The first park to be recognized in Texas by the NPS was Big Bend National Park in 1944. But we may have to tell stories and we may have to understand and show parks in a different way ahead. That includes Lake Mead National Recreation Area; Zion and Bryce Canyon national parks in Utah; Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks in California; and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona.
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With so few natural expanses unmarked by housing developments and strip malls, it is vital to this nation’s interests to properly maintain its 84 million acres of parks, refuges, and battlefields. Almost every country on Earth has its own system of national parks, and many have benefited from the NPS’s direct assistance. When writing NPS’s charter, its drafters noted, with great foresight, that “the economic value of the parks is only recently coming to be realized” and that the “growing appreciation of the national assets found in National Parks is evidenced by the vast increase of visitors”.
Since 2005, the service’s budget has been cut by half a billion dollars – leading to long-term staff losses, closed facilities, and the growth of the $11.3 billion backlog for deferred regular maintenance. We can not let our national parks falter on our watch.
However, the conservation legacy of the National Park Service goes far beyond America’s borders. Under President Woodrow Wilson, the Organic Act was passed in 1916, creating a bureau within the Department of Interior to protect and preserve the scenery, wildlife, and historic landmarks of designated areas around the country and US territories. Beer aficionados can even enjoy a cold one brewed from thermal spring water at Hot Springs National Park.
And though we’re celebrating 100 years of the National Park System this year, from ME to Hawaii, Florida to Alaska, and everywhere in between, not to mention American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, it may come as a surprise to learn that the first National Park was designated in 1871, 45 years before the National Park Service as we know it came into existence in 1916. American bison in Yellowstone National Park. At last count LWCF-assisted parks touch the lives of people in more than 98 percent of USA counties.
For example, through the work of the NPS in Channel Islands National Park, off the coast of California, the critically endangered island fox has almost recovered thanks to a program of captive breeding and threat mitigation. The NPS was also directed “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations”.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) advocates for the National Park Service and other conservation and stewardship programs as a key member of the Appropriations Committee’s Interior Subcommittee.
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Today the National Park Service commemorates its 100th anniversary.
