Our National Park by International League of Conservation Photographers

Our National Parks A m e r i c aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s N a t u r a l H e r i t a g e

Our National Parks A m e r i c a’s N a t u r a l H e r i t a g e

Edited by Abigail Williams Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt IV • Foreword by Neil J. Mulholland • Afterword by Jack Dykinga Published by Earth in Focus Editions and iLCP 2011 Crystal Drive Ste, 500 Arlington VA 22202 • www.ilcp.com

A Photographer’s Perspective Introduction by Theodore Roosevelt IV Foreword by Neil J. Mulholland

Acadia

Maine

Arches

Utah

Gates of the Arctic Badlands Big Bend

Alaska

South Dakota Texas

Great Sand Dunes

Ohio

Great Smokies

Hawaii Volcanoes

Joshua Tree

Katmai

Channel Islands

California

Cuyahoga Valley

Death Valley

Denali

Everglades

Glacier

Glacier Bay

Grand Canyon

Alaska

California

Florida

Montana

Bryce Canyon

Utah

Grand Teton

Canyonlands

Utah

Great Basin

Tennessee

110

Kings Canyon

Arizona

116

Mesa Verde

124

Mount Rainier

132

North Cascades

Wyoming Nevada

Olympic

Alaska

Kenai Fjords

Alaska

Hawaii

California

102

Colorado

Alaska

California

Colorado

Washington

138

Redwoods

144

Rocky Mountain

150

Sequoia

156

Shenandoah

162

Theodore Roosevelt

166

Yellowstone

172

Yosemite

California

180

Zion

184

Afterword by Jack Dykinga

190

Photographer’s Contacts

196

Publisher’s Letter

Utah

California

Table of Contents | 7

200

Colorado

208

214

Virginia

Wyoming

220 North Dakota

226 230 240 248

257 258 259

Photographers’ Credits

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California

260

A PHOTOGRAPHER’S PERSPECTIVE

rior to the founding of the United States, beautiful landscapes with an imperial view, habitats rich in resources, and anywhere the hunting was good were the personal and private domain of the ruling monarchies and the wealthy aristocracy. One of the cornerstones of our democracy is the vast amount of land that was “given” to the public, and is open for public use; this is the tenet for which our National Park System is most widely appreciated. Our national parks have been called “America’s best idea” and are admired and emulated in countries all over the world. Importantly, the development of the national park concept and the growth of the public’s environmental consciousness are inextricably linked with those of photographers throughout history. Before national parks existed, photographers, often traveling with U.S. military survey teams exploring the West, provided witness to the natural wonder and diversity of the new country. Their pictures fueled the public’s interest not only in seeing these unique destinations but in protecting them for the enjoyment of all Americans. Photographers and their work actively promoted new and unknown parks as commercial enterprises, but they also used their work in print and exhibit to encourage legislators to protect those same areas from resource exploitation and over use. In the 1800s, the spectacular large-camera prints of Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge recorded the dramatic features of Yosemite for the world to see, and the popular public response resulted in Yosemite being set aside by

presidential decree as a “public pleasuring ground.” Eventually, it was the photographs of William Henry Jackson that helped to pass the legislation establishing that area as the first national park. In the mid-20th century, Eliot Porter and Ansel Adams, working with their friend David Brower, used the power of photography in the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series books to awaken the American public’s environmental consciousness. The stunning photography, beautifully reproduced on the lavish, large pages in combination with pertinent quotes, poetry and excellent writing, challenged a whole new generation to become stewards of their world, and in many cases to specifically care for parks under duress or to create new ones. Each generation brings forth its champions. Today, many photographers who have been inspired and empowered by this historical relationship and driven by their own concerns for the health of our planet have joined as Fellows in the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). It is their work that illuminates the pages of Our National Parks: America’s Natural Heritage, a book published by Earth In Focus Editions to honor the American National Park System. The iLCP is most grateful to the photographers who generously donated their work to this publication. The worldwide diversity of the contributors appropriately reflects the international popularity of “The National Parks”– a remarkable collection of natural wonders that has been set aside by and for us — “We, the people,”

Robert Glenn Ketchum Fellow, International League of Conservation Photographers Former Curator of Photography, National Park Foundation Author, American Photographers and the National Parks

8 | Our National Parks

A Photographer’s Perspective | 9

INTRODUCTION

Theodore Roosevelt IV

pon first arriving in the new world, the European settlers were overwhelmed to discover such an abundance of natural resources. John Cabot wrote to Henry VII that fish “could be taken not only with the net, but in baskets let down with a stone.” New Englander John Josselyn wrote near the end of the 17th century that he had “seen a flight of pidgeons…that to my thinking had neither beginning nor ending, length or breadth and so thick I could see no sun.” Other European settlers were, frankly, quite frightened of this seemingly endless territory. John Bradford described the new world as “a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men.” This fear of nature evolved into a determination that wilderness had to be domesticated; forests needed to be cut down and converted into pastures, orchards and fields of grain. Early pilgrims not only believed that Satan lived in this newly found wilderness but that domesticating this land was to do the Lord’s will.

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Introduction | 11

These two strains of thinking—that America’s natural resources were inexhaustible and that the wilderness had to be dominated—prevailed throughout most of the 19th century as the nation was being settled. There was perhaps no better example of these two views in action than the exploitation of the nation’s great bison herds. While it’s unknown how many bison once roamed the prairies and forests, observers have estimated a population of sixty million or more. Many writers of the day believed that the American prairie—with its bison, elk and antelope—held the largest biomass in the world. Shortly after the Civil War, the construction of the continental railroad began in earnest; this development had a devastating impact on the bison population. Building railroads required an enormous labor force and the most available source of meat for them was bison. As the railroads advanced, the market for this meat made its way back to the populous east coast cities. Bison hides and leather found a ready market there and

beyond into England. Bison leather was exceptionally durable; making for great belts to drive industry’s machines. Finally, in order to permanently settle the west the military decided it would be of great strategic advantage to exterminate the plains Indians’ principal food source. The vast numbers of bison killed in service of this agenda are inconceivable to a contemporary reader. Although some observers were appalled by the mass slaughter the military’s political power dominated the times. James Trefethen in his book An American Crusade for Wildlife writes that “In 1865, the estimated national buffalo kill had been a million head. With the arrival of the railroads on the prairies, the annual kill climbed steadily each year to a crest of nearly five million in 1871 and 1872.” By the mid-1880s the herds which once freely roamed the plains had been reduced to a few scattered remnants. The slaughter of bison and other game as well as the decimation of the country’s forests provoked outrage. Writers, some of whom are aptly quoted in this book including John Muir and John Burroughs, emerged describing the beauty of America’s wild places and the need to preserve them. The great American bird artist John James Audubon wrote, “Before many years buffalo such as the Great Auk will have disappeared; surely this should not be permitted.” Landscapes featuring the west by artists such as Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt were initially considered as apocryphal as the mountain men’s bizarre tales of geysers, boiling mud and snow-covered peaks in what is now Yellowstone National Park. Yet their sublime paintings helped Congress to “see” the beauty and majesty of the western lands. Michael Punke wrote in his book about George Grinnell’s “Last Stand,”

“America in the first century of its existence cast a frequent and insecure eye toward Europe. With Europe’s millennia of civilization and culture how could the upstart United States hope to measure up? The answer for a growing number of American intellectuals was to emphasize what the United States had that Europe did not—wild places.” In 1870 General Washburn led a small expedition into Yellowstone—their exploration confirmed these tall tales. These men were so overwhelmed by Yellowstone’s natural beauty that they urged for it to be held in trust for the American people. Believing the land to have little economic value, Congress readily agreed to pass a bill establishing it as a national park (1872). In truth, no one of the day had the slightest idea what a national park was, how it should be protected, used or how laws should be enforced to protect it. Railroads, mining and timber companies as well as poachers presumed that Yellowstone could be used as they saw fit. Until the Lacy Act was passed twenty-two years later, poachers had virtual free rein and nearly exterminated the few remaining bison and elk left there. A New York–based company grandly self-titled the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company proposed to construct hotels at each of the park’s major attractions in exchange for a lease payment of $640 for a square mile plot per location. The company was permitted to cut as much of the park’s timber as needed to build all of its facilities. It also contracted with local hunters to kill park game to feed the workers. And finally, the Company was granted a monopoly on stage coach service as well as management of all stores and telegram communications within the park. Simutaneously, railroad interests, time and again, attempted to divide the park so they could build a railroad from Cooke City to Gardiner.

12 | Our National Parks

Opposition to both these proposals and the unrestrained poaching was led by George Bird Grinnell (president of Forest and Stream). Grinnell knew that if Yellowstone National Park was not protected the continent’s few remaining bison and probably its elk would be exterminated and so he formed a powerful coalition of hunters, fishermen and outdoorsmen. Grinnell and his allies—one of whom was a young Theodore Roosevelt— were able to stop the railroads from breaking up the park but also from allowing the more egregious development schemes from proceeding. Despite their best efforts, they had relatively little impact on the poaching at that time. Congress was unwilling to pass legislation that would provide for the enforcement of game laws and the park’s protection. Grinnell publicly denounced his opponents as “conscienceless money-hunters in the U.S. Congress.” Fate intervened when a notorious poacher was apprehended in Yellowstone while both a writer from Forest and Stream and a well-known photographer happened to also be there. Pictures and the story of the poacher’s gruesome work were widely published and the tragic images of dead and bloody bison lying on the white snow set off a political firestorm that could only be quelled by the passage of the Lacy Act. This act provided for permanent protection of Yellowstone and all subsequent national parks. Today we can proudly claim there are nearly four hundred parks in the National Park System. However, truth compels our generation to acknowledge that we have not lived up to the heritage our forebears gave us. The images gracing the pages of Our National Parks: America’s Natural Heritage show better than any words can this extraordinary bequest. No other nation has the biodiversity or range of habitat our parks can boast

Introduction | 13

to possess. The peak in Denali National Park reaches an elevation of more than 20,000 feet while Death Valley National Park is below sea level. Everglades National Park with a subtropical environment has alligators and Yellowstone has grizzly bears and bison. And yet, for the last several decades the Park System has been woefully underfunded. It currently carries a maintenance backlog of $7 billion dollars. We have not spent enough money to adequately monitor and measure the impact of increased visitor usage on our parks, nor the impact of climate change. If we truly wish to honor our heritage we will need to become more responsible stewards of our national parks. If we do not choose to do this, the consequences could be great. The story of the near extinction of an almost exclusively American animal and a symbol of America’s natural heritage, the bison, is a teaching tool for us all. We must conserve while we can, manage as if we care and value what we have now. If we do not, we risk losing one of the greatest assets our country has, our national parks. Theodore Roosevelt IV Member of the Advisory Board for both the National Parks and the Conservation Association; Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History

FOREWORD

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a

Neil J. Mulholland

glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we finished with it.

henever I first meet someone and have a chance to say that I work with the National Park Foundation, they always ask me the same question, “Which park is your favorite?” Immediately, my mind goes through a catalog of moments. Can anything top the ethereal billows of the Yellowstone geysers in winter? What can be superior to the rich green and gold of autumn’s Yosemite Valley or the craggy shores of Mt. Desert Island at Acadia? How am I to forget the delicate curves of Arches, the sun setting on the Grand Teton range or the serenely forested trails through the Great Smoky Mountains? As a Coloradan I have had the good fortune to thoroughly explore Rocky Mountain National Park. My wife Feona and I honeymooned in Yosemite. To us a day spent hiking in a national park is like finding religion. When I close my eyes I can still remember not only the first time I saw all of these national treasures but how each one stirred my soul. Like a series of true “John Muir moments,” in each place, I have felt at peace with myself and simultaneously deeply aware of everything else around me. It can be like catching a glimpse of the world at the beginning of time and being reminded of who we are and why we are here. My love of our parks comes from that universal moment of transformation that we all can feel when we are visiting them.

America’s national parks are undeniably the world’s greatest colletion of nature, history and people. Their 84 million acres are carefully protected so that all Americans, for generations yet to come, can thrill at their scenic vistas, marvel at their wildlife, enjoy precious time with their families, and feel that deeper connection and responsibility to our land and our shared history. That is not to say that our parks don’t need our support today. Contrary to popular belief, it was the people, not the government, who gave us our national parks. Beginning more than 150 years ago and persevering through the decades, it was private citizens who worked to protect the places they loved—places they knew would matter into the future—as our national parks. It was a uniquely American idea embraced by people from all walks of life—doctors, academics, scientists, farmers, business owners, clergy, politicians, and, of course, the artists. It wasn’t easy in the early days of our nation to get the support that was needed to set aside land. Most people had never experienced these places firsthand. They didn’t understand the need or the urgency for protection. They didn’t want to compromise the development rights of the people or necessarily give up individual ownership for public benefit. But the advocates and artists travelling west changed that. The work of pioneering photographers such as William Henry Jackson and Ansel

14 | Our National Parks

President Lyndon B. Johnson on signing the Wilderness Act, 1964

Adams captured the whole convincing story in images and thus began to build a constituency for the preservation of these irreplaceable natural territories. Their photographs made the most scenic views accessible to everyone, enabling the mountain peaks and sequoia groves to speak for themselves. Their early work fostered an incredible sense of national pride and purpose. All at once, the public knew that America’s unmatched and irreplaceable bounty needed protection and the American conservation movement was born. Today, as we approach the Centennial celebration of our national park system in 2016, there has never been a more important time for us to recreate that energy. We need to remember that the national parks belong to the people. We need to embrace, once again, our history as leaders in conservation and become united in our resolve as we look to address issues of climate change. We have a generation of young people who are disconnected from nature, and growing populations in urban areas with less and less outdoor space; they need our help.

Foreword | 15

That is why Our National Parks could be considered one of the most important publications of the International League of Conservation Photographers. These incredible artists have once again made the story of our national parks accessible to the people. Their powerful perspectives and awe-inspiring photographs of our national parks could inspire each one of us—as keepers of this land—to support a new movement of civic stewardship for our national parks on par with their founding architects of years past. And, when someone asks you which of our national parks is your favorite, you can respond as I do, “My favorite park is always the one I am in at the moment.”

Neil J. Mulholland

President and CEO, National Park Foundation