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NPS/Neal Herbert. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the act creating the National Park Service, a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for protecting the 35 national parks and monuments then managed by the department and those yet to be established. This "Organic Act" states that "the Service thus ...
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The National Park Service cares for America's more than 400...
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Aug 19, 2012 · Wright' s findings were published in 1932 and 1933 in the series Fauna of the National Parks of the United States, and established the basis for wildlife conservation in American national parks. Wright was tragically killed in an automobile accident in 1936 after concluding a survey at the newly authorized Big Bend National Park.
- Overview
- Origins of the U.S. national park system
- Establishment of the NPS
National Park Service (NPS), agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages and maintains several hundred national parks, monuments, historical sites, and other designated properties of the federal government. It was established in 1916 by an act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by U.S. Pres. Woodrow Wilson. The law stipula...
As the United States expanded its territories westward in the early and mid-19th century, Americans ventured out to explore those vast uncharted lands that stretched to the Pacific Ocean. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–06 and subsequent forays by organized groups and by individuals brought back stories of remarkable wonders that had been seen in the West—places that were later designated as Yellowstone (in Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana), Yosemite (in California’s Sierra Nevada), the Grand Canyon (in Arizona), and many others. A growing number of people, notably the naturalist and conservationist John Muir, began calling on the federal government to protect those scenic places from exploitation.
In 1871 an expedition to the Yellowstone region led by Ferdinand V. Hayden and sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey included the photographer William Henry Jackson and the painter Thomas Moran. Upon the expedition’s return to the East, Jackson’s images of Yellowstone and, especially, a series of spectacular large paintings of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and other wonders there executed by Moran enthralled the American public. The following year Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone as the country’s—and what is generally regarded as the world’s—first national park. (Some naturalists and others have argued that there is evidence that indicates that the creation of Yellowstone was predated by the creation of Bogd Khan Mountain National Park in Mongolia, which may date from as early as 1778.)
Congress established more than a dozen new national parks over the next several decades, including Yosemite (1890), Crater Lake (1902), and Glacier (1910). Nonetheless, John Muir and others continued to express concerns that those locations and other sites of scenic beauty were not being adequately preserved. Muir had the opportunity to state his case directly to U.S. Pres. Theodore Roosevelt—who himself was an avid naturalist and outdoor enthusiast—when the two of them camped together in Yosemite in the summer of 1903. Three years later Congress passed the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gave the president the authority to preserve federal lands by designating them as national monuments. Roosevelt soon proclaimed the first monument, Devils Tower, and over the next 10 years more than 30 other such entities were proclaimed, some half of that total by Roosevelt.
Britannica Quiz
By the early 20th century it was clear that a system of national parks was being created in the country. All national parks and most national monuments were under the purview of the Interior Department, but at that time each was administered separately and by different authorities. Yellowstone, for example, was supervised by the U.S. Army. None, however, was being run effectively, in part because few resources were allocated for the parks’ operation and maintenance. In addition, in many cases private interests were exploiting resources within the parks by felling timber, grazing livestock, or hunting wildlife.
In 1914 Stephen Mather, a wealthy businessman, wrote the secretary of the interior about the poor condition of parks he had visited that summer in the Sierra Nevada. The secretary suggested that Mather work to improve the system by joining the department in Washington, D.C. Two years later, through the efforts of Mather and his assistant, Horace Albright, Congress passed what was dubbed the “Organic Act,” which authorized the formation of the NPS. Mather was named its first director.
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Mar 27, 2018 · The National Park Service, or NPS, is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The U.S. Congress made Yellowstone America’s first national park in 1872. In the years that ...
Oct 24, 2015 · Glimpses would be transmuted by Yard first into a substantial book of photographs with modest text, National Parks Portfolio, and then, with greatly extended text, into The Book of the National Parks. 83 In the last Yard wrote that "[o]riginally the motive in park-making had been unalloyed conservation"; indeed, he used the controversial language, that Congress had said it wished to "lock up ...
The United States had a system of national parks for many years before it had a National Park Service. Even before establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 as "a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people," the Government had shown some interest in public ownership of lands valuable from a social use standpoint.
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The National Trails System is a joint mission of the NPS, the Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service. It was created in 1968 to establish a system of long-distance National Scenic and National Historic Trails, as well as to recognize existing trails in the states as National Recreation Trails.
