National Park

The National Park Service

Joseph H. Sondheim

COM/170

April 28, 2014

Susan Honea

The National Park Service

 The National Park Service is an organization that protects natural wonders within America, so that all Americans may experience the countries heritage.  The National Park Service has been part of America for almost 100 years.  With budgets being affected across all departments of the federal government, the National Parks Service is still managing to protect and preserve all of America’s special places.  The creation of the National Park Service was the first step in preserving America’s natural lands, oceans, monuments, and lakes as a whole.  The National Park Service, America’s Best Idea (“National Park Service”, 2014).  The National Park Service provides many services as a whole, everything thing from preservation of numerous national parks, to educational programs for all, to scholarships for students, and so much more.

The conservation of America’s lands started as just an idea around a campfire on September 19, 1870 at what is now known as Yellowstone National Park.  A lawyer from Montana named Cornelius Hedges had come up with the idea of preserving the natural beauty of where they were camping that night (Kieley, 1940).  As the men of the Washarn-Langford-Doane Expedition sat around and discussed the commercial value of their location, Hedges presented them with the idea of reserving the land for all time so that everyone would always be able to enjoy it (Kieley, 1940).  The National Park Act was adopted by the House on January 30, 1872, passed by the Senate on February 27, and officially signed by President Grant on March 1st.  Then on August 25, 1916 President Wilson signed a bill officially creating the National Park Service as a bureau of the Department of the Interior (Kieley, 1940).  The NPS could officially begin their journey of conservation.  

With more then 20,000 employees, the National Park Service is broken down into seven regions.  The Northeast, National Capital, Southeast, Midwest, Intermountain, Pacific west, and Alaska; Puerto Rico is part of the Southeast region.  The National Park Service is a bureau of the Department of the Interior and is led by a Director who is nominated by the President, and must be confirmed by the United States Senate.  Senior executives, who manage national programs, policy, and budget in the Washington DC headquarters, support the Director.  There are also seven regional directors responsible for national park management and program implementation. Collectively, the executives make up our leadership council (“National Park Service”, 2014).  With over 275,000,000 visitors each year, the National Park Service protects and preserves 84,000,000 acres of land, 4,502,644 acres of oceans, lakes, and reservoirs, and 85,049 miles of perennial rivers and streams; not to mention the 401 National Parks, all of the national historic sites, natural historic sites, all the miles of shoreline, historic structures, and national heritage areas (“National Park Service”, 2014).  Until 1934, the federal government already owned all of the land that was part of America’s national parks.  The purchase of the Everglades National Park was the first land purchased from a private owner.  The National Park Service provides an unprecedented amount of support and commitment to America.

In the beginning, the National Park Service didn’t have any money or budget to help with maintenance, operations, preservation, or protection what so ever.  It wasn’t until the President made them official in 1916 did the National Park Service receive any funding.  Now, the National Park Service’s annual operating budget is just under $3 billion, this money is allocated to the National Park Service by the federal government every year for maintenance and operational costs.  The National Park Service also has an incentivized in private historic preservation investment worth $48,000,000,000.00 (“National Park Service”, 2014), these funds are used to help preserve historic buildings and places.  It also manages $5.5 billion in preservation and outdoor recreation grants (“National Park Service”, 2014), this money is used for funding grants to public and private organizations in attempt to preserve and keep funded outdoor recreation programs.  With annual budget cuts every year, the National Park Service runs the risk of having some of their funding cut.  This is one of the many reasons the National Park Service depends so heavily on the help of the thousands of volunteers it has.  The National Park Service is a very important bureau that needs to be kept around and make sure that it has the funding that it needs.