WSP03489

• File Number: 7630.285
• Description: Wild and Scenic - General
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 6/1/1967
• Author: Donald N Baldwin
• Title: Wilderness-Concept and Challenge - Reprinted from Colorado Magazine - Summer 1967
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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The original application of the wilderness concept occurred in 1919, followed by a
second such step in 1921, These and other pertinent actions took place prior to and during
the "incubation period" referred to by Leopold, Until July 12, 1929, when the Forest
Service issued its "Regulation L-20: Primitive Areas," these areas were identified under the
authority of the district foresters, and did not require the approval of the Washington
Office, Thus, they were subject to no uniform management plan,14 Regulation L,20 gave
final authority for the creation of primitive areas to the Chief of the Forest Service, and
thus created the possibility of unified, nationwide protection of wilderness values in
National Forests, Between 1929 and 1933, this opportunity was utilized to identify
sixty,three potential primitive areas within the National Forests, and formally to establish
eleven of them,1 5 It was not until 1939 that new regulations superseded that of 1929,15

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Let us return now to the period just prior to the years 1919-1933 and assess the status
of "recreation" in the National Forests of the United States, On the eve of World War I,
Forest Service officials noted the increasing use of National Forests as playgrounds, The
minutes of a Forest Supervisor's Conference held in Denver from January 29 to February 3,
1917, gave significant evidence of the origin and growing awareness of the recreational uses
of the National Forests among Forest Service personnel. The chairman of the conference
was Smith Riley, the District Forester, At the morning session on Wednesday, January 31,
Q, R, Craft, the District Fiscal Agent, noted that "twelve years ago tomorrow" the Forest
Service had been transferred from the Department of the I nterior to the Department of
Agriculture. and that in 1905 the rank and file had little grasp of what it meant, Of one
thing he seemed certain, namely that "this western country is bound to increase
wonderfully in population and that means that every Forest officer must advance and keep
pace with the development and need of these Forest resources, , , :<17 Between 1917 and
the end of World War I, the Forest Service made an extended examination of the existing
conditions of recreation. It was concluded that the Forests should be made more accessible
to visitors, and that the Forest Service should employ men suitably trained in landscape
engineering,l B

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When the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, American troops became eager to
return to their homes and their peacetime occupations, This group included First Lieutenant
Arthur H. Carhart of the Sanitary Corps, United States Army, stationed at Camp Meade,
Maryland, While still in the Washington, D, C" area in December of that year, he applied
first to the National Park Service for employment as a landscape architect, but without
success, Then he visited the main office of the Forest Service in the United States
Department of Agriculture where he made the acquaintance of Edward A, Sherman, the
Assistant Forester, who, like Carhart, was a graduate of Iowa State College,19

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Carhart's background to 1918 had been unexceptional. He was born September 18,
1892. at Mapleton, Iowa, where he was educated in the public schools, In June, 1916, he
was graduated from Iowa State College with a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape
architecture, When he entered the army in September, 1917, he had acquired approximately
thirteen months of experience in greenhouses, nurseries, and related landscape operations,
including a summer with the Shaw Botanical Garden at St, Louis, Missouri.2o

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