Editing Niagara Falls (section)

===Preservation efforts===
In the 1870s, sightseers had limited access to Niagara Falls and often had to pay for a glimpse, and industrialization threatened to carve up Goat Island to further expand commercial development.<ref name="Macleans">{{cite news |last1=MCLEOD |first1=DUNCAN |title=NIAGARA FALLS WAS A HELL RAISING TOWN |url=https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1955/11/26/niagara-falls-was-a-hell-raising-town |publisher=Macleans |year=1955 |access-date=February 24, 2020 |archive-date=October 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026201939/https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1955/11/26/niagara-falls-was-a-hell-raising-town |url-status=dead }}</ref> Other industrial encroachments and lack of public access led to a conservation movement in the U.S. known as Free Niagara, led by such notables as [[Hudson River School]] artist [[Frederic Edwin Church]], landscape designer [[Frederick Law Olmsted]], and architect [[Henry Hobson Richardson]]. Church approached [[Lord Dufferin]], governor-general of Canada, with a proposal for international discussions on the establishment of a public park.<ref name="Revie2010">{{cite book|author=Linda L. Revie|title=The Niagara Companion: Explorers, Artists, and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eWE9DgAAQBAJ&pg=PA144|year=2010|publisher=Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press|isbn=978-1-55458-773-5|page=144}}</ref>
[[File:Review of reviews and world's work (1890) (14784784605).jpg|thumb|right|Damage from wind and ice on Goat Island, 1903]]

Goat Island was one of the inspirations for the American side of the effort. [[William Dorsheimer]], moved by the scene from the island, brought Olmsted to Buffalo in 1868 to design a city park system, which helped promote Olmsted's career. In 1879, the New York state legislature commissioned Olmsted and James T. Gardner to survey the falls and to create the single most important document in the Niagara preservation movement, a "Special Report on the preservation of Niagara Falls".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mobot.org/plantscience/resbot/Niag/GardRep/index.htm|title=THE GARDNER REPORT|website=www.mobot.org}}</ref> The report advocated for state purchase, restoration and preservation through public ownership of the scenic lands surrounding Niagara Falls. Restoring the former beauty of the falls was described in the report as a "sacred obligation to mankind".<ref>Laura Wood Roper, ''FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted''. Baltimore: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]] (1973), pp. 378–81</ref> In 1883, New York Governor [[Grover Cleveland]] drafted legislation authorizing acquisition of lands for a state reservation at Niagara, and the Niagara Falls Association, a private citizens group founded in 1882, mounted a great letter-writing campaign and petition drive in support of the park. Professor [[Charles Eliot Norton]] and Olmsted were among the leaders of the public campaign, while New York Governor [[Alonzo Cornell]] opposed.<ref>{{cite book|title=The New Niagara: Tourism, Technology, and the Landscape of Niagara Falls, 1776Ð1917|year = 1996|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yarkTJGfL2IC&pg=PA74|publisher=Penn State Press|isbn=0-271-04222-2|pages=74–76}}</ref>

Preservationists' efforts were rewarded on April 30, 1885, when Governor [[David B. Hill]] signed legislation creating the Niagara Reservation, New York's first state park. New York State began to purchase land from developers, under the charter of the [[Niagara Reservation State Park]]. In the same year, the province of Ontario established the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park for the same purpose. On the Canadian side, the [[Niagara Parks Commission]] governs land usage along the entire course of the Niagara River, from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.7202/1050723ar|title = The Court & the Cataracts|year = 2018|last1 = Wentzell|first1 = Tyler|journal = Ontario History|volume = 106|pages = 100–125|doi-access = free}}</ref>

In 1887, Olmsted and [[Calvert Vaux]] issued a supplemental report detailing plans to restore the falls. Their intent was "to restore and conserve the natural surroundings of the Falls of Niagara, rather than to attempt to add anything thereto", and the report anticipated fundamental questions, such as how to provide access without destroying the beauty of the falls, and how to restore natural landscapes damaged by man. They planned a park with scenic roadways, paths and a few shelters designed to protect the landscape while allowing large numbers of visitors to enjoy the falls.<ref>New York (State). Commissioners of state reservation at Niagara. Albany: The Argus Company, printers, 1887</ref> Commemorative statues, shops, restaurants, and a 1959 glass and metal observation tower were added later. Preservationists continue to strive to strike a balance between Olmsted's idyllic vision and the realities of administering a popular scenic attraction.<ref>''The New York State Preservationist'', Vol. 6, No. 1, Fall–Winter 2002, "Falling for Niagara", pp. 14, 15</ref>

Preservation efforts continued well into the 20th century. J. Horace McFarland, the [[Sierra Club]], and the [[Appalachian Mountain Club]] persuaded the [[United States Congress]] in 1906 to enact legislation to preserve the falls by regulating the waters of the Niagara River.<ref>Burton Act</ref> The act sought, in cooperation with the Canadian government, to restrict diversion of water, and a treaty resulted in 1909 that limited the total amount of water diverted from the falls by both nations to approximately {{convert|56000|ft3/s|m3/s|order=flip}}. That limitation remained in effect until 1950.<ref>U.S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 34, Part 1, Chap. 3621, pp. 626–28. "An Act For the control and regulation of the waters of Niagara River, for the preservation of Niagara Falls, and for other purposes". H.R. 18024; Public Act No. 367</ref>

[[File:dryniagara.jpg|thumb|American and Bridal Falls diverted during erosion control efforts in 1969]]

[[Erosion control]] efforts have always been of importance. Underwater weirs redirect the most damaging currents, and the top of the falls has been strengthened. In June 1969, a temporary rock and earth dam was constructed, completely diverting the Niagara River from American Falls for several months.<ref name="Ice Jam">This remarkable event had occurred only once before, when an upstream ice jam stopped almost all water flow over Niagara Falls on March 29, 1848.</ref> During this time, two bodies were removed from under the falls, including a man who had been seen jumping over the falls, and the body of a woman, which was discovered once the falls dried.<ref name="Fischer">{{cite news| last1=Fischer| first1=Nancy| title=Niagara Falls is going to go dry – again| url=https://buffalonews.com/news/local/niagara-falls-is-going-to-go-dry-again/article_4c277eb5-bb25-5cb7-806b-b89d20fb5144.html| access-date=August 16, 2021| work=[[The Buffalo News]]| date=January 23, 2016}}</ref><ref name="NFI">{{cite web| title=Niagara Falls Geological History – The American Dry Falls – Niagara Falls USA| url=http://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/history-item.php?entry_id=1251| website=niagarafallsinfo.com| access-date=January 24, 2016| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160131084300/http://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/history-item.php?entry_id=1251| archive-date=January 31, 2016| df=mdy-all}}</ref> While Horseshoe Falls absorbed the extra flow, the [[U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] studied the riverbed and mechanically bolted and strengthened any faults they found; faults that would, if left untreated, have hastened the retreat of American Falls. A plan to remove the huge mound of [[Scree|talus]] deposited in 1954 was abandoned owing to cost,<ref>{{cite book|title=The Department of State Bulletin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kYtNAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA346|year=1969|publisher=Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public Affairs|page=346}}</ref> and in November 1969, the temporary dam was [[dynamite]]d, restoring flow to American Falls.<ref name="CorriganNash2007">{{cite book|author1=Patricia Corrigan|author2=Geoffrey H. Nash|title=Waterfalls|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8iUB6P8jk4C&pg=PA60|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0671-7|pages=60–}}</ref> Even after these undertakings, [[Luna Island]], the small piece of land between the American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls, remained off limits to the public for years owing to fears that it was unstable and could collapse into the gorge.

Commercial interests have continued to encroach on the land surrounding the state park, including the construction of several tall buildings (most of them hotels) on the Canadian side. The result is a significant alteration and urbanisation of the landscape. One study found that the tall buildings changed the breeze patterns and increased the number of mist days from 29 per year to 68 per year,<ref>{{cite web|title=What causes the mist rising from Niagara Falls?|url=http://opseu-217.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-causes-mist-rising-from-niagara_23.html|access-date=April 28, 2011|publisher=OPSEU-217|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805225024/http://opseu-217.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-causes-mist-rising-from-niagara_23.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Binns|first=Corey|date=July 18, 2006|title=Two Studies of Increasing Mist at Niagara Falls Find Two Different Culprits|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/science/18NIAG.html}}</ref> but another study disputed this idea.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bursik|first=Marcus|title=Temperatures, Not Hotels, Likely Alter Niagara Falls' Mist|url=http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=78970009|access-date=April 28, 2011|publisher=University at Buffalo}}</ref>

In 2013, New York State began an effort to renovate [[Three Sisters Islands (New York)|Three Sisters Islands]] located south of Goat Island. Funds were used from the re-licensing of the New York Power Authority hydroelectric plant downriver in Lewiston, New York, to rebuild walking paths on the Three Sisters Islands and to plant native vegetation on the islands. The state also renovated the area around Prospect Point at the brink of American Falls in the state park.