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Fauna Series No. 1
Approach
Fauna of the National Parks
of the United States
HISTORY AND PROGRAM OF THE SURVEY
During service with the educational department in Yosemite National Park in 1928 and 1929, thoughts of this trend led one of the writers to the hope that something might he done towards concentrating greater interest on the fundamental aspects of wild-life administration throughout the national-park system. In collaboration with another of the co-authors, the general outline for a preliminary investigation was developed. Having received the sanction of the director, the idea then assumed concrete form under his guidance, becoming at once the Preliminary Wild Life Survey, with headquarters at Berkeley, California.
Personnel included Joseph S. Dixon, economic mammalogist; George M. Wright, scientific aide in the National Park Service; Ben H. Thompson, research associate; and Mrs. George Pease, secretary. All expense of the survey, inclusive of office, field, and salaries. was met with private funds until July 1, 1931. Since then it has been supported about equally from public appropriation and private contribution.
Stated objectives were:
To focus attention upon the need for a well-defined wild-life policy of the National Park Service, including the extension of the protective function to embody a definitely constructive program.
To assist park superintendents in dealing with the urgent animal problem immediately confronting them.
To present a report which would delineate the existing status of wild life in the parks, analyze unsatisfactory conditions, and outline a proposed plan for the orderly development of wild-life management.
The present paper is intended to fulfill the third objective. In the meantime certain results. have been attained toward the accomplishment of the first and second purposes and may be mentioned briefly here.
Through the existence of a group actively functioning in the field, the director was provided with arguments and data and with a living organization for which he could solicit support to assure perpetuation. This has facilitated the securing of one permanent position of field naturalist and appropriations to cover the field expenses of the staff. Office quarters were provided in conjunction with field offices of the Branch of Research and Education of the National Park Service in Hilgard Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. Thus the foundations of a wild-life organization as a continuing function of the Service have already been laid.
The photographic collection, numbering 2,523 negatives and accompanied by prints all filed and indexed in readily available form, is proving useful to the educational program. Though its prime purpose is for scientific record, the service rendered in this other field increases its value measurably.
Field notes on 279 species of birds and mammals have been systematically recorded. In part they have provided data for the report, but the whole of them remains an important reservoir of classified information for the intensive biological studies which should follow the first general investigation.
Nevertheless, throughout the preliminary survey, fixity to the main purpose of obtaining a perspective of the problem in its entirety has been the paramount consideration. Consequently, the search focused on the general trends in the status of animal life, with particular regard to the motivating factors. If a finger can be placed on the mainsprings of disorder, there is hope of discovering solutions that will be adequate in result. Meeting existing difficulties with superficial cures might be temporarily expedient and, in cases of emergency, necessary, but if continued would build up a costly patchwork that must eventually give out. It would be analogous to placing a catch-basin under a gradually growing leak in a trough and then trying to keep the trough replenished by pouring the water back in. The task mounts constantly and failure is the inevitable outcome. The only hope rests in restoration of the original vessel to wholeness. And so it is with the wild life of the parks. Unless the sources of disruption can be traced and eradicated, the wild life will ebb away to the level occupied by the fauna of the country at large. Admitting the magnitude of the task, it still seems worth the undertaking, for failure here means failure to maintain a characteristic of the national parks that must continue to exist if they are to preserve their distinguishing attribute. Such failure would be a blow injuring the very heart of the national-park system.
The field studies were conducted in accordance with this point of view. Findings as presented in this report are calculated to lay a foundation of approach and practice useful in dealing with wild-life problems of all categories wherever or whenever they may occur, rather than to stand as an enumeration of a lengthy list of individual problems without correlation. However, numerous examples have been given detailed treatment in the development of the arguments, and in a separate section all problems. met with in each area have been enumerated in order to record for future reference situations obtaining in the parks at the time of the investigation, as seen by the field party.
In the following pages the technique developed for the preliminary survey is detailed for the benefit of others who may undertake similar projects and for the usefulness it will have as a skeletal outline for the intensive studies in each park later on. Further, this account of the methods employed will facilitate a critical evaluation of the results.
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Last Modified: Tues, Feb 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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