1939: Conservation

During 1939 nature was comparatively beneficent, and in the absence of wayward hurricanes, devastating floods, and ruinous droughts, conservation made more progress in the field than it did in the legislative halls and administrative offices of Washington.

Legislation and Reorganization.

The major legislative event of 1938 was the defeat of the Reorganization Bill in the House of Representatives, and with it was lost the abortive plan to transform the Department of the Interior into a Department of Conservation. The Bill involved the transfer of such conservational agencies as the Soil Conservation Service and the Forest Service from the Department of Agriculture to the newly constituted Department of Conservation. Complex as were the issues which led to the ultimate defeat of the Bill, there is no question but that opposition to its passage may in part be traced to its proposal to wrest from the Secretary of Agriculture a group of agencies which have been notably successful in dealing with conservational problems, and to give them to the present Secretary of the Interior, whose department has at best a mediocre conservational record.

Coordination of Forestry with National Park Service.

During 1939 a more satisfactory method of coordinating the conservational activities of the Federal Government was finally devised: In March, by joint action of the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior, a joint interdepartmental committee was set up to consider questions and to adjust differences arising between the Forest Service and the National Park Service and General Land Office. With a personnel drawn from the various Government bureaus chiefly concerned, the committee has already demonstrated its ability to eliminate the friction which has long characterized the operations of the two departments in bordering or overlapping spheres of activity. Now that the smoke of the legislative-administrative battle has cleared, it is apparent that division of responsibility for conservational projects in different fields is a practical measure which nearly every foreign nation has adopted — some of them after far more experience than the United States has had. In all but four countries which give serious attention to their forests, for example, forestry is regarded as a problem of raising plants and animals, and as such it is a function of the department of agriculture.

Civilian Conservation Corps.

On July 1, 1939, in the name of reorganization, the Civilian Conservation Corps became one of six component parts in the newly created Federal Security Agency under the supervision of Paul V. McNutt. The outstanding performance of the Civilian Conservation Corps as an independent agency under the command of Robert Fechner has certainly won the admiration of the American public, and its fate and achievements under an aspiring candidate for the 1940 presidential nomination will be watched critically.

Gearhart Bill.

In Congress, conservational legislation developed steadily into a baffling impasse, especially in connection with the National Parks. The Gearhart Bill (H.R. 3704) was initially introduced to create the John Muir-Kings Canyon National Park from lands now administered as part of the Sequoia National Forest in California. After bitter controversy the Bill emerged from committee with amendments which would authorize the construction of dams and reservoirs for flood control, irrigation, and power, as well as the continued use of the area for grazing. The Bill in this form deserves all the abuse and condemnation it has received, and the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior have both deplored the committee's compromise on fundamental principles. Passage of the bill would give private interests their first foothold in the lands and resources of a national park, and that it must be defeated is the viewpoint of everyone who is earnestly concerned about the future of our national parks.

National Parks Problem.

Another very practical issue must be decided in connection with the John Muir-Kings Canyon project. It is claimed that the water resources of the region must be utilized for irrigation and power if the human activities in adjacent sections of the Central Valley of California are to enjoy a normal and healthy growth; that the grazing facilities which have been available in the area while it has been administered as a national forest have become a vital need in the local economy; that the withdrawal of the large acreage involved in the projected park from commercial utilization would limit or inhibit further progress in this section of the state. It has been pointed out that California already possesses more national parks than any other commonwealth, and that the point has been reached where the creation of additional parks will conflict with the state's economic welfare and development. Whether these claims can be substantiated or not, they will bring to Congressional and public attention the homely but important fact that the desire to immunize the country's beauty spots against economic exploitation and to extend the recreational facilities available to the public must be weighed carefully against the practical economic needs of affected communities. Perhaps to emphasize the fact that there is a saturation point beyond which the creation of national parks can not, or should not, be extended, a resolution was introduced into Congress on June 30, 1939, to abolish the Grand Teton National Park. The fact that the resolution followed debate on the John Muir-Kings Canyon issue and the introduction of bills in the House and Senate to provide for the establishment of the Green Mountain National Park in Vermont has led most observers to conclude that abolition of the Grand Teton National Park is not the serious and primary intent of the proposal. See also NATIONAL PARKS AND MONUMENTS.

Conservation of Mineral Resources.

In 1938 the Administration exhibited a growing interest in mineral resources, but the course of action contemplated is still obscure. In May (1938), the President singled out phosphates for a special study by a joint committee of the Senate and the House, but why this particular product should have been selected for study is not clear. The United States possesses 41 per cent of the world's phosphate resources; and even though 90 per cent of the supply lies in relatively remote public lands in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and Utah, the 2,000-year reserve available scarcely warrants special attention at this time.

The war in Europe has intensified Government interest in certain strategic minerals which can not be produced in adequate commercial quantities in the United States. At the recommendation of the Army and Navy Munitions Board, the Department of the Interior is investigating reserves of antimony, chromium, manganese, tin, and tungsten in Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, New Mexico and Nevada. The President has issued a request to citizens who own stocks of strategic minerals not to sell them to foreign purchasers but to hold them for use in this country. Search for these materials was carried on in 1917 and 1918, but a reexamination of deposits is justified by two decades of technological improvements which have resulted in making the utilization of low-grade ores a feasible proposition.

Conservation of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

Of more significance is a growing tendency to regulate and control production and traffic in petroleum and natural gas. In June 1938 Congress gave the Federal Power Commission authority over interstate sales of natural gas. Meanwhile the oil boom in Illinois, accompanied by the inevitable, though temporary, disruption of distributional facilities as production skyrocketed, has once again prompted governmental concern over the control of production as a conservational measure. At the moment it looks as if control of the development, production, and marketing of oil may become a major States' rights issue in 1940; and when hearings on the Cole Bill take place in Washington and New Orleans during January, the states will undoubtedly fight vigorously against nationalization of the petroleum industry.

General Progress.

On other fronts conservation has progressed, untroubled by legislative and administrative crises and quarrels. A program of flood protection has been vigorously pushed in New England, though the more fundamental program of flood control has lagged. State and Federal agencies have greatly advanced the cause of proper land classification, land use, and soil conservation; and rapid strides are being made toward the reconstruction of the Upper Lake States economy, which is threatened with disruption as the copper resources of the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan are exhausted, and iron mining in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota fails to regain the momentum it had in the prosperous twenties. Economically the immediate outlook in the Upper Lake country is dreary, but from the standpoint of conservation it is the Nation's brightest spot; for here, coherent and coordinated conservation programs are being worked out for lands, forests, wild life, soils, and minerals; and this region, which has been ravaged by private exploitation during the greater part of a century, may enjoy a type of rehabilitation that will make it a model for conservational measures elsewhere. See also AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; MINERALOGY; RECLAMATION.