Dr. Richard West Sellars Receives CNPSR's George B. Hartzog Award

Santa Fe resident cited for his unparalleled past contributions to understanding and advancing the cause of natural resource management in the National Park Service.

TUCSON, AZ///May 14, 2008///The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR) presented its George C. Hartzog, Jr. award to Sellars at a reception of former National Park Service employees in Placitas, NM on Sunday, May 11.

CNPSR Executive Council Chair Bill Wade, a former superintendent of Shenandoah National Park, said: “Dr. Sellars’ work epitomizes the dedication to the mission of the National Park Service that was so strongly personified in the leadership of George Hartzog, who served as Director of the National Park Service from 1964 to 1972.”

The citation accompanying the award states:

“For his unparalleled past contributions to understanding and advancing the cause of natural resource management in the National Park Service, for his continued professionalism and positive contributions to cultural resource management, and for his determination to carry the project forward to completion even after retirement.

“Already widely experienced in the historical method and in identifying, evaluating, planning for, preserving, and interpreting cultural resources in National Parks, in 1987 Dr. Sellars was asked by newly-appointed Associate Director for Natural Resources Management Eugene Hester to research and write an administrative history of natural resource management in the National Park Service. To the everlasting benefit of the National Park Service, Sellars soon recognized that the task was significantly more complicated than initially presumed, and was able to persuade the directorate to support a detailed inquiry into the subject. The result, Preserving Nature in the National Parks (Yale University Press, 1997), was valuable beyond all expectation. The study documented a long history of tension between serving the pleasures and needs of visitors and being true to the original statutory obligation to manage natural resources for the benefit of future generations as well as for the present. The information gave impetus to a multi- year, $500,000,000 Natural Resources Challenge which has vastly improved the Service’s professionalism, understanding of, and capability to manage the natural resources under its stewardship.

“The National Park Service then logically sought to build upon Sellars’ extraordinary contribution by having him prepare a parallel history of cultural resources management. Although the previous high level support and encouragement that led to the Preserving Nature triumph was no longer available, Dr. Sellars made significant progress on the task, publishing articles entitled “Pilgrim Places: Civil War Battlefields, Historic Preservation, and America’s First National Military Parks 1863-1900” in 2005 and “A Very Large Array: Early Federal Historic Preservation—The Antiquities Act, Mesa Verde, and the National Park Service Act” in 2007, which will also appear as parts of the overall study.

“It is a regrettable commentary upon current National Park Service cultural resource and line management leadership that Dr. Sellars chose retirement as a means of escaping interference so he could concentrate on his work. It is an equally complimentary statement about this intrepid scholar that he remains committed to finishing the task as a private citizen.

“Dr. Richard W. Sellars over a 35-year career made vital and unparalleled contributions to knowledge and understanding of the National Park Service. The fact that his contributions were not always in concurrence with conventional wisdom and self-image of the Service, nor congruent with the aims of its political overseers, make the lessons all the more important.”

CNPSR's Hartzog award is given to the individual or individuals who demonstrate outstanding support for the mission of the National Park Service and/or the National Park System.