Shows how the original mission of the National Park service has been undermined by commercialization and politicization, in an argument that will evoke controversy as the service celebrates its seventy-fifth anniversary.

This biography of the seventh director of the National Park Service brings to life one of the most colorful, powerful, and politically astute people to hold this position. George B. Hartzog Jr. served during an exciting and volatile era in American history. Appointed in 1964 by Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, he benefited from a rare combination of circumstances that favored his vision, which was congenial with both President Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" and Udall's robust environmentalism. Hartzog led the largest expansion of the National Park System in history and developed social programs that gave the Service new complexion. During his nine-year tenure, the system grew by seventy-two units totaling 2.7 million acres including not just national parks, but historical and archaeological monuments and sites, recreation areas, seashores, riverways, memorials, and cultural units celebrating minority experiences in America. In addition, Hartzog sought to make national parks relevant and responsive to the nation's changing needs.

A study of the US National Park Service’s efforts to allow for as many visitors as possible in the parks that are kept in as natural a state as possible. “Yosemite Valley in July of 1967 would have had to be seen to be believed. There was never an empty campsite in the valley; you had to create a space for yourself in a sea of cars, tents, and humanity. . . . The camp next to ours had fifty people in it, with rugs hung between the trees, incense burning, and a stereo set going full volume.” Scenes such as this will probably never be repeated in Yosemite or any other national park, yet the urgent problem remains of balancing the public's desire to visit the parks with the parks’ need to be protected from too many people and cars and too much development. In this book, longtime park visitor and professional geographer Bob O’Brien explores the National Park Service’s attempt to achieve “sustainability,” a balance that allows as many people as possible to visit a park that is kept in as natural a state as possible. O’Brien details methods the NPS has used to walk the line between those who would preserve vast tracts of land for “no use” and those who would tap the Yellowstone geysers to generate electricity. His case studies of six western “crown jewel” parks show how rangers and other NPS employees are coping with issues that impact these cherished public landscapes, including visitation, development, and recreational use./

Our national parks are more than mere recreational destinations. They are repositories of the nation's biological diversity and contain some of the last ecosystem remnants needed as standards to set reasonable goals for sustainable development throughout the land. Nevertheless, public pressure for recreation has largely precluded adequate research and resource monitoring in national parks, and ignorance of ecosystem structure and function in parks has led to costly mistakes--such as predator control and fire suppression--that continue to threaten parks today. This volume demonstrates the value of ecological knowledge in protecting parks and shows how modest investments in knowledge of park ecosystems can pay handsome dividends. Science and Ecosystem Management in the National Parks presents twelve case studies of long-term research conducted in and around national parks that address major natural resource issues. These cases demonstrate how the use of longer time scales strongly influence our understanding of ecosystems and how interpretations of short-term patterns in nature often change when viewed in the context of long-term data sets. Most importantly, they show conclusively that scientific research significantly reduces uncertainty and improves resource management decisions. Chosen by scientists and senior park managers, the cases offer a broad range of topics, including: air quality at Grand Canyon; interaction between moose and wolf populations on Isle Royale; control of exotic species in Hawaiian parks; simulation of natural fire in the parks of the Sierra Nevada; and the impact of urban expansion on Saguaro National Monument. Because national parks are increasingly beset with conflicting views of their management, the need for knowledge of park ecosystems becomes even more critical--not only for the parks themselves, but for what they can tell us about survival in the rest of our world. This book demonstrates to policymakers and managers that decisions based on knowledge of ecosystems are more enduring and cost effective than decisions derived from uninformed consensus. It also provides scientists with models for designing research to meet threats to our most precious natural resources. "If we can learn to save the parks," observe Halvorson and Davis, "perhaps we can learn to save the world."

This third edition includes a new essay on recent environmental issues and concerns, especially as they center on Yellowstone National Park.

Arguing that in many cases the concept of the common good (as articulated in the communitarian perspective as developed by Amitai Etzioni) takes precedence over the concept of individual liberty, the author offers an argument on how to prioritize issues of the common good. The examination takes place primarily within the context of the national park system, with specific cases provided to illustrate the issues. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In this new edition James A. Pritchard has added a summary of recent developments in wildlife science and management and discusses historical continuities in the role of Yellowstone Park as a wildlife refuge and conservator.

The first scholarly study of winter use in any national park examines the history of the conflict between the National Park Service and various interest groups over snowmobile use in Yellowstone--a highly-politicized, value-driven battle that has taken a serious toll on the NPS's ability to protect the park.

In his engaging book Windshield Wilderness, David Louter explores the relationship between automobiles and national parks, and how together they have shaped our ideas of wilderness. National parks, he argues, did not develop as places set aside from the modern world, but rather came to be known and appreciated through technological progress in the form of cars and roads, leaving an enduring legacy of knowing nature through machines. With a lively style and striking illustrations, Louter traces the history of Washington State’s national parks -- Mount Rainier, Olympic, and North Cascades -- to illustrate shifting ideas of wilderness as scenic, as roadless, and as ecological reserve. He reminds us that we cannot understand national parks without recognizing that cars have been central to how people experience and interpret their meaning, and especially how they perceive them as wild places. Windshield Wilderness explores what few histories of national parks address: what it means to view parks from the road and through a windshield. Building upon recent interpretations of wilderness as a cultural construct rather than as a pure state of nature, the story of autos in parks presents the preservation of wilderness as a dynamic and nuanced process.Windshield Wilderness illuminates the difficulty of separating human-modified landscapes from natural ones, encouraging us to recognize our connections with nature in national parks.