Other national parks and monuments followed, but no single agency provided management of the park lands at that time.
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On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation creating the National Park Service to oversee the nation’s 35 (at the time) national parks.
Thursday marks 100 years since the service became a new federal bureau within the Department of the Interior. The Centennial celebration is a chance for Americans to not only experience these extraordinary pieces of our shared national heritage, but to prove they must be preserved in perpetuity. Locally, all one has to do is stand on the rim of Crater Lake and try to imagine a better use for the land than a national park for the benefit of us all. The Obama administration has worked to ensure that the parks tell the story of the United States’ cultural history.
“We have an exciting day planned”, said Scott Teodorski, chief of interpretation at Congaree National Park. That is why my Administration has protected over 265 million acres of public lands and waters – more than any Administration in history – and worked to save endangered and vulnerable species and their vital habitats.
Jewell will join Glacier Superintendent Jeff Mow, scientists and stakeholders to learn more about how climate change is affecting the park, where glaciers are disappearing. “These magnificent places belong to all Americans and we invite everyone, especially our newest citizens, to Find Your Park”.
The National Park Service has endured for a century because it expresses something that is profoundly good about America. Last year, Yellowstone welcomed a record number of visitors, and this year has so far been even busier.
He said it was five years after the founding of National Parks, in 1921 that Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service urged the development of state parks in the model of national parks. People who want to protect the environment and help make a difference in the future of national parks can donate through their main website.
Nearly every American city and town claims a little bit of the National Park Service, and the tri-state Philadelphia region boasts a number of sites.
Over the years, we have visited more than 200 of our national parks, historic sites and monuments, so to celebrate, we are gathering our travel journals, photo albums and souvenirs and taking a trip down memory lane.
Of course, we hope National Park Service will see its bicentennial, or better yet, its tricentennial, giving all of us – and generations to come – plenty of time to experience our parks the way President Wilson did the day he chose to formally preserve them.
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Caption + Adam Nguyen, a crew member for the non-profit organization Rocky Mountain Conservancy, helps restore old cabins used by research scientists inside Rocky Mountain National Park, near Estes Park, Colo., on August 4, 2016.
