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Natural Areas vs. Recreation
Minimal disturbance by modern man is inherent in our concept of a "natural area." We assume that the impact of the American Indian on nature, because of his small numbers and the crudeness of his tools, was almost negligible. Only insofar as he was responsible for more wild-fires than lightning alone would have caused, does the Indian seem to have influenced his environment to any significant degree. Natural areas have many values for modern man. They preserve against the day when man or nature may have uses for the delicate species that cannot tolerate much disturbance of their environment. In this, natural areas serve as modern "Noah's Arks." They are also biological laboratories in which scientists can learn more about how the world of living things functions in response to the forces of nature. Here the causative agent for every observed phenomena must be sought in nature. In such areas, climate shifts and changing radiation levels can be more easily detected and evaluated. Those who make a hobby of some branch of nature study will--in their search for the shy and the delicate and the rare--increasingly seek out natural areas. If such preserves are so scarce as to cause too great a concentration of hobbyists, there is danger that in time they may begin to lose their naturalness and with it some of their scientific value as research areas. It is to be hoped, however, that we can set up enough natural areas in every part of the country to permit free "public" use by those who seek the things which only a natural area can provide. Already, however, we face the problem of increasing use of natural areas by segments of the public who have no interest in nature, but are simply looking for places to swim, picnic, hike, camp or enjoy some other form of outdoor activity. To these people, a natural area's chief attraction is its absence of "no trespassing" signs, and it is at this point that those interested in natural area preservation must firmly draw the line. What these people are looking for are recreation lands and it seems unlikely that we shall be so successful in preserving natural areas that we can afford to release any of them for purely recreational use. Recreation lands in public ownership so that every citizen can enjoy reasonable access to the sea and lakeshore, to rivers and ponds, to forests and mountain peaks, are essential to the maintenance of our American standard of living. Unfortunately, the time is not far off when all land that possesses high recreational values will be either publicly owned or the jealously guarded private holdings of those who can afford to purchase such property. We need both natural areas and recreation lands, but it would be a great mistake to let the public come to regard natural areas as recreation lands. Ultimately, the country should have probably a hundred times as much land in various recreation categories as in the natural area category. Nothing would be a greater disservice to the public at this time, when actions to acquire more recreation land is so badly needed, than to let recreational use of natural areas hide the fact that adequate land is not being obtained for recreation. |