Did the League support the expansion of Sequoia National Park in 1926?
I know they have been concerned about the management of the Giant Sequoia. I also know that they were very influential in getting the Point Lobos Reserve south of San Francisco, on the Monterey Peninsula. This had no direct connection with the redwoods, but they got involved anyway (4).
I know that landscape architects have played an important role in the NPS, but have they been influential in the state parks of California and Oregon?
They have been important in California, but I can’t say to what degree. They have had a lot of influence in Oregon, though only one of them—Mark Astrup—ever served as director. Landscape architects have had key roles in Oregon’s state park planning, but this is more of a staff function than an administrative one.
Did state park planners have a role in the transfer of the parks in the John Day Fossil Beds to the NPS?
I don’t know too much about this. It happened during the period when I was away from Oregon. I do know what Dave Talbot says about it. When I worked as a planner we had a series of properties over in Grant and Wheeler Counties. Sam didn’t see any importance in developing the Painted Hills and Picture Gorge areas. But these areas really had national significance, so Dave worked with Mark Hatfield to get them transferred over to the Federal Government so that a national monument could be create. As a matter of fact, I happened to be in Washington at the time of the Senate hearings on this back in 1974. I was there to attend some [National] Parks Association meetings (5). I remember the discussion about the transfer and think it’s been for the best, because the Park Service has been able to bring the fossil beds together as a unit. They have access to money that never would have been available through the state. It is too far away from Salem and the use never approached that of places on the coast.
