You came in at the time that the uniform had changed sufficiently where you could walk around without those boots and breeches.
Yes. The uniform has not changed all that much from the time we came in.
How did the increasing visitation affect the various positions that you held?
The National Park Service did everything it could do, especially from the Washington and the regional levels, to encourage visitations to encourage visitation to the national parks. Part of this is a matter of having to have a constituency, too. And one big change I’d like to refer to since you asked about change, the effect on backcountry use areas. There was a time when if you cut cross-country especially, you would not see anybody else in the backcountry. Now, you can’t go anywhere where you don’t see other people. And we have a reservation system which would have been unthinkable when I first started out (17).
I think of Sequoia/Kings like that.
I’m think very much of Sequoia/Kings. I spent time in the backcountry of Sequoia/Kings when I was a teenager, too. I didn’t know the Park Service existed. I wasn’t too respectful of park regulations back then, either. So, I can understand some people who get back in a wilderness park and don’t really understand what it’s all about, because I didn’t either at one time. But the uses have had to be more regulated.
I see the Forest Service, in many cases now, talking about more restrictions in the backcountry because of the heavy use. They’re going more the Park Service direction as far as backcountry goes.
One of the prices you park for population increases, whether it’s in the national park, or national forests or cities is more regulations so that people can live together peacefully.
