The Preservation Ethic and the National Parks

More than a century ago, Congress took the unprecedented step of setting aside a vast tract of wilderness, the Yosemite Valley and its surroundings, as a federally protected nature preserve. With this action, the foundation stone was laid for what would become our system of national parks. In the ensuing decades, this country has experienced enormous growth in population, affluence, and technology. The national parks are not as inaccessible as they once were. We can tame the wilderness if it suits us, or we can strive to maintain the parks, within limits, as sanctuaries beyond the frontiers of urban society. The choice is ours to make. In recent years, one finds perceptible indications of a departure from the strong preservationist tradition that long characterized national park administration. In its place, the park visitor is increasingly provided an experience that blends convenience with scenic observation. Rangers in Rocky Mountain National Park dispense information on steakhouses; the boat dock at Jackson Lake in the Tetons begins to resemble Belmont Harbor in Chicago; stores in Yosemite Valley are virtually indistinguishable from airport tourist shops; and Lower Yellowstone Falls is viewed from a platform adjoining a paved sidewalk and cement stairway. A recently published volume on the national parks, Mountains Without Handrails, by Professor Joseph Sax, takes as its central concern the tension between these two conflicting philosophies of park management, preservation and conventional tourism-a tension that poses questions not just about the conveniences available to park visitors, but about the ambience and aesthetics of the scenic preserves themselves. These questions, in turn, raise fundamental issues about the imperatives of democratic principles in the context of public land management. This review of Sax's book will explore both the personal and the political dimensions of the preservation-