National park test #1

National park

a protected area of land or water set aside by a national government to preserve the natural environment, wildlife, and historic or cultural features for the public

A Potential Park Should

Be an outstanding example of a particular type of resource

Possess exceptional value or quality in illustrating or interpreting the natural or cultural themes of our Nation’s heritage

Offer superlative opportunities for recreation, for public use and enjoyment or for scientific study

Retain a high degree of integrity as a true, accurate and relatively unspoiled example of the resource

2 main purposes of National Parks

To preserve areas of scenic, historical, scientific and cultural importance.

To make these areas available for the enjoyment and education of the public

What department is the National Parks under

The Department of Interior

Funding and Budget

Annual budget = ~$3.8 billion with a $23 billion maintenance backlog

Congressional appropriations(Taxes) = largest source of funding

Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)  For land acquisition  = $900 a year made permanent via Great American Outdoors Act

Recreation fees

Concessions revenues

Partnerships

Grants and Trust Funds

Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) (2020) = long-term funding of billions of dollars of deferred maintenance backlog expenses

 National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LFR) which provided $1.9 billion from 2021-2025 for maintenance

 Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) = $900 million in permanent full funding

Types of jobs

20,000 paid positions

Permanent staff = career positions

 Seasonal and temporary workers = especially during summer/high season

 Specialized roles = park rangers (law enforcement and interpretation), scientists, maintenance, historians, administrators

 ~395,000 volunteers in various Volunteers-in-Parks programs

 Student Conservation Association = largest provider of hands-on environmental conservation programs for youth and young adults

 Volunteers-In-Parks = support the National Park Service in its mission to preserve and protect our national parks

Visitation

National Parks = 85 million visitors to these “crown jewels” a year

• Most visited (12.1 million/yr) = Great Smoky Mountains National Park

• Least visited (11,907) = Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

• 2024 = set an overall record of 331.9 million recreation visits

• Increase of 2% from 2023 • Previous record = 2016 (well before Covid) at 330,971,689

National Park Conservation Association 1919

advocate for the preservation of national parks and their resources, ensuring they remain accessible and enjoyable for all”

Robert Sterling Yard and Stephen Mather to protect parks from commercial interests

National Park Trust 1983

Mission = for all to experience the “endless possibilities of our nation’s parks”

 Promotes park stewardship, education, recreation, youth and family programs

Sierra Club

began as a hiking group by John Muir (1892)

 Powerful grassroots organization

Leave No Trace

A set of ethics and outdoor practices designed to guide outdoor recreationists in the best manner to minimize their impact on natural resources

Plan Ahead and Prepare

 Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces

 Dispose of Waste Properly

 Leave What You Find

 Minimize Campfire Impact

 Respect Wildlife

 Be considerate of Other Visitors

Transcendentalism

Nature’s reflection of divine spirit to reach heightened awareness

To transcend one’s thoughts to grander level of ultimate understanding

How did transcendentalism change people’s views.

shifting public perception from seeing wilderness as a hostile obstacle to be conquered into viewing it as a sacred, spiritual sanctuary essential for human well-being

Early exploitation of sites

Niagara Falls

 America’s paramount scenic wonder (1800s)

 But local landowners wanted to maximize profits

 Fences, charged to look through holes, tacky souvenirs, filthy

 Yosemite Valley

 Similar pattern within 5 years of discovery

 Claims filed on land, tolls charged, haphazard tourism

 In 1864, first move to preserve lands

 Ceded Yosemite Valley as a state park to California

 “…the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation

First national park

Yellowstone

Earliest National Park Idea

Search for a national identity

We had no castles, art, sculptures, etc. like Europe

 BUT natural wonders and a world class system of lands

John Muir (1838-1914)

Father of the National Park System

 Wilderness exists for value of its existence alone

Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919)

Early champion of park system

Established the U.S. Forest Service (1905)

• Signed the Antiquities Act (1906)

Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)

First Chief of U.S. Forest Service

 For rational use to maximize benefits for most possible

Yellowstone National Park Act (1872)

Set aside more than 2 million acres as a public “pleasuring ground”

 For the “preservation…of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities or wonders…and their retention in their natural condition

Antiquities Act (1906)

To preserve “objects of historic or scientific interest” as national monuments

Devil’s Tower (1906) – 1st national monument

Mesa Verde (1906) – 1st park for historic/cultural valu

Organic Act

1916, established the National Park Service to manage and preserve national parks and monuments for future generations.

Change in Public Attitude and Policy

Growth of the NPS System

 1 st National Park (Yellowstone 1872) and 1st laws (Antiquities Act 1906)

More direct efforts to shape coherent system

Maturation of Management Policy Framework

 Organic Act (1916)

Contradictory sets of preservation and recreation mandates Changes in public/government attitudes, maturation of ecological science

Conflict over Hetch Hetchy valley

Single use vs. Multiple use

 Whether to dam valley or not (Raker Act allowed 1913)

 To provide water for San Francisco

 Lack of formal oversight organization left it vulnerable

 Led to split between John Muir and Gifford Pinchot

 Pinchot argued to dam

 Preservation unnecessarily limited utilization of resources

 Muir fought against but lost

 First “grass roots” lobbying – helped fight off damming of Grand Canyon later

 Led to two types of agencies > U.S. Forest Service and NPS

Campfire Conversation

President Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist John Muir shared a legendary three-day camping trip in Yosemite National Park

forest preservation and the federal return of Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove

• Roosevelt signed the Yosemite Recession Bill, returning Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove to federal protection as part of Yosemite National Park.

Indian Removal Act (1830)

A law allowing the forced relocation of Native American tribes from their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States to designated "Indian Territory" west of the Mississippi River.

Crusade for “National Park Bureau” 

• Led by Stephen Mather (1916-1929) and Horace Albright (1929-1933)

  • “Effectively blurred distinction between utilitarian conservation and preservation by emphasizing economic value of parks as tourist meccas” to gain support

  • Vigorous PR campaign (with friend Robert Sterling Yard)

    • Generated unprecedented press coverage and pressured Congress

    • Articles in National Geographic, Saturday Evening Post, other pop magazines

  • Mather hired his own publicist and got $$ from 17 railroads 

    • To produce “The National Parks Portfolio” (1916)  portfolio 

      • A lavishly illustrated publication sent to every Congressmen and other influential

– Stephen mather (1867-1930)

• Helped establish National Park Service 

• Complained about condition of Sequoia and Yosemite

  • To his friend, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane 

  • Told him to come to Washington and do something about it – And he did!

• First Director (1916-1929) – set policies and early direction of NPS 

  • Preservation, interpretation, access, recreation, concessions

• Innovative marketer – Twenty Mule Team Borax (made him rich!)

• Bronze plaques put in every park when he died

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  • “There will never come an end to the good that he has done”

Horace Albright (1890-1987)

Assistant Director of NPS at inception (1916-1919)

• Acting Director when Mather ill (1917-1919) 

• Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park (1919-1929)

• And immediately set to designate Grand Tetons (Rockefeller, Jr. helped fund)

• Second Director of National Park Service (1929-1933)

  • Influenced FDR to expand NPS role during a “Sunday drive”

    • Led to Reorganization Act (1933)

  • Instituted two far-reaching policies

1. Expansion of national park areas east of the Mississippi River

2. Introduction of historic preservation into National Park Service

Early Challenges to Newly Created NPS and its policies

1. The public did not universally support the park idea 

1. Efforts should be made to assure maximum use for public

• Considered both democratic and prudent

1. Belief existing parks so remote and of limited access 

• That only large-scale concession monopolies could financially survive

1. Science too underdeveloped 

• Unable to provide hard evidence against many                                       popular wildlife management practices

federal water power act

Legislation passed in 1920 that regulated the development of hydroelectric power on federal lands, establishing a framework for the licensing of water power projects and promoting the use of renewable energy sources.

Early Park programming

• Mather very impressed with an educational nature program he saw

  • Run by two college professors at a resort in Lake Tahoe

  • So he paid to transfer it to Yosemite – first interpretive program (1920)

• Soon, guided nature walks and campfire lectures in every park

  • By “Ranger Naturalists”

  • Became one of NPS’ most popular programs 

  • Mather trying to create image of friendly professionalism 

    • Clare Marie Hodges – first female park ranger (1917)

  • Museums and exhibits to explain park resources

Main goal for Mather and Albright

• Willing to do anything to lure people in

• Focus on recreation and entertainment

Mather’s big push to bring driving tourists

 

• Joined with car clubs, good roads associations, local governments, car manufacturers

• Lobbied for National Park-to-Park Highway (1916) linking all western parks

• Urged states to build park networks – “A State Park Every Hundred Miles”

• Car Caravan Publicity Stunt to Mesa Verde (1925)

Accommodating an Auto-driving public (end of 20s)

• Congress more willing to support 

  • Doubled funding, mostly to improve roads for car-driving visitors

• Mather’s ambitious plan for one main road in every park 

  • Championed longer, more expensive roads to open up scenic wonders

• Entire experience redesigned for motoring public

• > Clogged roads, camped in open meadows, overwhelmed facilities

  
  

  • But did not need guides, hotels, come and go … Democratization! 

  • Added scenic turnouts, rest stops, new maps, guidebooks 

Early role of automobiles

shifting access from exclusive rail and stagecoach networks to independent middle-class motorists, ultimately democratizing the park experience

Negative reaction of Automobiles

• Robert Sterling Yard (head of National Parks Association)

  • Afraid of all the provisions for “motor tourists” – “the altar of Gasoline”

    • Against ideal of providing inspiration and “elevation of the spirit”

  • Also opposed Mather on Shenandoah and Mammoth Cave

    • Not “National Park Standards”

• Wilderness Society (1935) (started with Aldo Leopold)

  • Hoping to start a movement to “preserve the primitive”

  • To protect from developers and park service itself

Heading into the depression years

1. Park planning

• Haphazard and varied from park to park

• To streamline and make planning procedure consistent

  • To further cope with parks as a system instead of disparate units

1. Quality of care and preservation

• Early “anthropocentric” ideas were damaging  

  • Led to predator destruction, vista clearing of forests, introduction of exotics

  • Use of herbicides and pesticides in the parks, design of facilities…

Reorganization Act (1933

• Congressional attempt to streamline and reduce costs of federal government 

• Made NPS sole agency over all federal parks, monuments, memorials

  • All national monuments from Forest Service  

  • All battlefields and memorials from War Department

civilian CONSERVATION CORPS (ccc)

• KEY LEGISLATION – Act for the Relief of Unemployment (1933)  

  • Created CCC to help unemployed young men  Act 

    • Military-style program of public works in federal and state public lands

• Great Depression led to most expansion initiatives ever for NPS

  • Increased interest and accessibility to OR

• Improved infrastructure and put young men to work

  • Mostly for tourist’s comforts – hotels, amusements, survey new areas

  • Museums, roads, employee houses, campground stations, visitor facilities, park planning

CCC’s goals

Conserve natural resources

Preserve historical and archeological resources

Develop recreational resources within park areas

Three major processes now characterizing nps 

1. Continued definition of natural resources policy

Importance of research

1. Development of infrastructure 

• vs. challenges to perceived overdevelopment

1. Accelerated expansion into new areas of preservation

• Albright – recognized importance of research

  • Admitted the inadequacy of scientific data for management purposes

  • First of many calls for more systematic research in park policy-making

Conservation

• The wise and careful use of resources 

So they continue to be available for present and future needs

• Renewable resources

  • Living or nonliving resources that can be used within prudent limits 

  • And can be replenished to support future use

Preservation

• The protection of resources in their natural state

Generally involves restriction of development or consumptive human uses

• Nonrenewable resource

  • Any living or material resource that once depleted cannot be replenished 

  • Not within one person’s lifetime

Grand Canyon 1919

• declared a national monument (1908) thru Antiquities Act

• “object of scientific interest”

Grand Teton 1929

• controversial - many different conflicting stakeholders

Great Smokies 1934

locals raised $5M and Rockefeller, Jr. gave remaining $5M needed

FDR inspired by efforts - 1^st park paid for with federal funds ($1.5M)

Everglades 1934

• Everglades (1934) not “scenic” like earlier parks 

• “River of Grass” set aside specifically for preservation 

Condition of the Parks during WWII

• Little increase in staff and budgets until after

• Park visitation way down

• By 1953, park system in serious trouble  

Huge growth after WW2

• National affluence of post-WW2 years led to tremendous growth

  • Visits to national parks – ^300% from 1947-1963

• Visiting parks became American rite of passage

> More leisure time, money, cheaper cars, better travel/facilities, GI Bill

• Federal-Aid Highway Act (Interstate Act) (1956)

  • Largest public works project ever at that time

• “Let’s Close the National Parks” (Essay by Bernard DeVoto, 1953) 

  • Incensed over Congress’ refusal to pay for

    • NPS Director Conrad Wirth sent copy to all offices to push for Mission 66

Mission 66 1956-1966

• Rescue plan for sad shape of the parks Mission 66

  • To manage growing numbers and provide high-quality interpretation

    • “One-package program” – roads, lodges, campgrounds… together save $

• 10-year program – over $1 billion dollars proposal

• 110 visitor centers built

  • Modern structures – museums, restrooms, offices under one roof

  • But parks’ oldest allies (Sierra Club) thought looked like “suburban shopping centers” 

• NPS out of pace > clung to idea of “atmosphere preservation”

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

Silent Spring (1962)

• Dangers of DDT – considered catalyst of environmental movement

George Hartzog, Jr. (1920-2008)

• NPS Director (1964-1972)

• Urban recreation, historic preservation, interpretation, env. education

Stewart Udall (1920-2010)

• Secretary of the Interior (1961-1969)

• Oversaw most ambitious program of creating new parks since FDR

Ecological sciences in parks

• Sequoia-Kings Canyon Back Country Management Plan (1960) plan

  • Blueprint for all NPS backcountry planning

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• Wildlife Management in the National Parks (Stagner Report 1962) report

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• Robbins Report (1963)

  • Criticized the NPS for neglecting scientific research in management decisions

  • Led to extensive research and new management for “ecosystem preservation”

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• Advisory Board on “Wildlife Management in National Parks” (Leopold Report 1963)

  • Park’s primary purpose to maintain it’s biotic associations 

    • Controlled burns, species control (not predators) , carrying capacity…

Redwood national park

• Redwood National Park Expansion Act (1978) 

  • Threatened by logging outside boundaries 

  • > Holistic approach needed

Dinosaur National Monument (1915)

• Irrigation fight over Echo Park Dam (1950)

  • “Shall We Let Them Ruin Our National Parks?” (Bernard DeVoto)

  • Sierra Club led grassroots campaign Sierra Club Saves Grand Canyon

• This is Dinosaur (Wallace Stegner, ed.1955)

Wilderness Act (1964)

• Where the earth and its community of life is untrammeled                           by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain”

National Environmental Policy Act (1969)

• Environmental Impact Assessments now required

Land and Water Conservation Fund Act (1965)

• Main source of $$ for federal, state, local park and recreation agencies

  • “State comprehensive outdoor recreation plan” and matching funds required

Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968)

• Protects rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, or recreational values from damming and development.

General Authorities Act (1970)

• All park areas equal > no hierarchy

National Outdoor Recreation Act (1963)

• Established Bureau of Outdoor Recreation 

Outdoor Recreation for America Report (1962)

• To determine recreation needs, inventory resources, recommend policies/programs

Blue Ridge (began 1930s)

• 1st National Parkway

Golden Gate and Gateway National Recreation Areas (1972)

• 1st National Recreation Areas 

Pictured Rocks (1966) 

• 1st National Lakeshores

Cape Hatteras (1953)

• 1st National Seashore