NATIONAL PARKS ASSOCIATION 1214 Sixteenth Street, N.W. Washington 6, D.C. News Release No. 58 June 26, 1947 EVERGLADES NATIONAL PRIMEVAL PARK ESTABLISHED On June 20, Secretary of the Interior Julius A. Krug signed an order establishing 710 square miles in south Florida as the Everglades National Park. This good news, in a release from the Department of the Interior, reached your Association too late to be included in the July-September issue of the National Parks Magazine, which is on the press at this writing. The Secretary's action followed his acceptance from Governor F.M. Caldwell of Florida to a check for $2,00,000 appropriated by the state for park land acquisition. In 1929, President Hoover signed an act authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to investigate and report on the advisability of establishing this park. Then in 1934, President Roosevelt signed an act authorizing establishment of a park of about 2000 square miles. This act provided that the park "shall be permanently preserved as a wilderness," and no developments are to be undertaken "which will interfere with the preservation intact of the unique flora and fauna and the essential primitive natural conditions now prevailing in the area." Association members will recognize the present area as far too small. Plans are under way, however, to enlarge it. Already the federal government owns 461,482 acres of the Gulf of Florida and islands therein, as well as a tract north of the park. Administered by the Fish and Wildlife Service as a wildlife refuge, these tracts, together with additional lands, are expected to be added ultimately, bringing the park to approximately 2000 square miles as authorized. In order that the National Park Service can assume administration as early as possible, to protect the wonderful birds and plants of the area, the President has submitted to Congress a request for a 1948 appropriation of $89,000. This will enable the Service to set up a ranger staff and to purchase some equipment needed for patrol. The Park Service will soon study the area with a view to making it accessible to the public. Development will be held to a minimum, and the few existing roads will be extended only slightly. Unlike other national parks, the Everglades has a network of natural waterways, particularly in the western part, and some of these will undoubtedly be used to transport visitors by boat to points of interest. To determine where accomodations should be located, and which routes should be used for transportation, will be no small task. So fragile, so easily disturbed is the plants and bird life of the Everglades, that extreme care must be used in exhibiting it. Devereux Butcher Executive Secretary