See America First

Last night, Josh and I watched episode 3 of the National Parks Series, "The Empire of Grandeur" (I've taken to co-opting our Netflix list when he's not paying attention. Killer of Sheep came home this way, too, but I think Josh was much more excited about the National Parks than that one). Episode 3 covers 1915-1919, but also jumps back in history quite a bit to explain some of the context of what was going on at the time.

The 2 hours really follows the creation of the National Park Service under the direction of Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane, who appointed Stephen Mather to clean up the mess that were the national parks. Mather had written Lane a letter insinuating that that parks were poorly managed, and Lane asked him to come manage them. There was no official National Park Service at the time, and the parks were a hodge-podge of lands that weren't managed consistently or evenly. Mather went on a crusade to create a National Park Service, and he was wildly successful, not only getting the Park Service created, but also bringing new National Parks into the department as well, including both Acadia and the Grand Canyon.

What I found most interesting about Mather's story were his tactics: he was a wealthy man (he had made his fortune as a Borax salesman and then as the owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company) and he was a marketing genius. He put his marketing talents to work selling the public on the idea of the National Parks, not just as a place of rest and respite, but also as America's greatest treasure, as a patriotic venture, and as something with real (read: monetary) value. He mobilized other millionaires and the press corps, taking influential editors, writers, and politicians out into the wilderness of the National Parks to preach to them about the wonders of the natural world and the need to protect the land. He travelled all over the country, surveying the National Parks. He wined and dined politicians and the press, business men and landowners. He was among the first to make use of a new law that he had lobbied for--allowing private citizens to donate lands to be added to National Park lands. He often bought and donated land or paid for improvements to roads or the salaries of his help in order to keep the momentum going. But above all, Mather went to the public, through the press, to convince the public and the politicians that the National Parks were good for American, good for the public, and that it was no less than an obligation to protect the land: for the enjoyment of the public as well as the enjoyment of future generations.

In the national park mission, protecting and managing the land for use by all now and use by all later, the movie points out the inherent contradiction or paradox. How do we allow use now and yet preserve these sites for future generations without them deteriorating under the strain of the tourism and visits? It seems to be the same paradox we as a species are now facing in all of our communities: how do we enjoy what we've built, now, while at the same time protecting the future for our children and grandchildren?