A Vision for the Parks

A Vision for the Parks. George Meléndez Wright 1904-1936. An Advocate for Nature , The rugged peak in front of you honors George Meléndez Wright, a significant figure in the early history of the National Park Service (NPS) and the establishment of Big Bend National Park., Born in 1904 to American and Salvadorean parents, George Meléndez Wright developed a passion for the outdoors at a young age. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a forestry degree, he joined the National Park Service as Assistant Naturalist in Yosemite National Park. He advanced quickly, becoming the first leader of the agency's new Wildlife Division in 1933. Wright saw the parks as complex natural systems not just beautiful scenery. Shocked at how bears and elk were sometimes fed to entertain park visitors, Wright urged the NPS to adopt science-based wildlife management and recognize that ecosystems did not stop at park boundaries. He advocated for the preservation of natural processes and the end of predator control in the parks. Wright led and personally paid for the first wildlife survey of the national parks. Wright's untimely death at age 31 set back ecological management of the national park system for decades. Nonetheless, his vision guides the NPS today in its mission to conserve the natural resources of the parks unimpaired for the education, enjoyment, and inspiration for this and future generations., "If we destroy nature blindly, it is a boomerang which will be our undoing." George Meléndez Wright, 1934, Wright In the Big Bend , In 1936, Wright was part of an international commission to evaluate the potential for new protected areas along the U.S.-Mexico border. A fluent Spanish speaker, Wright was instrumental in melding Mexican and American ideas about an international park that would straddle the Rio Grande, Sadly, both Wright and fellow commission member and Yellowstone superintendent, Roger Toll, were killed in a car wreck as they returned from Big Bend., Captions , Lower Right 1: The International Boundary Park Commission faced many challenges while surveying this remote and rugged area. , Lower Right 2: Members of the Mexican and American International Boundary Park Commission near Castolon. Big Bend today is part of a 3-million acre protected area covering lands in the United States and Mexico. , Lower Right 3: Wright prepares for a flight over the Big Bend aboard an army biplane. Wright was enthusiastic about the potential of a new park in the Big Bend of Texas and Mexico.