devote more and more resources as thewilderness study process intensifies. Manyof these lands adjoin national parks, andtheir wise management should help protectthe parks from external threats. Duringthe 100th Congress, TWS will beworking hard to help pass legislation protectingthe California Desert andwildlands in New Mexico and Arizona.The TWS parks program has severalgoals. One is the mitigation of parkthreats, including overflights at GrandCanyon and elsewhere. "Of course, wewill never stop these threats unless NPS'speople in the field receive the funds theyneed to do research and to monitor theproblems," says Steve Whitney, whorecently moved from NPCA to direct TheSociety's parks program. "We think theAdministration's budget proposal shortchangesthem."We also want to see new areas andboundary expansions," says Whitney. Henoted that the California Desert billwould expand and redesignate as parksboth Death Valley and Joshua Tree <strong>National</strong>Monuments and establish a MojaveWilderness Society in AlaskaThe Great Land has always had aspecial pull on The Wilderness Society.That is natural enough; Alaska isthe wildest place in this nation.It was a big blank on the mapnorth of the Arctic Circle that impelledRobert Marshall to explore theBrooks Range in 1929. Gates of theArctic <strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong> got its namefrom Marshall, who pinned thatmoniker on two mountains he sawas he climbed a ridge and gazed out,for the first time, at the BrooksRange. His book, Arctic Village,became a best-seller in 1933.Olaus Murie, who was director ofTWS and later president for 17years, was sent to Alaska by theU.S. Biological Survey in 1920. Hemet his wife, Mardy, the firstwoman to graduate from the Universityof Alaska, and they honeymoonedby studying caribou in theBrooks Range. Their work helpedlay the foundation for establishmentof the Arctic <strong>National</strong> WildlifeRefuge. Mardy, still a member of theGoverning Council, has written threebooks on Alaska and was one ofThe Society's most effective advocatesin the consuming effort topass the Alaska Lands Act.One critical event was the GoverningCouncil's annual meeting in1963, held in Denali <strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong>."We made a commitment to pushhard on Alaska issues," recalls TedSwem. "That really motivated us."Swem went on to chair the InteriorDepartment's Alaska Planning Groupfrom 1973 to 1976.The group's interest in Alaska remainsstrong. Randall Snodgrass, theonly holdover from the pre-Turnageera, devotes all his time to Alaskaissues. Susan Alexander is the highprofileregional director, based inAnchorage. Alaska's many refugesare watched intently by Bill Reffalt,who played a major part during the1970s in drafting the Interior Department'sANILCA proposal. TWS isthe lead group on two controversialAlaska issues: timbering in theTongass and the fight over thecoastal plain of the Arctic <strong>National</strong>Wildlife Refuge.Left. Bill Reffalt, Director of The Society'sWildlife Refuge Program: right, formerSenator Gaylord Nelson, The Society'sCounselorStanding, Susan Alexander, The Society's Regional Director for Alaska;Seated, Steve Whitney, Director of The Society's <strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong>s ProgramRandall Snodgrass, Director of The Society's Alaska Program.Photos courtesy of Gail Backman Love6<strong>COURIER</strong>/May 1987
<strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong>. "The national park reallyis 'the best idea America ever had,' andwe should be on the lookout for opportunitiesto expand the system. I reject thenotion that the park system is almostcomplete."Simultaneously, TWS will continue tourge Congress to designate wilderness inGreat Smoky Mountains and other parksand to add to the Wild and Scenic RiverSystem. At the top of the list this Congressare three California rivers: the Kern,Kings, and Merced.The threats and conflicts confrontingthe wildlife refuge system, including toxiccontaminants, have been a focus of theTWS refuges program. One of the purposesis to dramatize the need for anorganic act for the refuge system, whichThe Society has been advocating foryears. Soon TWS plans to mount a majorcampaign to pass such legislation.Alaska lands, because of the largeacreage involved and The Society's longand intimate connection with Alaska [seesidebar], are treated almost as a fifthpublic lands system. TWS is in thevanguard trying to win wildernessdesignation for the coastal plain of theArctic <strong>National</strong> Wildlife Refuge. The InteriorDepartment has recommended thatCongress open the plain to oil drilling.Cutting across these various programsis the annual campaign for adequate appropriationsfrom the Land and WaterConservation Fund. TWS heads a coalitionof 12 groups that each Februaryissues a report identifying projects thatdeserve funding during the next fiscalyear. The Society, with Rindy O'Brien inthe lead, then plays a major role inlobbying for approval of the recommendations.With the fund about to expire,TWS will be urging reauthorization.In all of its public lands work, TWS isincreasingly focusing on whole ecosystems.Over the past two years TheSociety has issued reports on GreaterYellowstone, the Southern AppalachianHighlands, and the North Woods. TheYellowstone report pointed out the threatposed to wildlife by habitat fragmentationand proposed creation of amacroreserve through the protection ofconnected lands. "Unless there is strong,coordinated action taken—and takensoon—this country will have fumbledaway a large part of the gift that isYellowstone," says Frampton. TheSociety considers the Yellowstone campaignparticularly important and recentlyset up an office in Bozeman, MT, to furtherits work.Another ecosystem receiving more andmore attention from TWS is theEverglades. Jim Webb, former deputyassistant secretary for Fish and Wildlifeand <strong>Park</strong>s, has opened a TWS office inMiami and is concentrating on thatecosystem.The Wilderness Society has been headquarteredin Washington since its founding.It has 80 employees in the UPIBuilding at 14th and Eye Streets, whereTWS has put on permanent publicdisplay a 75-print collection of AnselAdams photographs, a gift from Adams.Besides Bozeman and Miami, ninecities have TWS field offices: Anchorage,Seattle, San Francisco, Phoenix, Boise,Salt Lake City, Denver, Atlanta, andBoston. Half of these offices did not existthree years ago, and continued expansionis one of The Society's goals.Each year TWS runs up a biggerprinting bill because of the reports andbrochures it issues. Its primary publicationis the organization's quarterlymagazine, Wilderness, edited by T. H.(Tom) Watkins. Recently The Society coauthored,with Dyan Zaslowsky, TheseAmerican Lands, a major history and aunit-by-unit study of the present conditionand possible future of all the publiclands, published by Henry Holt andCompany.The funding for the publications andthe rest of The Society's operations comesfrom its 160,000 members, bequests, anda growing roll of foundations, which areexpected to account for about a quarterof this year's $8 million budget.Looking ahead, as leaders of TWS areprone to do, Frampton sees more emphasison wildlife and on ecosystemanalysis. "But more important than whichissues we choose to focus on is the fundamentalduty to reach out to the manysegments of the population that have notbeen part of our movement. "Our goal,"says Frampton, "should be to make everysingle American an environmentalist."This is the third article in a continuing serieson the groups that help the parks. The first appearedin August (<strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong>s and ConservationAssociation: Watchdog for the <strong>National</strong><strong>Park</strong>s), the second in September(Cooperating Associations in the mid-80s: aturning point).NPS steams into the age of railroadsArthur MillerMARO Public AffairsThe <strong>National</strong> <strong>Park</strong> <strong>Service</strong> found itselfin the railroad business when Congressauthorized a railroad yard in Scranton,Pennsylvania, along with a collection ofold locomotives and railroad cars, tobecome the newest unit of the nationalpark system.The new area—to be called Steamtown<strong>National</strong> Historic Site—consists ofthe 40-acre freight yard of the formerDelaware, Lackawanna and WesternRailroad, a roundhouse and locomotiverepair shop, as well as one of thenation's largest collections of steam-eralocomotives and rolling stock.The Steamtown Foundation, whichowns and operates the railway equipment,had moved its locomotive collectionfrom Vermont to Scranton in 1984.The locomotives and cars were purchasedby the late F. Nelson Blount, aWorkers in the repair shops maintaining the former British mainline locomotive,Repton.<strong>COURIER</strong>/May 1987 7
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