Background
Since the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, the office of the
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park's superintendent and its support divisions
have been responsible for all park programs and functions supporting the mission of
resource management for natural, cultural, and recreational areas. During the bulk
of its history, Kings Canyon National Park, created in 1940, has been administered
jointly with Sequoia National Park. The central records of the Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National Parks, created by all offices and divisions within the park,
document the park's mission and ensure accountability to the public and Congress.
Over the course of the twentieth century, the emphasis of park management changed
from visitation to conservation. Originally, the organization of the parks consisted
of Ranger, Maintenance, and Administration divisions. During the latter part of the
twentieth century, the Ranger Division's functions of interpretation and natural
resource management expanded into the divisions of Interpretation and Natural
Resources Management reflecting this change. Sequoia and Kings Canyon National
Park's central files contain records for the years 1935-2001 with the bulk of the
files dating from 1975-1996. The divisions of Administration, Planning and
Concessions Management, and Science and Natural Resources Management created major
portions of the records in the course of their activities. During this period,
challenges facing the park included air pollution, inadequate facilities, mandates
from environmental legislation, and visitor impact on developed areas. Major
initiatives during this period include planning and implementing the restoration of
the Giant Forest, the development of the prescribed burn program, and requirements
for environmental impact studies. The 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
required evaluation and mitigation of environmental consequences for all major
federal actions with public input as part of the evaluation process. NEPA led to an
increase in environmental impact statements/studies with public feedback recorded.
NEPA, as well as the 1963 Leopold report and the 1964 Wilderness Act, recommended
more scientifically based resource management. Resource management duties now
included activities such as monitoring of air quality, fires, mineral mining
activity, nonnative species, and wildlife with an increase in records to document
these activities. Between 1953 and 2009, the National Park Service (NPS) used the
NPS-19 Records Disposition Schedule system of file codes to organize and manage
records. This method of organization was an alphanumeric system, which consisted of
primary key letters (ranging from A to Y) representing major functional categories
and secondary numbers representing the type of records being filed. Records already
created and received under the old system need not be re-organized and, as such, are
organized by NPS-19 file code and then by dates within each file code. Records
created prior to 1953 were later filed according to the NPS-19 codes by the division
and remained part of the records until they were closed and transferred to the
archive.
Restrictions
Many collections are former federal government records and are in the public domain.
Other collections are from private sources; copyright has been transferred to the
NPS on most. Some collections have publication restrictions. Staff will assist
researchers in determining copyright status of selected materials. Researchers are
required to properly credit all materials used. The researcher assumes
responsibility for acquiring copyright permissions when needed.