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National Parks The Sierra Club will give full support to the rounding out of the National Park System while the opportunity remains to do so. Decisions concerning whether to set aside lands for their high-caliber scenic, educational, scientific, and recreational values should give dominant weight to the reversibility or irreversibility of choice. If too much land were set aside for preservation in this manner, the status of the land could be changed should the highest the highest public good require such change in the future. If too little is set aside, the opportunity to serve the highest public good may be irretrievably lost. The Sierra Club believes that use of the parks should be so regulated as to preserve them unimpaired for the enjoyment of present and future generations, and that preservation has clear priority. Concerning impairment, we believe that the statement of national park purpose made in 1865 by Frederick Law Olmsted is still valid, and should be rigorously heeded in the great national parks and monuments. That statement is as follows:
The Sierra Club believes that this statement is consonant with the statement written into the National Park Act of 1916 by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. The Sierra Club believes that the following guidelines should be followed to achieve proper preservation and use of the great scenic national parks and monuments: (1) These areas should consist for the most part of wilderness in which the natural ecological complex is maintained as far as possible. (2) Some typical features of a given park should be made available for visitation. Certain park places of high appeal should be accessible to people who want to drive, not walk, and who want to sleep on a bed under a roof, not on the ground under a tree. Areas zoned for access can be considered as coves of development in wilderness. (3) All accommodations and facilities should be incident to enjoyment, use, and conservation of the park in its natural condition. They should not be intended as attractions in themselves nor be insensitively situated. (4) As the increasing recreational load overburdens the developed areas, there should be no expansion beyond the area planned for development. Instead, other action should be taken, according to the following approximate priorities: (a) Move utilities to areas of lesser park value. (b) Move employee and staff quarters to areas of lesser park value. (c) Gradually de-emphasize and remove extraneous attractions that bring so many visitors as to crowd out those who come to enjoy the natural features. (d) Limit period of stay, but not so much as to eliminate overnight experience in the park. (e) Institute a reservation system for campgrounds similar to that used by the hotels, with special consideration for distant travelers. (f) Accommodate the surplus visitation in new developments outside the park, or in areas that may be added for this purpose. (5) Concomitantly: (a) Do not exclude anyone from an experience merely because all cannot have it at one time. (b) Do not build more through highways to parks. [Note that this is a very old policy. For example, the term "wilderness" is used in a general sense and does not refer to congressionally designated wilderness as defined in the Wilderness Act.] Adopted by the Board of Directors, February 6-7, 1960 Roads in National Parks There should be no highways in national parks, only park roads. … Adopted by the Board of Directors, November 8, 1958 Freeways and Parks Freeways are not compatible with natural parks – they belong outside them. There is a public trust in the disposition of land acquired with private funds. Lands affected by freeways must be evaluated in terms of its highest public use – both present and future. Recognition of the higher values of park lands implies a willingness to pay more for the preservation of those values. Adopted by the Board of Directors, May 2, 1964 Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club |
