Presenting Nature

Cover

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Overview

Stewardship

Design Ethic Origins
(1916-1927)

Design Policy & Process
(1916-1927)

Western Field Office
(1927-1932)

Park Planning

Decade of Expansion
(1933-1942)

State Parks
(1933-1942)

Appendix A

Appendix B

Bibliography

Presenting Nature: The Historic Landscape Design of the National Park Service, 1916-1942

VII. A NEW DEAL FOR STATE PARKS, 1933 — 1942 (continued)

PORTFOLIOS AND PUBLICATIONS (continued)

LANDSCAPE CONSERVATION

While the portfolios gave thorough information on designing park structures and facilities, Landscape Conservation: Planning for the Restoration, Conservation, and Utilization of Wild Lands for Parks and Forests by Frank Waugh, first published in 1935, covered the larger issue of land reclamation, the development of lakes for recreation, and the creation of trails and campgrounds. This booklet was a compilation of Waugh's principles for recreational development, which he had practiced in national forests, and his theory on the natural style of gardening, which was first published in 1917 and was expanded through a series of articles in the 1920s and early 1930s. His interest in recreational development extended to the construction of outdoor theaters and campfires, a topic on which he had also written extensively in a 1917 book and several subsequent articles.

By the 1930s, Waugh had a long-established career in the development of forest lands. Through seasonal contracts with the U.S. Forest Service at Grand Canyon, Mount Hood, Bryce, and Kings Canyon, Waugh had put into practice his early ideas on the "natural style" of landscape gardening. His work on the Mount Hood Road put into practice his ideas about sequence of motives, change of direction, and overlooks at the climax of scenic vistas.

Waugh was indebted to Downing's principles and had several years earlier published a revision of Downing's theory of landscape gardening. Waugh's work set forth ecological principles and a zonal approach to recreating vegetation based on the study of natural conditions. These principles were particularly important for the mass plantings that were to occur in submarginal lands and the creation of artificial lakes for recreational use.

The publication was an effort to provide practical and technical information on how wild lands— national parks and forests, state parks and forests, and other public and private holdings—could be developed for public use and enjoyment. It set forth principles and practices for the Civilian Conservation Corps to follow in varied aspects of conservation work. Wild lands were to be developed according to eight principles: human use and enjoyment, order, cleanliness, beauty of scenery, conservation, restoration, economy, and circulation. [73]

The achievement of human use and enjoyment called for the construction of structures built in good proportions, agreeable in appearance, and lacking in ornamentation. Echoing the National Park Service's dictum on harmony with setting, Waugh wrote,

Artificial structures in wild park lands should be made as inconspicuous as possible, and should be constructed of native materials such as local stone, peeled logs, etc. Nevertheless the general principle is true what is practical and useful, simple, direct, and straightforward, is agreeable to the human eye. This fact, fully grasped, leaves us free to pursue our primary purpose of developing the land under our charge for the fullest and freest human use. [74]

The principle of order called for the simple and orderly arrangement of groups of buildings or structures into clusters. Cleanliness required that easy maintenance and proper disposal of waste be included in the planning from the beginning. Economy could be achieved through simple, solid construction and provisions for easy and economical maintenance. [75]

The principle of beauty of scenery called upon planners to study the landscape by going alone to experience all kinds of landscape in all kinds of weather, at all times of day, and in all seasons. This firsthand experience of landscape was the best preparation for planning the development of wild places. "The absolute foundation of all inspirational outdoor recreation," Waugh claimed, "lies in the beauty of the landscape."

The principle of conservation upheld the preservation of native flora and fauna as a fundamental but complex requirement, calling for long and serious study. Where native species were already depleted or lost, Waugh called for their restoration and wrote, "Such favorite plants as mountain laurel, rhododendron, trailing arbutus, azalea, and many others are to be considered in this category. Amongst animals special attention will usually be given to game birds and fish." [76]

An adequate system of circulation, Waugh pointed out, was the first problem in all physical planning and included main roads, side roads, trails, footpaths, bridle trails, and water suitable for canoeing. He cautioned against overdoing circulation systems and suggested that designers should begin the development of any area with meager roads and trails, enlarging old roads if necessary, but improving construction and extending fresh trails in new areas only when positively demanded by use. [77]

Waugh outlined the types of sites needed for developing wild lands: administrative sites, service sites, sites for hotels and accommodations, sites for water conservation and supply, sites for sewage disposal, clubhouse sites for special recreational purposes, campsites for permanent group camps, sites for temporary tent camping, playing fields, tennis courts, golf courses, bathing beaches, and fishing areas. He stressed the need to plan for these and select the best location for each even if they were not to be developed right away.

Roads and trails were the framework of the entire design of a recreational area, providing transit between principal points in the park and "revealing pleasant scenery." The planner's role was to locate the main points of scenic value, such as fine outlooks, stately groups of frees, and objects of local interest, and to lay out trails connecting these. According to Waugh's theory of trail design, trails were to be laid out so that the most spectacular views were seen at turning points against a rising grade. Scenic objects or features were best viewed straight ahead and at a distance, while broad outlooks over valleys, mountains, or water were to be viewed at varying angles to the trail. This was accomplished by giving a "convenient" turn to the trail at the point of view and by widening the trail and providing a stopping place, perhaps with seats, facing the outlook. Waugh introduced his ideas of arranging the scenery along a trail as a series of themes or motives arranged in "paragraphs" that could draw attention to the unique natural features of a variety of landscape types. He wrote,

For example, there will be repeated pictures of the brook which will be the subject of principal interest. The stream supplies the motive to be developed. View after view, picture after picture, will be shown at the most effective points. It is desirable that these views should present considerable diversity. In one place the water will be singing over the rocks, in another there will be a quiet pool with reflections, in another the brook will drop over a cliff forming a fine waterfall. [78]

Trails were to offer a variety of scenes. Waugh wrote, for example, that a trail along a pond shore "should not be kept directly on the bank all the way but from time to time should run back into the woods and out of sight of the lake." The grade of a trail was to be varied to avoid tiring the hiker and to ward off monotony. [79]

A trailside shelter and overlook at Gooseberry Falls State Park in Minnesota provided scenic views of Lake Superior, reflecting both the nineteenth-century ideas of A.J. Downing and Frank Waugh's instructions for locating trails and presenting scenic views. (National Archives, Record Group 79)

Although Waugh's instruction on siting campgrounds was practical and basic, he elaborated on the construction of two types of features to which he had given considerable attention in his career: the bonfire and the outdoor theater. In The Natural Style in Landscape Gardening, Waugh had written that the bonfire was a social and communal gathering place requiring an ash pit or paved area for the central fire with room about it for people to congregate in concentric circles, perhaps on low seats of sawn or split logs. Waugh gave instructions for transforming the campfire into an outdoor theater designed to harmonize with the surrounding woodlands. He called for a good location, saying, "The perfect ideal is formed by a river terrace where the curvature has a moderate radius. Such sloping concave banks make the best sites, but a simple outdoor auditorium can be made upon a planted slope or on level ground." [80]

Outdoor theaters could be circular with a central bonfire, or, for performances, they could be semicircular with a stage at the front, aisles radiating outward and upward, and seats forming the arcs of the circle between the aisles. He called for a stage raised two or three feet from the ground and a blank wall for the back of the stage. Seating could be either on the ground or on sawn planks or halved logs. Waugh's description clearly reflected the solutions that Maier and the national park designers had developed at the Old Faithful and Fishing Bridge museums in Yellowstone National Park. These solutions, however, were probably initially inspired by Waugh's treatise Outdoor Theaters, published in 1917, and a corresponding article "Notes on Outdoor Theaters," which had appeared in Landscape Architecture in the 1920s. Waugh's interest in outdoor theaters was inspired by the examples he found in Dresden, Germany, and led him to develop the form for use in national forests, integrating it with the American image of the pioneer campfire.

A large portion of Waugh's booklet was devoted to the ecological principles of "dressing" the margins of forest plantations and the lakeshores that were being created in many wild parks through mass planting of hardwood species and the damming of streams for recreational purposes. Waugh's instructions, unknown in general silviculture, enabled the CCC to shape the boundaries of tree plantations to fit pleasingly into the landscape, to suit the topography, and to blend forest into meadow or prairie. Waugh cautioned his readers that "a genuinely naturalistic planting was excessively difficult to achieve" and that training and a close observation of natural conditions were necessary. Using the example of the "mountain laurel" admired by Downing and adopted for roadside plantings in Massachusetts, Waugh expounded,

Occasionally it will become necessary to make new plantations of native shrubs, either for game cover or for frankly ornamental purposes. In New England and along the Appalachian range for example, rather extensive plantations of mountain laurel have been undertaken. Many other native species are deserving of similar consideration, as flowering dogwood, azalea, trailing arbutus, and several of the viburnums. It is highly important, when such planting is undertaken, to give the new colonies the similitude of nature. Yet this is a very difficult ideal to achieve. It can be reached only by extended and critical study. The formation of large solid masses of mountain laurel, for example, is palpably unnatural. Laurel grows by preference in half-shade, under a fairly thick forest canopy and mixed with other species. Each species has its own way of spreading and of forming colonies; and unless artificial planting copies these forms meticulously the results are not natural. [81]

Waugh recommended dividing the landscape into a series of zones in which dominant species and associated species of trees, undergrowth, and ground covers could be identified. Waugh illustrated his point using plant associations from the forests of western Massachusetts, with which he was familiar. His principles, however, could be applied to any climatic zone, geographical region, and grouping of vegetation. Cross sections of the plant composition and lists of the plants in each zone could be developed from field observations of natural areas similar to that being created or restored.

Waugh pointed out that the "grading out" of the natural forest growth was much like the "facing down" done by landscape architects in park planting, though it was "apt to be more free and easy, more natural and more agreeable to the eye." He also recommended "selective cuttings" of "interlopers" or plants that did not belong to the natural groupings or that were unduly aggressive and invasive. He noted the effect that common aspen had in crowding out better species such as dogwood or viburnum. His recommendations (like Meinecke's) on the selective clearing of campgrounds and picnic grounds called for the supervision of experienced workmen. [82]

On preserving natural rock formations, sand dunes, and other physiographic features, Waugh wrote,

These are often of great scientific interest or of surpassing beauty. Where roads or trails must be carried over ledges, outcrop or talus, there is always danger of marring or completely destroying some of the choicest items of natural scenery. Moreover, these features, once lost, cannot be replaced as can trees and shrubs. [83]

Waugh's principles of studying and recreating the vegetation zones found in nature were applied to lakeshores in state, county, and metropolitan parks. The artificial development of lakes and ponds presented two problems for naturalistic design. On the one hand, it altered the relationship between the lake and the surrounding topography, sometimes radically, and, on the other, it completely displaced the vegetation along the shoreline. Waugh was particularly concerned with the readjustment of flora:

Nearly all natural lakes and ponds are bordered by masses of trees, shrubs, vines, sedges, and herbaceous plants peculiar to the lake shore. This bordering zone of vegetation is of the utmost significance. It is important in several ways, but above all it determines the landscape character of the pond. It constitutes an integral part of the lake regarded as scenery. Its removal or alteration profoundly changes the looks of the pond; these changes always mean that the pond becomes obviously less natural, more artificial. [84]

Waugh reminded his readers that lakeshore vegetation always grows in concentric zones, some of which might be narrow bands dominated by a single species. For example, he pointed out, "Out in the water there may be water lilies, nearer the shore rushes or pickerel weed, at the edge of the water cattails or irises or buttonbush and back a little from the water's edge, alders or willows." [85]

Landscape architects needed a complete knowledge of the species inhabiting a particular area and of the peculiar habits of each. Shrubs were of particular importance but trees also required careful attention. Waugh recognized that the clearing of considerable stretches of lakeshore were necessary for recreational development of beaches and other uses. He warned against artificial lines in delineating any cleared area, and he especially deplored the cement coping that encircled the ponds of city parks. Shores developed for recreational purposes were to be kept clear of campsites and buildings except for boat house facilities that might also take the form of clubhouses and refectories and serve as outlooks over the water. [86]

On the creation of artificial ponds, Waugh urged designers to study natural ponds existing nearby. He wrote, "The new lake should be made as nearly like the natural prototype as is humanly possible. This imitation begins with location, includes conformation of the shores and especially the pattern of the natural border of vegetation." Although Waugh realized that it might take many years to achieve the desired bordering flora, he urged the "planting of critically chosen native shrubs in considerable quantities" with strict regard for "the patterns locally provided by nature." Water lines against natural rock outcrops were to closely follow those in nature, and standing timber below the water line was to be removed before flooding. Timber several feet above the water line was also to be cleared and replanted in naturalistic zones. [87]

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

In 1937, as part of the expanding educational program of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a series of training manuals known as the Project Training Series was published. Although these manuals covered a variety of topics related to camp life and general skills, several manuals addressed the conservation work being done in state and national parks. Waugh's 1935 Landscape Conservation was republished as part of the series.

Guy B. Arthur of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, one of the park service's foremost trail builders, wrote a manual in the series on constructing trails. Based on the standards worked out by the National Park Service's engineers and landscape architects, it was intended as a general guide to good practices and procedures such as staking, clearing, benching, bank-sloping, and constructing water-breaks and stream crossings. Although the park service's specifications for location, grade, width, and drainage were given, they were recommendations that could be varied for use in other kinds of parks. [88]

Another manual in the series examined the design and construction of park signs and markers. It drew heavily from the CCC work in state and national parks and provided numerous examples. The manual stressed the concept of "fitness," whereby a sign was suited to its purpose and its setting. It also illustrated techniques such as burning, carving, embossing, and engraving that had all successfully been applied to park signs. [89]

Continued >>>

Last Modified: Mon, Oct 31, 2002 10:00:00 pm PDT
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/mcclelland/mcclelland7e3.htm