Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Secretary of the Interior Says T ation Must Meet Demand for Outdoor Recreation By WALTER J. HICKEL Secretary of the Interior .Curing environmental ills te a major goal of this Ad ministration. A better recre ation environment is an im portant part of the quality life we seek in these efforts. We are look ing carefully at our natural es tate in order to preserve the best of what we have, and to re claim what we have defiled in the past. We have put teeth into water pollution control programs. We are expanding multiple use concepts for all Federal lands and waters. We are zeroing in on the knottiest problem of them all, the spe cial environmental needs of our huge urban areas. Above all, we are laying the foundation for greater par ticipation on the part of State and local governments in assessing and combating the outdoor recreation short ages in their communities. Annual 10% Increase Direct action toward meet ing the Nation’s pressing cur rent outdoor recreation needs is necessary if we are to ac commodate the 10 percent increase each year expected in outdoor activities. This rate of growth is projected in the Nation’s first nationwide outdoor recreation plan, pro duced for the Department of the Interior by its Bureau of Outdoor Recreation. Acquisi tion and development of lands and waters for recrea tion have not kept pace with the demand for open areas in which to roam and play. The Plan reveals unbal ance in the availability of outdoor recreation opportu^ nlties between East and West, shortages of public recrea tion areas in rural America, and a critical lack of recrea tion lands and facilities in the Nation’s larger cities and their fast-multiplying sub urbs. Local governments are unable to meet the ever-ris ing costs of providing them. Parks to People In recognition of these im mediate needs we are consid ering an increased funding program for urban recrea tion projects, and for Federal action to establish national parklands in or near our cit ies. We are channeling the money and authority we now have to bring more park- lands to our urban popula tions. The proposed Gateway National Recreational Area In metropolitan New York and New Jersey is only one example of our determina tion to invest Federal funds and efforts to bring Parks to People. Throughout the country we are intensifying our ac tivities to preserve and bet ter use existing natural re sources. Though the need for new highways and airports and industrial and residen tial development in this dy namic era of growth in many areas of the country cannot be denied, we are taking tough stands wherever we can to protect outstanding natural resources from these encroachments. Now i« the Time As I told the Governor’s Conference on California’s Changing Environment in November last year, I think now is a good time to resolve that in the next decade our Net National Environment — and not our Gross National Product — will be the over riding objective of the Na tion. The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation maintains a con tinuing national and region al inventory of man-made as well as natural outdoor rec reation areas and facilities to enable us to follow our progress in meeting outdoor recreation needs. Under consideration is a proposal that a National Recreation Environment Ac count also be established to keep us up-to-date on where we stand in terms of quanti ties and qualities of our sig nificant resources — shore line, islands, wetlands, rivers and estuaries, deserts and wilderness, and historic, cul tural and scientific areas. The Department of the In terior is evaluating this rec ommendation. Other programs being con sidered in the Department could provide sorely needed technical assistance and re search and education that would help and encourage many levels of government, private citizens and industry, to improve the Nation’s out door environment. There has been a great deal of talk lately about how we are courting environmental suicide by ruining our out doors. This is, at most, only a half truth. Today, unlike our attitudes of decades gone by, we are at last taking posi tive action to bring about re newal, not disaster. The outdoors concerns all Americans today, inspiring constructive action, even among our so-called “disen chanted” youth. Where once they hailed our great tech nological advances as un questioned victories and gave no thought to their effect up on our environment, they now cry for new technologies that will not only repair the damage to our earth but im prove it. To me, this is one of the most encouraging as pects of our time. Thrrc i* almost limitless ehoire afforded everyone who seeks to improve the quality of hi* leisure in the fireut Outdoors, hv the National Parks Systems of North Ameriea, as the montage above seeks to slickest. Modern mobility puts fun on beaches, camping: for the family, plenty of fishing, boating and hunting and also scenic beauty within comfortable reach of all, as reflected from scenes above picturing places and activities in areas ranging from the far north in Panada, south to the Pulf in the l nited Slates, and from coast to coast and in between, in both countries. Outdoor facilities are amplified by state or provincial and local parks. Canada Expanding Parks System between Wallace By DAN WALLACE, Director, Canadian Government Travel Bureau Already a leader in the de velopment of national parks, Canada is planning to ex pand the 1969 chain of 19 national parks 60 and 80 by the end of this century Ten new parks will be in operation with in five years. One of the first will be the first national park in Quebec Pro vince — on the Fortillon Peninsula in the Gasp6 region. The Canadian government is now spending some $8 million to develop it. There is no doubt that Canada’s national parks are used and appreciated. In 1969, some 12 million people visited them — and even more are expected in 1970. Attendance has been in creasing by 10-12 percent an nually, and these figures will escalate sharply as new parks are opened and recreational facilities upgraded. Estimates indicate that, by the early 1980s, some 25-30 million people will be visit ing the parks. Ranging in size from one square mile to over 17,000, and covering a total area of about 30,000 square miles, Canada’s national parks were chosen to preserve some of the most beautiful scen ery in the country, and pro vide invigorating modern recreational facilities. To meet these high stand ards, an area must satisfy certain strict requirements: • It must contain some siif perior natural feature such as outstandingly beautiful scenery, rare geological interest, unique flora or fauna ; • The territory must be large large enough to support a flourishing wildlife in the most congenial environ ment ; • The cost of development and preservation “in per petuity” must be justified by the pleasure it will give visitors; • It must be left unimpaired for the benefit and enjoy ment of future generations. Canada’s parks expansion and development policy is based on the belief that out door recreational areas have to be organized to face en tirely new and, in some cases, entirely unexpected situa tions: • A large percentage of the population will use them regularly for health and recreational purposes; • Social, economic and polit ical changes will produce a radical change in their function; • Increasingly rigid techno logical progress will accel erate the need for these changes. Canada has divided all park territory into five broad groups, according to their "land-use.” In the first group, vehicu lar traffic is absolutely pro hibited, to allow plant and animal communities to flour ish with the minimum of human interference. Group five, at the other end of the ’’land-use” spectrum, is per mitted a certain amount of regulated traffic because of existing local communities (eg. Banff Townsite). The three groups in be tween are classified as rural, semi-rural, and semi-urban — with the accent always on the natural and unspoilt. Provision is also being made for recreation in every month of the lengthening va cation year — watersports wintersports, golf, tennis, lawn bowling, trail-riding, picnicking, camping, fishing, curling, skiing, and cruising a glacier in a snowmobile. Vacation patterns are un dergoing rapid transforma tion. While July and August are still the most popular months, more and more peo ple are flocking to national parks in spring, early sum mer, fall, and even in winter There is a steadily in creasing demand for outdoor camping facilities during the winter months. Travel ana lysts believe this demand may assume quite substantial proportions in the next 10 years. The astronomical increase of snowmobile owners will help to spur this trend. Free Pamphlets Available to Help Hone Outdoor Photography Skills Free pamphlets offering practical tips on how to sharpen your vacation time and outdoor picture taking skills are available for the asking. Write Eastman Kodak Company, Department 841- GO, 343 State Street, Roch ester, N. Y, for any of the following: • * • Photographing Your Trip Abroad is a 20-page pamphlet containing general travel photo hints as well as advice for picture-taking abroad • • • Making Movies More Inter esting is an 8-page reprint from the Kodak book How to Make Good Home Movies offering advice on variation of scene length, shifts in sub ject distance and continuity • • • 1 nderwatrr Photography is a 7-page pamphlet with tips on how to make good under water pictures, covering the proper equipment, film, ex posure, focusing and use of flash. • • • Taking Pictures from Air liner* is a 4-page pamphlet covering the basic rules for taking pictures from up- high. WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWMWWW