George Melendez Wright
National Parks: Episode 5
Thursday, October 1, 2009
8:00 PM and 1:00 AM
Synopsis
To battle unemployment in the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt creates the Civilian Conservation Corps, which spawns a "golden age" for the parks through major renovation projects. In a groundbreaking study, a young NPS biologist named George Melendez Wright discovers widespread abuses of animal habitats and pushes the service to reform its wildlife policies. Congress narrowly passes a bill to protect the Everglades in Florida as a national park - the first time a park has been created solely to preserve an ecosystem, as opposed to scenic beauty. As America becomes entrenched in World War II, Roosevelt is pressured to open the parks to mining, grazing and lumbering. The president also is subjected to a storm of criticism for expanding the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming by accepting a gift of land secretly purchased by John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Episode 5 of Ken Burns' series tells the story of the national parks during the period of the Great Depression and World War II. These outside conditions had a great effect on how the public and the government came to see the parks. Albright and Roosevelt saw the transition from an era of park expansion and preservation to an era of appraising resources and redefining the purpose of the park service.
In previous years park lands were nationalized because they were beautiful and could attract tourists who would be willing to travel for the pleasure of seeing something new. This new era brought about the transfer of historical sites and monuments to the care of the park service. The idea of the parks was expanding.
George Melendez Wright took the park system to the next step. He was the first to recognize and advocate for the value of preserving park wildlife. Up until this point the focus had been on promoting tourism so that there would be a reason for the government to financially support the parks' maintenance and protection. That meant wildlife was put on display if it was benign or hunted if it was dangerous. The ecosystems of the parks were becoming unbalanced.
Wright's Wildlife Survey showed the changes to the ecosystem. It resulted in Albright's creation of a new wildlife division in 1933. The Everglades were the first national park to be created in the name of preserving the indigenous plants and animals from extinction.
Other changes that came about were the development of the parks by the newly founded Civilian Conservation Corps. The Great Depression left many out of work. As part of his solution to the vast unemployment Franklin Delano Roosevelt created the corps to put young men to work further building and maintaining park spaces.
The advent of World War II meant yet another phase of battling over the usefulness of park resources vs. the value of the parks as open environments. Despite the efforts of Harold Ikes and Ansel Adams, the parks became a part of the war effort as training grounds for the troops.
Visit the website: http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks
RELATED LINKS:
Visit the National Parks site to read more about Episode 5
Ansel Adams Gallery
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park
George Wright Society
National Park Service History
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