A PARK MAN'S CREDO

The Review recommends to all National Park Service employees, in the field and in the Regional Office, to those good friends, the State Park Authorities with whom this Service is cooperating in the development of parks, and to all those who have any hand in the planning of park facilities, the following credo penned by Newton B. Drury, of California. It appeared in the July (1938) issue of American Forests.

". . .To escape if possible some pitfalls into which others had fallen, to avoid some fetishes that had been set up in the administration of public lands; to resist the pressure of Scenic Showmanship which measures success in revenue or attendance; of Recreational Enthusiasm, which considers that piece of level land wasted which is not teeming with citizens engaged in healthful and innocent outdoor sports, regardless of their appropriateness to the site; or Virtuosity, the aim of which is to 'gild the lily' or remake Nature's design in keeping with the preconceived notions of well-meaning individuals or groups, for the glory of themselves and their technique -- or merely to satisfy an itch to monkey with the landscape; of Made-Work Projects, exulting in new-found resources, more designed for expenditure of money than expenditure of thought; of that Democracy Complex which holds that if a piece of property belongs to the public; they have an inalienable and limitless right to use it, even if they use it up."

It seems apropos to point out that Mr. Drury is in charge of land acquisition for the California State Park Commission and has been since the beginning of its remarkable acquisition program in 1921; that he has been for two decades the secretary and dynamo of the Save-the-Redwoods League. The achievement of that organization will be his monument; and no man could wish for a finer one.