FROM THE FOREWORD

 

It is Ansel Adams gift to help us see. It is part of his genius also, because he is impatient with specious things, to help us comprehend. Such a combination is always useful and we welcome the opportunity to put it in print, drawing heavily on Adam's earlier book, My Camera in the National Parks. We here include several areas which are not now national parks or monuments, and which, though they deserve that status,may never achieve it. They are nevertheless parklands, fully warranting the special treatment the nation wishes to see accorded the great parks.

But people do not always know what treatment is needed, perhaps because such widely divergent meanings masquerade under the word park. Vast areas are paved to park automobiles; there are industrial parks, amusement parks, atomic parks, and parkways with three lanes of cars per lane of trees. Park and Recreation are frequently used together but the important difference is not always remembered -- all parks are good for recreation but all recreation is not good for parks. . . .

DAVID BROWER

Executive Director, Sierra Club