BETTER SANITATION IN PUBLIC CAMP GROUNDS.

The main lines of the sewer system, including pumping stations and disposal plant completed in 1921, were put in operation this spring and now serve all of the hotel, camp, and domestic units and have completely eliminated direct pollution of the Merced River through the effluent of septic tanks and cesspools discharging therein, as has been the case for years past. Further improvement of sanitary conditions in the public camp grounds will be accomplished by the construction of comfort stations equipped with modern flushing fixtures, and $25,000 is now being expended for this purpose. Ten of these comfort stations, together with the necessary connecting sewer lines and an electrically operated pumping station, will be ready for use for the season of 1923 and present unsatisfactory conditions will be relieved in three public camp grounds.

ADMINISTRATION BUIlding stilL LACKING.

The need of a new administration building in Yosemite for the proper housing of the park administrative force in carrying on the park's rapidly expanding activities is urgent and attention is again called to it.

FISH HATCHERY NEEDED.

There is probably no area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where the demand for fishing is so great as in Yosemite. Efforts were made a few years ago to have a hatchery installed by the California State Fish and Game Commission. In 1919 an experimental plant was installed by them for the purpose of determining the suitability of conditions for fish propagation, and, although these experiments indicated that conditions for fish propagation were entirely satisfactory, at the close of that year the experimental hatchery_was abandoned. Since that time we have had no success in our efforts to have the commission complete their original plans and install a permanent hatchery. We are now, as always, dependent on them for fry for stocking the streams and lakes of the park, but they have not been able to furnish us with even a small percentage of the number of fry that should be planted annually if the park waters are to be kept properly stocked. There should not be less than 2,000,000 or 3,000,000, and preferably not less than 5,000,000, fry planted every year, and as a matter of fact only from 200,000 to 300,000 are available. As there now seems little possibility of further interesting the California State Fish and Game Commission in this project, we are taking steps to have the Yosemite situation investigated by the Federal Bureau of Fisheries with a view to securing a Federal hatchery to meet the needs of the situation.

PARK EXTENSION.

In the reports of the past two years we have mentioned the desirability of certain changes in the park boundaries in order first, to eliminate some serious grazing problems that now arise annually in the administration of land in the western part of the park, and, second, to include an extraordinarily scenic area in and about the crest of the Sierra Nevada Range, an area lying to the south and east of the present park boundary and formerly a part of the park.

An opportunity has been afforded this year for a detailed study of the area it is proposed to include, and shortly it is hoped to have a bill prepared for your approval and for submission to Congress.

Consummation of this plan will eliminate a large proportion of the remaining patented lands within the present park boundary and remove many obstacles affecting enforcement of grazing regulations in what is now the western part of the park.

WINTER TRAVEL.

Travel during the winter of 1921-22 again showed a substantial increase over that of the previous winter, when from November to March, inclusive, 4,182 people visited the park as compared with 3,178 during the same period of the previous year.

The construction of a modern hotel, which it is hoped will materialize in the not too distant future, thereby providing more adequate and satisfactory winter accommodations than can be furnished at present, and the installation of an easy means of access to Glacier Point will place Yosemite among the greatest winter resorts of the world.

HARD WINTER FOR game.

The past winter was one of exceptionally heavy snows and consequently hard on the park game; in two instances the effects have been particularly noted. The beautiful gray squirrels which have heretofore abounded in numbers throughout the lower altitudes of the park, being deprived of their natural food, have fallen easy prey to a disease which seems to have practically exterminated them. This condition is not confined to Yosemite alone, but is understood to be general throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Similarly the deer which, during the past few years have increased in large numbers, were also unable to obtain anything like their normal winter food supply with the result that they, too, either fell victims to diseases or were killed off by their natural enemies, the wildcats and lions, or, surviving the winter, were in large numbers unable to recuperate even after their food was restored to them after the melting of the winter snows.

While the situation with regard to the deer has been serious there is every reason to believe that with normal conditions obtaining during the next year or two they will return to their original numbers.

EDUCATIONAL WORK.

Educational work in the park was again materially extended in scope. The park museum which was started last year was opened to the public at the beginning of the travel season. In spite of inadequate facilities for housing the museum a highly creditable showing has been made. More than $30,000 worth of exhibitions have been either loaned or donated to the park and these have all been suitably displayed for the benefit of the public. Interest in this activity is sufficiently indicated by the fact that during the months of July and August over 33,000 people visited the museum, many of them returning again and again to study the exhibits exemplifying the natural history, zoology, ethnology, botany, and history of the region.

The nature-study work inaugurated in 1920 was continued under the immediate direction of Dr. H. C. Bryant, of the University of California. Attendance at the lectures, campfire talks, and field trips offered during June, July, and August, reached nearly 40,000 people, showing the popularity of this phase of educational work.

Likewise the third series of LeConte Memorial Lectures given under the auspices of the University of California extension division was highly successful, the attendance at the various lectures being far in excess of that of previous years.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, ARIZ.

While Grand Canyon National Park has suffered under the handicap of inadequate appropriations and administrative difficulties due to an almost complete change in personnel, nevertheless it has just completed what we believe to be its greatest year as a tourist resort. During the 1915 exposition year there was a slightly larger aggregate number of visitors than was there this year, but, taking the length of time spent by tourists in the park, the use of the park this year by the traveling public was much more extensive than ever before. The travel in June, 1922, was the heaviest ever recorded during any month of the park's history. Travel to the North Rim of the canyon increased considerably this year, probably as a result of magazine articles on this region and railroad advertising of Zion National Park with occasional reference to facilities for reaching the North Rim from Utah points.

GRAND CANYON'S EXcellent facilities.

The heavy tourist traffic was handled expeditiously and satisfactorily by the park utility which is one of the most progressive organizations of its kind. Always looking to the future and planning ahead, Fred Harvey made notable improvements in its enterprise and expended large sums this year in bettering its service and accommodations. Chief among the improvements is the Phantom Ranch, a resort near the mouth of Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. This new resort is a group of stone cabins or lodges, with central dining room and kitchen built according to plans and designs carefully developed by skilled architects who studied the location of the structures and the surrounding country before beginning their work. The site of the resort has been improved by cultivation and is a beautiful place from every standpoint. It offers many inducements to make the trip down the Bright Angel Trail and the Tonto Trail, thence across the river on the suspension bridge built by us last year, and it is a natural stop-over point and resting place for tourists making the rim-to-rim trip.

TRIPS INTO THE CANYON TO BE POPULARIZED.

One of the reasons for the establishment of Phantom Ranch was a desire on the part of the public utility to do its share in working out the plans of the National Park Service to have visitors go into the canyon and across it in order that they may come to know it better, to understand its marvelous features, and to appreciate its value as a national park. We are extremely anxious that tourists should learn not to consider the canyon simply as a one or two

day park. Few realize what opportunities of healthful recreation there are in the Grand Canyon. Few know, for instance, that with Hermit Camp and Phantom Ranch available for night stop-overs in the canyon, numerous side trips can be taken from the hotels and camps on the rim, and that these trips take one through scenery as varied and wonderful as any to be observed in other big parks that are generally thought to be better developed with facilities for accommodating visitors. In no other park is there a finer trail trip available than the one from Grand Canyon station on the South. Rim along the rim to Hermit Rest, thence down the Hermit Trail to the excellent camp in the canyon that bears the same name, thence on the second day along the Tonto Trail to the river across the suspension bridge to Phantom Ranch, thence on the third day to Ribbon Falls up Bright Angel Creek and back to the ranch or on to the North Rim, thence back to the point of beginning via the Bright Angel Trail.

In order to stimulate interest in these canyon trail trips, we issued prior to the summer season a pamphlet on the trails of the park, which was distributed widely and which it is hoped has been effective in inducing visitors to spend a while on these trails and thus gain a comprehensive view of the vastness of the gorge and its wonders below the rims.

ROAD IMPROVEMENT essential.

All

Of course, many tourists can not ride down the trails, or climb over them afoot in the high altitudes. For the majority of the visitors, therefore, roads are essential. In Grand Canyon Park, as in Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, and other national parks, the roads were originally built by private individuals or by corporations, usually as toll roads, the Government rendering no aid at all. The roads were built for wagons and not for automobiles. Hence, with the exception of the Hermit Rim Road, which was built by the Santa Fe Railway system, the park roads are hardly suitable for motor traffic and most of them are open only part of the year. must be rebuilt with better grades, widened, and, wherever possible, surfaced. It is particularly important that the road to Grand View and Desert View be reconstructed and improved as soon as possible, as, next to the short Hermit Rim Road, this is the most important road in the park. It has been contended by some friends of the park and by some members of this service that rather than improve the road to Grand View a new rim road should be built. The idea of rebuilding the old road appeals to me, because it offers an opportunity to observe the forest and other features of the park aside from the canyon itself, while a rim road to Grand View would be similar in many respects to the Hermit Rim Road.

If this Grand View and Desert View Road can be maintained for automobile traffic 10 or 11 months of the year, thousands of people will spend more time in the park and will make trips that are now impossible on account of road conditions in the wet season.

GRAND CANYON ROADS IN THE NEXT BUDGET.

Should Congress approve the pending road budget for the national parks, there will be sufficient funds available during the next three years to reconstruct the Grand View Road, greatly improve the

road to Desert View and beyond, rebuild the road to the south or Maine entrance, to make the road to the region of the Havasupai Reservation westward from park headquarters passable for automobiles part of the year; also some improvement can be made on roads leading to a few of the spectacular points on the North Rim.

FORESTS OF THE GRAND CANYON.

Few visitors are aware of the magnificence of the Grand Canyon forests on both rims. There are few remaining stands of timber in America that equal these forests, and yet they may all be destroyed in the manufacture of lumber within a few years, with the exception of the relatively small tracts within the park lines, which are very close to the canyon rims. Lumbering is already in progress outside the park on the south, and the lovely stands of pines that border the south line will soon be gone. On the north the magnificent Kaibab Forest remains in its natural state. It may be a few years and it may be many before the ax and the saw begin work in this forest, but unless protected by law, sooner or later it will go. Great herds of deer abound in this forest, and they, too, should be preserved.

THE PREsident's FOREST.

While discussing the Kaibab Forest with E. J. Marshall, head of the Grand Canyon Cattle Co., the director urged the elimination of the cattle from the southern section of this forest, which was being heavily grazed with detriment both to the forest and to the deer: also the cattle were grazing considerably on the park lands due to the absence of adequate drift fences. Mr. Marshall promised to withdraw all his cattle and turn over his improvements to the Government, provided the land should not again be grazed by live stock. It was our idea that that part of the forest, which was to be evacuated by Mr. Marshall's concern, ought to be permanently reserved and the timber and game carefully protected henceforth just as they would be were the territory included in the park. Park extension, however, was not contemplated at the time. Not over a third of the forest was involved in this general plan.

A suggestion was then made by a well-known writer that the whole Kaibab Forest be perpetually reserved and called "The President's Forest. His idea, which was not ours, was given wide publicity and resulted in a storm of protest from cattle and sheep men who use range west and north of that occupied by the Grand Canyon Cattle Co.; also from the county which derives revenue from the forest. This caused the whole project to fall and nothing was accomplished, although a bill was introduced to designate a section of the Kaibab Forest the President's Forest, and make it a game and timber sanctuary to remain under the Forest Service.

The President's Forest is a noble conception and should ultimately be established. At any rate, the American people should see to it that a portion of this wonderful forest is preserved forever in its natural state, either by adding a reasonable area to the national park, or by having it reserved under Forest Service jurisdiction. It would be highly desirable also if some of the timber that borders the south park line could be similarly protected.