the rivers both within park boundaries and outside the park. The City of Los Angeles' plan was met with extensive resistance from locals, however. Residents of the San Joaquin Valley spearheaded the resistance to the proposed dam. After three years, the City of Los Angeles' petition to dam the park's rivers was rejected. However, the fight to prevent the damming of the rivers continued through 1965, when all of Kings Canyon was protected from hydroelectric development. Creation of Kings Canyon National Park and recent history In 1940, General Grant Grove became a section of the newly created Kings Canyon National Park, thanks to the combined efforts of Harold Ickes, Secretary of the Interior, the Sierra Club, and Congress. Kings Canyon National Park included General Grant Grove and Kings Valley, an area that had been outside the protection of General Grant National Park. In order to gain support for the park, Secretary Ickes commissioned naturalist photographer and Sierra Club member Ansel Adams to photograph the area. Adams' photography convinced Congress to sign into law the bill that established Kings Canyon as a national park, with General Grant Grove being annexed into the park's boundaries. Fusing Kings Canyon with General Grant Grove allowed the National Park Service to strengthen the protection and management of the sequoias in both. After World War II, the National Park Service expanded its function to include a new endeavor: scientific research. The Leopold Report, published by Dr. Starker Leopold in 1963, advocated returning the nations' remaining wilderness to conditions similar to those encountered by the first white settlers of North America. In order to do so, the Leopold Report stressed the need to hire scientists to conduct research and maintain the ecosystems within the park. In Sequoia and Kings Canyon, the effects of the Leopold report were felt immediately. Newly hired scientists conducted studies measuring the human impacts on the Giant Forest, overgrazing by deer, and the danger present to threatened species. By 1971, Kings Canyon had a chief scientist, botanist, and several research assistants on staff conducting research that would both preserve the sequoias and provide academic information for future generations. By 1982, park officials began to focus on the deteriorating quality of accommodations in General Grant Grove. Little improvements had been made to the cabins in Grant Grove in the past half century, and park management hoped improving facilities would increase park attendance. The National