Proceedings – GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS

The naturalist must know the story of plant succession in order to give the full value of this interesting story to the public. He can build up a story by reference to the fire scars on trees, to the general appearance of the forest, to the lack of reproduction, to the presence of brush fields, etc. The naturalist can perform a great service to conservation by showing people how important it is that fire be kept out of forests.

In the establishment of research reserves it is important that the purpose for each reserve be determined before the area is set aside. Each area must be specially suited for some certain type of scientific investigation.

Mr. Kotok accentuated the importance of each park having a cover type map and a fauna type map.

Miscellaneous Discussion

Considerable time was devoted to the discussion of training for the position of park naturalist, both because many of the park naturalists assembled were interested in registering for academic work toward an advanced degree and also because of the necessity for selecting park naturalists to fill new appointments. The following are memoranda of a few points brought out during the discussion:

In his university preparation the prospective park naturalist can round out his training and experience to best advantage by attending several different universities during his college career. This applies especially to graduate work. It was agreed that the park naturalist should occasionally be given the opportunity to leave the park for study or training, especially during the winter, so that he may be of greater value to his individual park.

It was agreed that it would be extremely advisable if each park naturalist could receive at least one month’s training during the winter at Educational Headquarters in Berkeley, working under experts in museum preparation and in the various branches of natural history especially applicable to certain individual parks.

In his program of current administration the park naturalist must decide what work is most important. He should then endeavor to accomplish that first rather than doing a little work on many projects and net bringing any of them to completion.

After a detailed discussion of the Yosemite School of Field Natural History, the park naturalists recommended that an effort be made to turn out well qualified ranger naturalists rather than nature study teachers who are not interested in or who are not competent to become members of the Park Service staff. It was the opinion of the ranger naturalists that attendance at the school should be limited to men and that rigid selection should exclude all those who could obviously not qualify later as ranger naturalists.

Dr. Ruhle brought up the question as to the advisability of using the term “ranger naturalist.” No suggestion was forthcoming, however, as to a more suitable designation for members of the park educational staff.

There was considerable discussion as to the advisability of distinguishing ranger naturalists from rangers by uniform. Messrs. Yeager and Ruhle voted for such distinction, and Messrs. Hall, Brockman and Been voted against it.

It was suggested that since this conference had been devoted to the statement of principles of the various educational activities in the national parks, it would be profitable to consider individual problems in detail at the next conference. It was unanimously agreed that this conference has been of greatest value to the park naturalists and that similar conferences should by all means be hold annually.

 

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