DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Comparative Summary of the Amount Available for 1970 METHOD OF COUNTING VISITS Mrs. HANSEN. On page 1 you list your visitations for the period 1961 through 1971. In the compilation of these statistics what do you consider as a visit? Mr. HARTZOG. Madam Chairman, the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation has developed the definition of a visitor-day. That definition is a visit. by one person for a 12-hour period within a given installation. We use the terminology of visits because many of our visitors go to areas such as the Washington Monument or Lincoln Memorial or Independendence National Historical Park and it is a visit in terms of 2 or 3 hours. A visit as reflected in this budget is a visit by one person to an area of the national park system. Now we have a number of situations in which visitors cross part of the park. For those parks, we monitor the travel physically during a specified period of time to determine the actual nature of the travel, whether it is to the park or whether it is just simply through the park. Then the gross travel figure for that area is adjusted on a percentage basis to exclude through travel so that this visit figure that we give you is the number of people who come to visit and enjoy that area of the national park system. Mrs. HANSEN. It doesn't include people who just drive through a national park, does it? Mr. HARTZOG. Right. If I counted everybody who came through Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C., I could triple our visitation. COMPARISON OF ESTIMATED TO ACTUAL VISITATION Mrs. HANSEN. How do your estimated visitations compare with actual visitations? Mr. HARTZOG. Very closely. Mrs. HANSEN. What are the figures? Mr. HARTZOG. We have to get last year's records. The calendar 1969 visitation was estimated at 156 million and actually was 164 million. In other words, this is an instance where I usually try to be conservative. RECEIPTS FROM BUSINESS CONCESSIONS Mrs. HANSEN. On page 2 you indicate receipts from business concessions at $1.4 million in 1969 with estimated income of $1.5 million in 1971. If you expect your visitations to go up from 157 million in fiscal 1969 to 186 million in fiscal 1971, why should your concession receipts not be higher than you estimate? Aren't they based on the volume of business done by the concessionaires? Mr. HARTZOG. They are based directly on the volume of business done by the concessionaire. There is not necessarily a correlation of increase in visitation and increase in business revenues. Mrs. HANSEN. What do you mean by that? Mr. HARTZOG. We have had a longstanding policy in the Department of the Interior that we do not provide commercial facilities in areas where they can be provided by private enterprise outside of the areas. There are many such areas. Some of our heavily visited areas, such as Independence National Historical Park, for example, do not have a concession. So visits to that area could increase 10 percent and have no impact on concession revenue. Mrs. HANSEN. Would this also be true of such areas as the Lee Mansion and the Washington Monument. Mr. HARTZOG. Yes. Well, at the Washington Monument we do have a little concession in that house in front of the monument. You probably have never seen it because it is an inconspicuous place. PARKS FOR ALL SEASONS Mrs. HANSEN. In what part of your budget have you included the summer in the parks program? Mr. HARTZOG. That is in the Management and protection and Maintenance and rehabilitation appropriations. The interpretive personnel that work in the parks for the all seasons program, which now encompasses the summer in the parks program, are paid from management and protection funds. Maintenance and operation of the facilities used are financed from maintenance and rehabilitation funds. Mrs. HANSEN. How many cities are now participating? Mr. HARTZOG. We have not extended it yet beyond the Metropolitan Washington area. Mrs. HANSEN. Why not? Mr. HARTZOG. For the simple reason that I wanted to go slow on it, because it was an innovation. The Congress supported it wonderfully. I want to make sure when I move out that I have something that is real solid and not subject to criticism. Mrs. HANSEN. I thought the proposal was to use Fire Island? Mr. HARTZOG. We have used Fire Island and we have used Cape Cod. We have used Great Smokey Mountains National Park for an experimental environmental education program in which we have taken the youth on 2-week trips, but we have not broadened it to the whole summer. Mrs. HANSEN. Did you also use the George Washington National Forest? Mr. HARTZOG. Prince William Forest Park. Mrs. HANSEN. Insert in the record the number of participants in the Washington, D.C. area and what your proposals are for the future. Mr. HARTZOG. I would be delighted to. (The information follows:) PARKS FOR ALL SEASONS NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA Approximately 535,000, including 267,997 where actual count was made of certain activities, and approximately the same number participating in activities where no count was made. PROPOSALS FOR COMING SEASON Washington metropolitan area programs provided by National Capital Parks with the cooperation of citizen groups and various organizations. SUMMER OF 1970 1. Community park programs Programs are being planned in 20 park areas using a Sylvan Theater arrangement. The programs include the following: bands, crafts, theater, interpretative programs, concerts, dances, puppet shows, art workshops, and nature van programs. 2. Fun trips (a) Bus 1,000 children each day for a 9-week period to such places as Prince William Forest Park, C. & O. Canal, Fort Washington, Oxon Hill Children's Farm, Rock Creek Park, Great Falls, Va., Harpers Ferry, W. Va., Fort McHenry, Baltimore, and monument areas in the District of Columbia for recreational and educational programs. (b) Bus senior citizens to historical areas in Washington, Baltimore, and Harpers Ferry. 3. Center city park program Concerts in downtown parks such as Farragut and Pershing Squares, and Lafayette and McPherson Parks, during lunch periods. 4. Camping programs (a) Overnight camping for inner-city children in Oxon Run Park, District of Columbia, to provide introduction to overnight camping experience. (b) Cultural and environmental education camping program at Catoctin Mountain Park in cooperation with schools from Washington and Baltimore. 5. Citywide special events (a) Afro-American festivals. (b) Indian cultural demonstrations. (c) Talent shows. (d) Sports competition such as bicycle races and jousting tournament. (e) Music festivals. Fall, winter, and spring 1971 programs will include: 1. Busing to 10 environmental study areas that have been established in the metro area. 2. Weekend camping trips to Catoctin Mountain Park. 3. Series of specially designed childrens plays at Ford's Theater. 4. Cultural events in the inner city. 5. Expanded children's ice skating programs at the Reflecting Pool, C. & O. Canal and Kenilworth Gardens using skates donated by outside organizations. 6. Mobile environmental education van which will visit public school sites daily September through May. 7. Establishment of a citywide youth advisory council which will meet monthly to share ideas and provide instant input and feedback regarding National Capital Park programs. (This council will begin operating in May 1970.) 8. The inclusion of the cities of Baltimore, Hagerstown, and Frederick, Md., where feasible, in our parks for all seasons programs. SUMMER 1971 PROGRAMS A close evaluation will be made of each of our 1970 summer programs and those having the most merit will be retained. Those programs having poor attendance will be either dropped or reshaped to make them more relevant. Mrs. HANSEN. I have had a great many inquiries from other urban areas who want to participate. Recently I had some inquiries from youngsters in Seattle, who have never seen Mount Rainier National Park or some of our other national park areas. You need to include more urban parks in your program. Mr. HARTZOG. I agree with you. Mrs. HANSEN. How many youngsters in the Washington, D.C. area have seen the Custis-Lee Mansion or how many have gone to Wayside? How many have participated in overnight camping? What are your proposals for Independence Hall? As you move closer to the time of our Bicentennial, it would seem appropriate to increase this program. Mr. HARTZOG. I agree with you completely. I want you to know that I am as enthusiastic about it as you are. With such encouragement I am confident that we can move it even faster that it has been moved. Mrs. HANSEN. I thought it was going to move faster than it has been moving. Mr. HARTZOG. I agree with you, but I have also learned that it is well to make sure that when you move on these things you have it well thought out. Mrs. HANSEN. This is right. Mr. HARTZOG. Because I have a very high regard for the taxpayers' money, as you and this subcommittee do. I have tried since I have been director to Mrs. HANSEN. The taxpayers' money has never been used for a better cause. If you teach young people a love of their land, they are not likely to destroy it. Mr. HARTZOG. This is the reason we have 41 areas in which we are putting on living history programs. This part of the program has moved forward very rapidly. Mrs. HANSEN. I want to make sure that the people who don't have a means of transportation are able to see our living history. Mr. HARTZOG. You are wonderful and we are grateful for this. You gave us the authority to bus them. We intend to start doing it this summer. Mrs. HANSEN. Get on with it. Mr. HARTZOG. One of my problems was that the budget for this year was enacted so late that we were proceeding at our own risk until along about October. Mrs. HANSEN. You were assured funds under a continuing resolution. Mr. HARTZOG. That is right and I used them. But you had not broadened the language to authorize me to transport these youngsters except in the Metropolitan Washington area, until you passed the appropriations bill for fiscal 1970. Mrs. HANSEN. Mr. Hartzog, some of your programs are tremendous. I have a feeling that once young Americans feel and understand the history of their land, they will be very proud of it. Mr. HARTZOG. That is right. Mrs. HANSEN. I would like to see our young Indian people on our reservations be transported for a couple of days to see some of the things that are related to their history. Mr. HARTZOG. We are going to do it this summer with the authority and money you have given me in the 1970 appropriations. Mrs. HANSEN. You can take them to the old trading posts in the Southwest. Mr. HARTZOG. Is that not a fabulous experience. I was down there some time ago, and you will appreciate this, Mr. Reifel. I was told that many of the Indians on the Navajo Reservation are now bringing their youngsters back to Hubbell to show them what a trading post looked like before they all became identified with U.S. Highway 66 kind of philosophy. I don't recall whether it was when you and Mr. Reifel were there, they were going in buying the wool |