National Park Service

National Park Service - Wikipedia

The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational properties with various title designations.[3][4]

The U.S. Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act.[5]

It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior.

The NPS employs approximately 20,000 people in 425 individual units covering over 85 million acres (0.34 million km2) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.[6][4][7]

As of 2019, they had more than 279,000 volunteers.[7]

The agency is charged with a dual role of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management while also making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment.

History

In 1916, a portfolio of nine major parks was published to generate interest.

Printed on each brochure was a map showing the parks and principal railroad connections.

In 1934, a series of ten postage stamps were issued to commemorate the reorganization and expansion of the National Park Service.

NPS Preliminary Survey party, Great Smoky Mountains, 1931:

Yellowstone National Park was created as the first national park in the United States.[8]

In 1872, there was no state government to manage it (The state of Wyoming did not exist at that time), so the federal government assumed direct control.[8]

National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior.

Artist George Catlin, during an 1832 trip to the Dakotas, was perhaps the first to suggest a novel solution to this fast-approaching reality.

Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness were all in danger, wrote Catlin, unless they could be preserved "by some great protecting policy of government...in a magnificent park.... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild[ness] and freshness of their nature's beauty!"[9]

The movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather.[10]

With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior.

They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits.[11]

This campaign resulted in the creation of the NPS.

On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations".[12][13]

Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS.[14]

On March 3, 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933.

The act gave the president the authority to transfer national monuments from one governmental department to another.[15]

Later that summer, the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, made use of this power after NPS Deputy Director Horace M. Albright suggested that the NPS, rather than the War Department should manage historic American Civil War sites.[15]

President Roosevelt agreed and issued two executive orders to implement the reorganization.

These two executive orders transferred to the NPS all of the War Department's historic sites as well as national monuments that the Department of Agriculture had managed and parks in and around Washington, D.C. that an independent federal office had previously operated.[16]

The demand for parks after the end of the World War II left the parks overburdened with demands that the NPS could not meet.

In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the NPS and began to bring park facilities up to the standards that the public was expecting.[17]

In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Wirth began Mission 66, a ten-year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service.

New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded.[16]

In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery and unique natural features to making parks accessible to the public.

Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas.