Park protector: the seventh National Park Service director George Hartzog managed to complete most of his goals before getting fired by President Nixon

Parks & Recreation, March, 2005

Only one parks director can claim fame to being on President Richard Nixon's enemies list.

George Hartzog was the seventh National Park Service director, and the first director ever to be fired from his position. The incident occurred in 1972, during Nixon's second term in office, and was the culmination of four years of resentment.

Nixon's growing derision toward Hartzog began when he took office in 1968. Prior to Nixon's election, the park service enjoyed an unprecedented level of expansion. During the four years under the Johnson Administration, Hartzog added 43 units including national historic sites, parks and trails. Under the Nixon administration, Hartzog only added 26 units, tie also was an influence on Capitol Hill, pushing for the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Wild and Scenic River Act of 1968, the National Trails System Act of 1968 and the monumental Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) of 1964, which helped provide the funding for his expansion efforts, and is currently under attack by President Bush with his proposed FY '06 budget that calls for eliminating all of the LWCF's stateside appropriations. "This president knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing," he says. "[Our parkland is] a public trust just as much as your own personal possessions."

One of the most successful pieces of legislation passed because of Hartzog was the Volunteers-in-Parks Program, which was signed into law during Nixon's inaugural year. But the honey moon period ended soon thereafter.

With the start of 1969, Hartzog's department experienced an additional four percent cut from his budget. Even though his department continued to grow in the amount of property Hartzog was faced with a smaller staff and shrinking maintenance budget. In response, Hartzog warned his ally under the Johnson Administration, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, that he would close all the national parks two day's a week.

True to his word, Hartzog closed all the parks, including the Grand Canyon and the Washington Monument. "I didn't know anything except that I was going to get fired," he recalls. "It was unheard of; even my own staff thought I was crazy."

Hartzog's move received criticism from both republicans and democrats. And with Nixon as president, there would be no ally coming from the executive branch. "I knew I was a dead duck," Hartzog remembers. Although closing the parks was unfavorable, it spurred citizens to complain, which warranted Congress to reverse its budget decision. Hartzog's strategy was successful enough to be dubbed the "Washington Monument Syndrome" by The Washington Post.

Hartzog remained in his post under Nixon for four more years, where he remained productive and implemented his goals, which included the "Bring Parks to People" program that created urban parks in New York and California, and the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

It was actually an administrative faux pas that ultimately squeezed Hartzog out of public office. When he discovered that there was a private citizen using a boat dock at Biscayne National Monument in Florida, he revoked the person's special use and dock permit. Unfortunately, the person who owned the permit was the brother-in-law of Charles "Bebe" Rebozo, long-time friend of Nixon. When Nixon was re-elected in 1972, he had Hartzog fired in late December.

Hartzog was able to leave behind a legacy that to this day is unsurpassed in the amount of land acquired, and the amount of legislation passed to protect public lands.

But his influence over the National Park Service was able to survive. In 1988, Udall described Hartzog as a reminder "of the glories of public service and the legacies our best bureaucrats leave to future generations," Udall wrote in "The Quiet Crisis and The Next Generation." "Everyone who saw him in action remembers the sense of mission, and the zest and drive he transmitted to his co-workers."