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REVIEW:

Our National Parks and the Search for Sustainability

By Bob R. O'Brien
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999
264 pp., $19.95, paper; ISBN: 0-292-74042-5

As the new millennium approaches, Bob R. O'Brien looks back at 125 years of interaction between humans and nature in America's national parks. In our world of ever-increasing development, the national parks have become a haven of solitude and natural beauty. But by taking advantage of what the parks offer, we threaten their continued existence. O'Brien asks what we as supporters and users of the national parks can do to preserve their majesty for future generations. He also examines the role the National Park Service (NPS) has played in responding to trends in park use, from the sparse visitation of the first half of the century to the summers of wild parties and riots in the 1960s, to the mountain bikes and river running of the 1990s.

O'Brien begins with a discussion of the history of the national park system and the NPS, from President Ulysses S. Grant's signing of the Yellowstone National Park Act in 1872 to the present. He describes the different classifications within the national park system: parks, monuments, preserves, historic areas, and recreation areas. He names parks that were first made national monuments to protect them from commercial industries and, after a longer process, were made full parks. He then delves into the original minds behind the NPS, people like John Muir, Stephen Mather, and Horace Albright. These opening chapters convey the importance of the national parks as places people can go to see some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.

Next, O'Brien examines some commercial threats to the parks particularly grazing (the single most extensive form of land use in the country), lumbering, mining, and water resource development (dams and other structures) which are potentially the greatest threat because of the large-scale ecological changes caused to the surrounding environment.

Some risks to the parks are visitor-related. The NPS is currently trying to find a balance between the number of visitors to parks and the degree of wear the land can absorb without deteriorating. The government agency is also trying to decide how much park land should be accessible to newly popular activities like mountain biking and river running. And increasing numbers of flyovers by tourists viewing the parks from the sky detract from the solitude of the wilderness experience offered by national parks. O'Brien draws on the experiences of six spectacular parks to illustrate the problems and the successes of the park system as a whole. Among others, O'Brien includes Grand Canyon National Park, Denali National Park, and Yosemite National Park.

O'Brien communicates his own deep regard for the parks in this lively, engaging, and informative book that should appeal to anyone interested in either the history of the national park system or its current state. Black and white photographs of several parks highlight the text.

—Leif Redmond

Available from:
University of Texas Press
Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819

Leif Redmond was a recent intern with The Workbook.

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