National Park Service
National Park Service  | National Park Service logo |
|
| Established: | August 25, 1916 |
| Director: | Fran P. Mainella |
| Budget: | $2.256 billion (2006) |
| Employees: | 20,000 (2006) |
| Volunteers: | 140,000 (2006) |
The
National Park Service (NPS) is the
United States federal agency that manages all
National Parks, many
National Monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. It was created on
August 25,
1916 by
Congress through the Organic Act (16 United States Code, sections 1,2,3 and 4) in order to "conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life 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." It is a bureau of the
United States Department of the Interior, which is in turn an arm of the
executive branch. The NPS oversees
units, of which 58 are designated
national parks. Other units are designated
national monuments,
historical parks,
national memorials,
historic trails,
outdoor recreation areas,
wild and scenic rivers,
lakeshores,
seashores, and
battlefields. Not all NPS properties are considered to be distinct units. For example,
Ellis Island National Monument is not an NPS unit; it is a dependent area of
Statue of Liberty National Monument which is one of the units.
The
U.S. Park Police is a distinct
law enforcement division of the National Park Service, with
jurisdiction in all NPS sites, but primarily utilized in large metropolitan areas. Law enforcement services in rural, wilderness, and even some urban units are provided by specially trained and certified National Park Rangers. Other special NPS divisions include the
Historic American Buildings Survey,
National Register of Historic Places, and the
National Historic Landmarks Program.
The
National Park System is a term that describes the physical collection of parks and sites managed by the National Park Service. The system encompasses approximately 84.4 million
acres (338,000 km²), of which more than 4.3 million acres (17,000 km²) remain in private ownership. The largest park is
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve,
Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (
53,000 km²) it is over 16 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is
Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial,
Pennsylvania, at 0.02 acre (
80 m²).
In addition to "units" and other properties that the National Park Service either owns or administers, it also provides technical and financial assistance to several "affiliated areas" authorized by Congress. The largest affiliated area is
New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve at 1,164,025 acres (4711 km²). The smallest is
Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at 0.00 acre.
| Type | Amount |
|---|
| Buildings | 21,000 |
| Trails | 17,000 mi (27,350 km) |
| Roads | 10,000 mi (16,000 km) |
|
In an effort to increase visitation and allow for a larger audience to enjoy national park land, The National Park Service has numerous forms of partnerships, or
concessions, with private businesses to bring recreation, resorts, and other amenities to their parks. One example of a relationship formed to help restore historic buildings on park land in the name of recreation activities is
Aviator Sports and Recreation within
Gateway National Recreation Area. Other resorts and accommodations also exist such as
Wawona Hotel in
Yosemite National Park and the currently being renovated
Fort Baker Retreat and Conference Center (currently under renovation / construction, due to open in 2008) in
Golden Gate National Recreation Area. These "adaptive reuses" have raised some controversy, however, from concerns about the historic integrity of these buildings after such extensive renovations and whether such renovations fall within the sprit and/or the letter of the preservation laws they are protected by.
At most Park Service sites, a bookstore is operated by a cooperating partner. The largest example is
Eastern National, which runs bookstores in 30 states.
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List of areas in the National Park System of the United States*
List of the United States National Park System official units*
U.S. National Monument*
U.S. National Park*
National park passport stamps*
Ansel Franklin Hall the first Chief Naturalist and first Chief Forester of the National Park Service
*
NPS official site*
Park Service Overview
