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vL^LJ£\! 5 JT\ COVER COURIER Grand Canyon National Park. To many NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE the floor of the Grand Canyon is an unattainable destination. Artist Kevin H. Volume 38, Number 3 March 1993 Adams, through his paintings and drawings, helps bring the unique textures, perspectives, and colors of the Grand Canyon to those unable to visit the park in person. For a detailed account of Mr. Adams work, please see Looking Up at the Grand Canyon: An Artist's Perspective on page 5. STAFF Debra Dortch — Editor Ricardo Lewis — Art & Production Editor Naomi Hunt — Alumni Editor Rosa Wilson — Photo Editor ADVISORS George J. Berklacy — Associate Publisher Duncan Morrow — Executive Editor Theresa Wood — Executive Director, E&AA FEATURE Editorial Offices — 202/208-6843 Fax # — 202/219-0910 Cc:Mail @ WASO Public Affairs LOOKING UP AT THE GRAND CANYON: National Park Service AN ARTIST'S PERSPECTIVE — 5 U.S. Department of the Interior DEPARTMENTS COMMENTARY — 1 REGIONAL ROUNDUP — 7 NPS PEOPLE — 18 E&AA NEWS — 20 printed on recycled paper VIEWPOINT —21 BOOK REVIEW COMMENTARY China Calls Of the 13 directors of the National Park LEGISLATIVE UPDATE House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Service (the 14th awaits appointment), Ronald H. Walker may have borne the heaviest bur Majority (D) den. He succeeded George B. Hartzog, Jr., 103rd Congress • Bruce F. Vento, Chairman (MN) whose commanding nine-year presence at the • Edward J. Markey (MA) helm was terminated by President Richard Assignments to the House Subcommittee on • Nick Joe Rahall II (WV) Nixon at the end of 1972. Walker was person Interior Appropriations, Senate Subcommittee • Pat Williams (MT) ally selected by Nixon without the advice and on Interior and Related Agencies, House • Peter A. DeFazio (OR) consent of his superiors-to-be in the Interior Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and • Tim Johnson (SD) Department. He was only 35, with no park Public Lands, and the Senate Subcommittee on • Larry La Rocco (ID) management experience — the quintessential Public Lands, National Parks, and Forests are • Neil Abercrombie (HI) outsider. And he had been something called asfollows: • Carlos Romero-Barcelo (PR) an "advance man" in the Nixon White House, • Karan English (AZ) an occupation associated somewhat derisively with blowing up balloons and arranging House Subcommittee on Interior • Karen Shepherd (UT) friendly crowds for photo opportunities at Appropriations • Maurice D. Hinchey (NY) presidential appearances. • Robert Anacletus Underwood (GU) Majority (D) • Austin J. Murphy (PA) Although Walker performed far better than • Sidney R. Yates, Chairman (IL) • Bill Richardson (NM) many expected, his background and the politi • John P. Murtha (PA) • Patsy T. Mink (HI) cal nature and circumstances of his appoint • Norman D. Dicks (WA) ment precluded his full acceptance by NPS ca • Tom Bevill (AL) Minority reerists and Interior officials. They might • William H. Natcher (KY) • James V. Hansen, Ranking (UT) have greeted him with greater respect had • Ronald D. Coleman (TX) • Robert F. Smith (OR) they known more about his recent activities. • David E. Skaggs (CO) • Craig Thomas (WY) Less than a year before, this young man had • John J. Duncan, Jr. (TN) led a delegation of 100 Americans to China to Minority (R) • Joel Hefley (CO) prepare the way for Nixon's historic visit in • Ralph Regula, Ranking (OH) • John T. Doolittle (CA) February 1972. • Joseph M. McDade (PA) • Richard H. Baker (LA) The story of this incredibly complex as • Jim Kolbe (AZ) • Ken Calvert (CA) signment has now been told by Anne Collins • Ron Packard (CA) • Jay Dickey (AR) Walker, Ron's wife and member of the National Park System Advisory Board from 1988 to 1992. China Calls is based largely on Senate Subcommittee on Interior and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural transcripts of telephone conversations be Related Agencies Resources: Subcommittee on Public Lands, tween Walker and his staff in China and National Parks, and Forests White House staff in Washington. Majority (D) Commentary by the author and photos taken • Robert C. Byrd, Chairman (WV) Majority (D) by the advance team are interspersed through • J. Bennett Johnston (LA) • Dale L. Bumpers, Chairman (AR) out the book. • Patrick J. Leahy (VT) • Bill Bradley (NJ) The conversations disclose the great care • Dennis DeConcini (AZ) • Jeff Bingaman (NM) that was taken to respect Chinese sensitivities • Dale Bumpers (AR) • Daniel K. Akaka (HI) by breaking precedent on such matters as hav • Ernest F. Hollings (SC) • Paul Wellstone (MN) ing the President travel in an aircraft and auto • Harry Reid (NV) • Richard C. Shelby (AL) mobile provided by the host country. • Patty Murray (WA) • Robert Kreuger (TX) Planning accommodations and communica tions for the 95-member press and broadcast Minority (R) Minority (R) ing delegation, including everyone from • Don Nickles, Ranking (OK) • Frank H. Murkowski, Ranking (AK) Walter Cronkite and Barbara Walters to net • Ted Stevens (AR) • Robert F. Bennett (UT) work cameramen and wire service photogra • Thad Cochran (MS) • Mark Hatfield (OR) phers, required extraordinary effort in a coun try unaccustomed to the ways of the westen • Pete V. Domenici (NM) • Pete V. Domenici (NM) media. Negotiating skills and diplomacy of a • Slade Gorton (WA) • Larry E. Craig (ID) high order were required to avert intercultural • Conrad Burns (MT) • Trent Lott (MS) misunderstandings and potential disasters. • Mark O. Hatfield (OR) • Arlen Spector (PA) There were also light moments, such as Walker's repeated attempts to make clean ice cubes on the window sill of his hotel room in Peking's sooty air. March 1993 COURIER 1 According to Hugh Sidey of TIME, was installed. A draft user's manual was their 10th day of long hours searching for "Richard Nixon's journey to China in 1972 written and distributed; more than 30 region small animals, salamanders, birds, and plants. was one of this century's most important and al folks were trained on site. The group has established transects and pho- dramatic events in the big power game. The Servicewide effort looks orderly and topoints that can be used in future monitoring China Calls is an absolutely unique and fasci rational from a distance. Each region is dif projects. They found a state-listed endan nating look at how the great mission was put ferent, however. Throughout the regions, gered iris and two locally rare plant species. together and made to work." Although it does LCS personnel are zipping material from old And in three days, they will compile data, not address Walker's subsequent leadership of data bases into the new LCS system. Some write reports, create maps, and generally wrap the National Park Service (which the author use digital cameras to snap bit-mapped shots, up two weeks of exhaustive, and exhausting, plans to do in another book), Park Service which get fed directly into the system. Some biological inventory work. readers will find it equally fascinating. In the shoot satellites miles above the earth with And they're not getting paid a penny for all process, they are sure to gain greater apprecia global positioning systems and await return this work! They are part of a pilot project tion for the man given the unenviable task of signals to pinpoint the location of the LCS called "Expedition into America," sponsored following George Hartzog. structure. Others zap bar codes with infrared by the Servicewide Inventory and Monitoring China Calls: Paving the Way for Nixon's guns, drain the digital data from readers, program. Conducted in cooperation with Historic Journey to China by Anne Collins massage it into LCS conformity, and upload Earthwatch, a non-profit organization special Walker; Lanham, Md., Madison Books, converted data. In Washington, people are izing in providing volunteers for scientific 1992. 425 p. $24.95. cranking up image scanners and firing up field research, the project sent 16 teacher- - Barry Mackintosh, computers that just two or three years ago volunteers to Acadia National Park this past Historian, WASO were a computer wizard's dream. Disk stack summer to conduct biological inventories on ers and accelerators move more information the park's offshore islands. The volunteers CULTURAL RESOURCES NEWS faster. People worry about satellite sched contributed a total of 1,100 hours of their ules, ionosphere interference, data conversion time, providing Acadia with important infor packages, gray-scaling, and dithering. mation on the natural resources of these is Classified Structures The LCS is being updated by young, lands. When they got home, the dedicated bright, energetic, dedicated people. teachers took what they had learned directly Update Questions pour in by fax, phone, electronic to their classrooms, educating hundreds of mail. "Is this a structure?" "If a partition is students on the importance of our nation's nat by Lincoln Fairchiid, not load-bearing, is it a wall?" "What is the ural resources and the value of science in the Information Manager difference between 'consumptive use' and preservation of the resources. Park Historic Architecture Division, 'visitation?' " "To rappel over the side of the "In addition to the main island, Mount WASO retaining wall to survey the historic culvert Desert, Acadia is composed of 12 small is takes about three hours. Given that there are lands scattered along the coast," says Judy Since 1960, the National Park Service has many of these, would it be better to lot-list Hazen Connery, resource management spe maintained the List of Classified Structures them?" The LCS crews are rightfully impa cialist at Acadia. "Because of limited staff (LCS), an inventory of all historic structures tient. They have grueling schedules. And, time and resources, we have not been able to in the National Park System having archeo- like Robert Frost, they have "promises to develop basic inventories of flora and fauna logical, historical, or architectural/ keep, and mile to go before [they] sleep." on the offshore islands.