Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-01-19
pARKs IND REsEnv4TioNs.
The Condition of the National Park and
Reservations.

NeStfNhtOhS.
A recent issue of Garden md Forest
contained the following interesting in
formation in regard to the national park
and reservations;
Those portions of the annual report
Of the Secretary Of the Interior which
refer to the national parks and timber
reservations are not reassuring. We
are told, for instance, that II visitor to
the Yosemite will pass through forest
within the limits Of the national park,
upon which private individual has
some claim, and here he will sec magni-
ticent pines, > feet in diameter and from
100 10 200 feet in height, being cut down
simply to utilize some 20 or 30 feet of
the trunk for shingles. He will find also
that the commissioners have never taken
any counsel with an expert engineer or
landscape gardener for the purpose Of
making thorough study Of the valley
and adopting a systematic plan OF
Improvement which could be car
ried on through years; but on
the contrary, they are making Spasmodic
efforts to "undcrbrush' the valley with
on; any regard to the natural beauty OF
the place. No destructive fires have oc-
CURED here this year, but there is little
guarantee of future safety, since the
penalty for starting Il conilagratiOn is
nothing but fine. The foreign sheep
heTlers, from whom the danger largely
comes, have no money, even if they
We're convicted, and the damage from
fires might be incalculable. In the
Sequoia Parks the ground is covered
with fallen timber, which is dead and
dry, and the forest floor is so inilamma-
bic that fire would work immense de-
struction. The Portuguese and Mexi-
can herders pastured 100000 sheep last
| summer in the Kern and Kings river
valleys, mostly on government land,
| for which the owners of the sheep paid
no rent nor taxes, and these immense
herds devour everything in the way of
vegetation. The difficulties in the way
| of restraining these cattle and sheep
herders from tresspassing on the reser-
| vations are discnuraging, and until the
/ parks are surveyed, the boundaries dis
| tinctly marked, and penalties provided
against lawlessness, these forests are in
constant danger.
The vandalism of tourists is com
/ planned of in the report on the Yellow
stone Park. Poachers have settled ali
around it, so that the game has no ade-
| quate protection. There are 400 butfa-
loes on the reservation, and II few moose
in the southern part, but as they roam
beyond the line they are in danger OF
extinction. There are several large
bands of mountain sheep here, too, but
as their finest range is north of the
Lamar and Soda Butte Creek, they will
disappear if that portion of the park is
cut off in accordance with the bill for
establishing new boundaries which is
under consideration by Congress. The
secretary, for this and other reasons, OPP
poses this so-called segregation project,
and advocates the passage of an act de-
filming the boundaries of the park as
they now exist, including, however,
the timber reserve added by the Presi-
dents proclamation. Some strong argu-
ments against the surrender of the
northeast portion of the park to the
Cooke City lobby are set forth in the
issue of Forest and Stream for Deem
Der Sth. We have already spoken OF
the fact that six forest reservations, in.
Guiding three and a quarter million of
acres, have now been established under
the new law, and this benetcent policy
will probably be further carried into
effect, but unless the reservations are
protected by attachments from the
army, as has been done in the Yellow.
stone Park and the Sequoia Park, there
is no way to save them from the depre
dations of thieves or the still more
, sweeping desolation by fire.
The sum of it all is that we have sci
apart from the public domain certain
tracts for national parks and forests, bu
their boundary lines have never been
defined, and no law has ever beer
enacted which establishes a system Of
government within their limits with ap
propriate executive machinery and pre-
: scribed penalties for the violation of it,
provisions.