Letter on Additional National and State Parks.

My dear Colonel Lieber:

Will you please extend to the officers and membership of the National Conference on State Parks, meeting in annual session at Swarthmore, my greetings and my congratulations on the accomplishments of the past year in the field of State park development.

In the past four years great strides have been made in the establishment and development of State parks. The various States have effectively used the Federal assistance given them. The increase in acreage of State parks during that period in particular has been very gratifying. Inevitably, as the period of the emergency passes, responsibility for the development of these areas will pass back to the respective State governments and each State should now be preparing to accept such responsibility and to carry on the State park development for the benefit of its citizens.

Despite the number of national and State parks throughout the country, there is need for more of these local areas, and for careful planning of recreational facilities in those already established, if the great mass of our citizens of moderate means is to have the opportunity of enjoying the invigorating and inspiring effects of life in the open, in areas of unusual beauty. We need more camping areas, more picnic grounds within easy reach of centers of concentrated population, more wayside rests.

Under the wise counsel of the National Conference on State Parks, I am confident these needs will be given careful consideration.

Very sincerely yours,

Colonel Richard Lieber,

The National Conference on State Parks,

Washington, D.C.