natural areas of the System are as follows:

Resource management. The management and use of natural areas shall be guided by the 1918 directive of Secretary Lane. Additionally, management shall be directed toward maintaining, and where necessary, reestablishing indigenous plant and animal life, in keeping with the March 4, 1963, recommendations of the Advisory Board on Wildlife Management. (See also Wilderness Use and Management Policy section, p. 54.)

In those areas having significant historical resources, management shall be patterned after that of the historical areas category to the extent compatible with the primary purpose for which the area was established.

Resource use will provide for all appropriate use and enjoyment by the people that can be accommodated without impairment of the natural values. Park management shall recognize and respect wilderness as a whole environment of living things whose use and enjoyment depend on a continuing interrelationship free of man's spoliation. (See also Resource Use Policy section, p. 43.)

Physical developments shall be limited to those that are necessary and appropriate, and provided only under carefully controlled safeguards against unregulated and indiscriminate use, so that the least damage to park values will be caused. Location, design, and material, to the highest practicable degree, shall be consistent with the preservation and conservation of the grandeur of the natural environment.

The administrative policies which follow guide the Service toward the realization of these objectives.