Before national rangers became stewards of America's 63 nationalist parks, work was fragmented among respective agencies — including the Department of the Interior, the US Army, and the Forest Service.
At the time, national lands, mostly successful the occidental US, received minimal guidance owed to a deficiency of coordinated activity and argumentation from the era's politicians. Some Americans besides questioned the thought of converting land and monuments into parks.
That each changed connected August 25, 1916, erstwhile President Woodrow Wilson signed the "Organic Act of 1916," creating what is now known arsenic the National Park Service. In the first decade pursuing the act's adoption, American industrialist and conservationist Stephen Tyng Mather became the first NPS head and helped found Grand Canyon, Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) arsenic nationalist parks, and successfully lobbied for authorities allowing the acquisition of onshore from backstage owners successful the eastbound US.
Today, the NPS — which celebrated its 110th day connected Tuesday — oversees 433 sites crossed 85 cardinal acres of national land, from nationalist parks and monuments to historical sites, battlefields, trails, rivers, and recreation areas. The extremity is to conserve each location's scenery, wildlife, and humanities objects.
The NPS has besides worked alongside galore national work-relief programs complete the decades, peculiarly during the New Deal era. The Civilian Conservation Corps, aliases CCC — Franklin D' Roosevelt's alleged "tree army" — was 1 of them.
Within months of the program's creation successful 1933, the US Army and different agencies were processing plans to person 250,000 young men successful camps astir the state by July 1 that year.
"They built everything from immoderate of the astir well-known structures successful parks successful the state to things successful your ain backyard that you mightiness not moreover beryllium alert of," Neil Maher, a historiographer astatine the New Jersey Institute of Technology, antecedently told Business Insider.
CCC workers later played a domiciled successful disaster relief, including during the March 1937 Ohio River flood successful Louisville, Kentucky. The NPS and its partners person besides worked to conflict fires, create and grow entree to authorities and nationalist parks, and drawstring telephone lines.
Recent national cuts to NPS, however, person raised concerns astir its expertise to support the parks and prolong normal operations, including visitor centers and search-and-rescue facilities.
According to the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, the NPS has mislaid astir 25% of its imperishable workforce since January 2025. The unit cuts person near immoderate parks littered pinch trash, the restrooms closed aliases unclean, and visitors stuck successful agelong introduction lines.
The agency's discretionary backing requests person besides fallen. After rising from $3.5 cardinal successful 2022 to $3.8 cardinal successful 2024, the NPS requested $3.6 cardinal successful 2025 and conscionable $2.1 cardinal for 2026.
Still, Americans emotion to sojourn the parks. The NPS saw 323 cardinal visits successful 2025, a flimsy alteration of 2.7% from 2024. Here's really the NPS has evolved complete the years, and really its labor and sister programs person fundamentally reshaped the landscape of the US.
Yellowstone National Park was the first nationalist parkland successful the US and the world, established successful 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant.
The parkland covers astir 3,500 quadrate miles crossed Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. About 96% of that is successful Wyoming, pinch Idaho holding conscionable 1%.
In the first twelvemonth aft NPS was established, it saw astir 453,000 visitors crossed its 13 parks.
The NPS visitation reached its highest successful 2024, attracting astir 332 cardinal visitors, according to agency data.
The astir celebrated nationalist parkland is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, pinch astir 13 cardinal visitors successful 2024. Part of the logic Great Smoky draws larger crowds is that it's free to enter; it besides sits wrong a day's thrust of much than half of the US population.
Runners-up are the Grand Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, each pinch astir 5 cardinal visitors successful 2024.
National parkland visitant spending added $56.3 cardinal to the nationalist system successful 2024 and led to $18.8 cardinal successful labour income, according to NPS data.
The NPS is heavy limited connected seasonal workers — astir 5,000 arsenic of 2026 — who invited and amended guests connected the parks.
Seasonal activity mostly lasts betwixt 3 and six months and occurs during the tallness of each park's circumstantial tourer season.
Many seasonal positions, though not all, connection worker housing, according to the Association of National Park Rangers, a nonprofit statement that supports NPS employees.
The CCC, which ran from 1933 to 1942, was portion of FDR's New Deal.
When FDR took office, the Great Depression was gripping the US. More than 12 cardinal group were unemployed, and Roosevelt wanted to put them to work. The thought was to wed conservation projects pinch jobs that paid the workers well.
The CCC could attraction connected forestry, preventing ungraded erosion, flood control, and akin projects that would debar financial loss, Roosevelt wrote to Congress successful March 1933. "This is brought location by the news we are receiving coming of immense damage caused by floods connected the Ohio and different rivers," he added.
He summed up the dual goals by writing: "It will conserve our precious earthy resources. It will salary dividends to the coming and early generations."
Often described arsenic Roosevelt's pet project, the CCC reflected his position of conservation.
"Unless we support an capable worldly ground for our civilization, we cannot support the institutions successful which we return truthful awesome and truthful conscionable a pride; and to discarded and destruct our earthy resources intends to undermine this worldly basis," Theodore Roosevelt said successful 1907. FDR's notions of conservation were akin to his distant cousin's.
FDR grew up connected his family's 1,200-acre estate successful Hyde Park, New York. There, he saw firsthand really clearing onshore led to erosion. In 1912, he started planting what would move retired to beryllium much than half a cardinal trees connected the spot complete the people of his lifetime.
Women couldn't enroll successful the CCC.
Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, spearheaded "She-She-She" camps for astir 8,500 unemployed women. These summertime programs took spot from 1933 to 1937 and were meant to "provide healthful employment and useful instruction amid wholesome surroundings for needy young women."
Their activity was very different, according to the New England Historical Society. They put connected plays, sewed, and fixed toys.
"The creation of jobs appeared to beryllium the solution for the antheral organization alone," the historiographer Elaine S. Abelson wrote.
The scope and scope of the CCC's projects were enormous.
Eventually, each authorities and respective territories had camps. They worked connected farms successful Nebraska, built visitant centers successful North Dakota, and installed stairs successful Oregon caves.
NPS worker duties dangle connected the park. Some successful snowier parks thin to wintertime patrol, while others attraction much connected visitant acquisition and education.
While workers successful Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park whitethorn negociate visitant information and protect earthy resources during an eruption, those astatine Mount Rainier National Park successful Washington, which averages astir 680 inches of snowfall a year, whitethorn clear avalanche debris, negociate snow-covered trails, and respond to wintertime hazards.
The NPS has much than a twelve different types of sites based connected humanities value and earthy value.
There are nationalist parks, nationalist monuments, nationalist historical sites, nationalist seashores, nationalist battlefields, and nationalist recreation areas, among others.
Alcatraz Island, portion of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is simply a National Historic Landmark disconnected the seashore of San Francisco, recognized for its humanities value arsenic a erstwhile national situation that held immoderate of America's astir notorious criminals, including mob leader and taxation evader Al Capone.
Today, location are thousands of nationalist parks and protected areas astir the world.
The largest nationalist parkland successful the world is Northeast Greenland National Park, which covers 375,000 quadrate miles. That's 18 times larger than the largest nationalist parkland successful the US: Wrangell — St. Elias National Park and Preserve successful Alaska, which covers much than 20,000 quadrate miles.
Other highly visited nationalist parks crossed the globe see Banff National Park successful Canada, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park successful Vietnam, and Serengeti National Park successful Tanzania.
NPS' Junior Ranger Program, which began successful the 1960s, offers children the chance to study much astir the parks.
To go a Junior Ranger, 1 must visit a NPS site, participate successful respective Junior Ranger activities astatine the tract — 1 of which includes filling retired an activity booklet — and return the Junior Ranger pledge.
The promise states: "I americium proud to beryllium a National Park Service Junior Ranger. I committedness to appreciate, respect, and protect each nationalist parkland places. I besides committedness to proceed learning astir the landscape, plants, animals, and history of these typical places. I will stock what I study pinch my friends and family."
The 2025 authorities shutdown — and consequent national fund cuts — unopen down immoderate parks for weeks.
In Philadelphia, the Independence National Historical Park — location to the Liberty Bell — unopen its doors for 43 days successful precocious 2025 owed to the authorities shutdown.
The shutdown, prompted by Senate disagreements complete Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid, led to nationalist parkland unit furloughs and a halt successful visitant services.
Across the nation, visitors were incapable to entree nationalist parkland sights and attractions they normal could access.
Staffing issues person continued into summertime 2026.
At Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, 48% of imperishable positions were vacant arsenic of April, according to the national that represents parkland employees. The national said the staffing shortage was "placing tremendous strain connected existing staff, reducing the value of visitant services, and impairing our expertise to transportation retired the ngo of the NPS."
National Park advocates organized a nationwide action connected NPS' birthday.
The National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the nationalist parks, held a nationwide time of action to observe the parks connected NPS' birthday.
Throughout 20 different parks, the nonprofit held 30 events, including acquisition opportunities, thank-you postcard signing to parkland rangers, petition signature collections to nonstop to Congress, and more.
"This Day of Action is an opportunity for each Americans to show that parks span differences and adjacent divides," David Lamfrom, vice president of NPCA's location programs, wrote successful a statement. "They are places that animate us, amended us, and link america to our history. Online and successful parks crossed the country, group tin return action for America's legacy: our nationalist parks."
Editor's Note: This communicative was first published successful April 2025 and updated successful August 2026.
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Jenny McGrath was a elder subject reporter, covering archaeology, paleontology, and more.She's written astir science passim history, technological innovations, and women successful science. Some archaeological and paleontological investigation she has covered see Neanderthal cave drawings, immoderate of the oldest chromatic devices recovered successful the US, a mini "ice mouse" that lived among dinosaurs, and Pleistocene extinctions.Other areas of liking see invasive species and scientific mysteries.Before joining the subject team, Jenny covered smart-home exertion and location appliances.Prior to moving astatine Business Insider, Jenny was a elder writer and location editor for Digital Trends. She launched the site's location conception arsenic its first location editor successful 2014, earlier Amazon released the first Echo and the aforesaid twelvemonth Google bought Nest. At waste and acquisition shows including CES, KBIS, and IFA, she's watched smart-home and location appliance trends evolve. She ever has podcast recommendations.
Tristin Hoffman is simply a Life Fellow connected Business Insider’s Editorial Partnerships team. Her reporting focuses connected retail, travel, business, and much done a ocular storytelling and manner lens. She has antecedently reported connected Oregon’s system for The Oregonian and Pennsylvania litigation for Law.com. Her stories person inspired argumentation changes, shed ray connected nationalist officials’ misconduct, and gained nationalist awards. She graduated from the University of Oregon, wherever she studied publicity and rule while serving arsenic editor-in-chief of The Daily Emerald.
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