Publications and Reports

TENNESSEE REPORTS ON 'PROGRESS AND PLANS'

The Natural Resources of Tennessee, an attractively illustrated and intelligently edited 79-page magazine-size booklet issued recently by the state's Department of Conservation, recalls at the outset that "regulations and laws cannot make people become conservation-conscious," but it expresses the hope that new advances may be achieved when average citizens understand more clearly the duties which the Department's various divisions seek to perform.

As a part of "a report of progress and plans," the origins and development of Tennessee's recreational areas are traced carefully (pp. 42-56) by Sam F. Brewster, Director of the Division of State Parks. He describes the obstacles which have been overcome and the objectives and possibilities of future work.

"It is estimated," writes Mr. Brewster, "that the Federal Government has spent approximately $13,000,000 in the development of State parks and recreational areas in Tennessee, and that the State has spent approximately $100,000. It is expected that the National Park Service alone, through the use of CCC funds, will spend approximately $3,500,000 more in the completion of their unfinished projects in the State, and that the State will be called upon to spend $165,000.

"This amount of money will be used in completing seven parks now under development by the State in cooperation with the National Park Service. The Tennessee State park and recreational system is approximately 75 per cent complete."

ALABAMA DEFENDS STATE PARK FEES

An answer to critics who oppose collection of a 10-cent admission fee (5 cents for children) at Alabama's state parks is contained in an editorial published in Alabama Game and Fish News (Vol. XI, No. 4, November 1939, p. 6).

"It boils down," says the journal, "to the proposition of having parks and enjoying them by paying a few cents admission, or closing them. Dr. Walter B. Jones Director of the Department of Conservation says that if anyone can show him how to operate a park without funds, he will be glad to listen. The Federal government spent several million dollars building Alabama's parks and it is up to us to keep them going. . . . Alabama, in placing a small admission charge on state parks, is following the accepted custom and practice throughout the United States. . . . In addition, Alabama is doing the only thing possible under the circumstances. There is no choice; lack of funds makes it mandatory."

JENNISON SURVEYS FLORA OF SMOKIES

"There is not much left of America as it was when white man took possession and more's the pity; but a fair sized piece of it remains pretty much as it was in the beginning in the 440,000 acres Great Smoky Mountains National Park," write Harry Milliken Jennison in "Flora of the Smokies," now available in reprint from the Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science (Vol. 14, No. 3, 1939, pp. 266-298. Illus.) Dr. Jennison, Professor of Botany at the University of Tennessee, was formerly a Service Wildlife Technician assigned to the park.

Pointing out that the park is "an area where the vegetational aspects are superlative in every sense of the word," the author explains: There are few places of comparable area in the north temperate zone where as many different kinds of plants flourish . . . The seed-bearing plants comprise the most important and certainly a very popular part of the flora. Their collection and study, begun by Buckley and Rugel, has continued ever since and, under the auspices of the National Park Service, it has been one of our most important projects. In season, since 1934, we have collected and prepared (duplicate) herbarium specimens of about 5,000 numbers. Nearly 1,500 different species are represented. . . . there are large areas within the park which have not been explored botanically and many habitats which have not been explored at all."¹

ARGENTINE NATIONAL PARKS DESCRIBED

Six wilderness areas are surveyed briefly for the benefit of the international traveler in "Les Parcs Nationaux Argentine," an article in L'Illustration (No. 5036, September 9, 1939, p. XVII supplement).

After locating geographically the six parks, Nahuel Huapi, Iguazu, Lenin, Los Alerces, Perito Francisco P. Moreno and Los Glaciares, which aggregate more than 4,000,000 acres, the writer observes: "These fine regions offer to the scientist as well as to the tourist so great a field of activity that they comply happily with the demands of even the most exacting visitor, for between Iguazu and Los Glaciares there is a distance of some 2,200 miles as the crow flies. That fact implies differences in flora and fauna, climate and panoramas, from tropical to polar, and justifies an assertion that these parks reproduce, on scales of varying magnitude, the most beautiful landscapes of the world."

Physical development has been carried far in Nahuel Huapi National Park, says the author, for it possesses "all the conveniences that the traveler may desire," with more than 300 miles of roads, boat service on the great lake, winter sports, luxurious hotels, and an architecture imported from Switzerland. Yet, he cautions, "you realize at once how free is nature from man's influence. There are imposing mountain chains, lakes which are serene in times of calm but lashed to fury by occasional storms, and impenetrable forests where the delicacy of wild flowers alternates with the majesty of thousand-year-old trees."

REGION ONE INSPECTORS MANUAL ISSUED

An Inspectors Manual, prepared on the basis of careful studies of duties performed by Inspectors of the Service over a period of several years, was issued last month to staff members in Region One. Its purpose, says a foreword, is "to correlate that part of all existing procedure pertaining to the efficient discharge of the Inspector's duties. It is hoped that the use of this Manual will provide a convenient, ready reference to the pertinent information necessary in the daily prosecution of his work, and will also serve to attain a greater uniformity in inspection procedure throughout the Service."

The inch-thick mimeographed volume had its origins at a conference of an editorial committee held in Richmond in December 1937. The members were Inspectors R. M. Schenck (chairman), Daniel T. Blaney, Roy Duford and John V. Larkin, all of Region One; Harry Dunham, of Region Two, and John Haile, of Region Three. After a draft of the Manual had been assembled by the group the work of revising and editing devolved upon Inspectors Schenck and Larkin. Later changes in Service procedure led to departures from the original outline and it was decided that the Manual should be issued primarily for use in Region One because frequent editorial consultations with other regions were impracticable.