RESEARCH STARTER

National Park Service (NPS)

The National Park Service (NPS) is a U.S. federal agency established on August 25, 1916, to manage and protect national parks, monuments, and reservations for public enjoyment and conservation for future generations. Originating from the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the NPS was formed to address conflicts between preservationists, who advocate for the protection of natural resources, and utilitarians, who seek to use these lands for economic development. Originally, the service was responsible for 37 national parks and has since expanded its purview to include a total of 424 areas by 2023, encompassing diverse landscapes and historical sites.

The NPS's mission has evolved to not only focus on conservation but also to incorporate sustainable practices and resilience in managing park operations. Additionally, the agency's efforts to engage with Native American Tribes and other indigenous groups have led to co-stewardship guidelines aimed at fostering collaboration in preserving sacred lands. Despite the popularity of national parks, which attract over 300 million visitors annually, the NPS faces challenges such as funding shortages, maintenance needs, and the effects of government shutdowns. The NPS continues to balance visitor access with the imperative of conservation, underscoring its commitment to safeguarding America's natural and cultural heritage.

Full Article

The US Congress established the National Park Service to manage and promote the use of federal parks, monuments, and reservations. Its purpose was to ensure that the scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife in the parks could be enjoyed by the public and at the same time left unimpaired for future generations.

Background

Thirty-seven national parks were already in existence when Congress formed the National Park Service on August 25, 1916. The creation of Yellowstone, the first national park in the world, like that of later parks, engendered struggles between those who wanted to preserve federal lands, preservationists, and those who wanted to use them, utilitarians. In general, Congress encouraged the economic development of federal lands. Yet many different groups—preservationists, local business people, the railroad industry, and scientists—each with its own particular interests, were able to convince Congress to pass the Yellowstone Act in 1872, thereby preserving more than 800,000 hectares. Despite the law, Yellowstone’s pristine status was soon under attack. Conflicts continued at the end of the century: An attempt to establish a gold mine outside the park was blocked by President Bill Clinton; ranchers were upset with the reestablishment of wolves inside the park in 1995, though this venture has been considered a success by scientists and the public. Furthermore, in 2003, the government put restrictions on snowmobile use within the park.

Congress used the Yellowstone Act as the basis for establishing other parks. For most of these, preservation was more theoretical than practical. For example, in Yosemite National Park, established in 1890, preservationists, including John Muir, lost a long battle to utilitarians, including Gifford Pinchot, over the flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide San Francisco with water in 1913. This loss would later be used by preservationists as a rallying cry against future attempts to impinge on the national parks. Debate about Hetch Hetchy continued into the twenty-first century.

The Antiquities Act

In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act to protect federal lands of historical, scientific, and cultural interest. Congressional representative John Lacey of Iowa had recognized that scenic wonders were not the only lands worthy of preservation. Lacey’s original objective was to protect American Indian ruins and artifacts of the Southwest from looters, vandals, and other criminals. The wording of the act, however, has allowed presidents to have considerable latitude in setting aside sites as national monuments. Some national parks, including Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon, were first made into national monuments. Their conversion into national parks involved compromise, including permitting railroad rights of way, farming by Indigenous Americans, and the recognition of valid land claims and mining rights within park boundaries.

Establishment of the National Park Service

Without a central federal office coordinating national parks, many problems developed. The parks competed with one another for federal appropriations. No government agency had the authority to determine national park criteria, thus allowing local interests to convince Congress of the value of protecting natural wonders in places few people had seen. Protection of resources from economic exploitation in all parks was difficult. Congress was not interested in adding to the federal bureaucracy and establishing a new government agency to administer the parks.

The Forest Service, in the Department of Agriculture, wanted to maintain its role as a major federal landholding agency. It and the Reclamation Service, in the Department of the Interior, opposed new national parks in general, since, from their viewpoint, parks overemphasized preservation of federal lands and did not allow sufficient economic use. Years of campaigning by such men as Secretaries of the Interior Richard Ballinger, Walter Fisher, and Franklin Lane, J. Horace McFarland (president of the American Civic Association), Representative William Kent, Senator Reed Smoot, and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (son of Frederick Law Olmsted and a renowned landscape architect in his own right) helped to convince Congress of the value of a new agency. After much controversy, in 1916, Congress passed the National Parks Act, establishing a central authority within the Department of the Interior and stating its responsibilities.

Impact of the Park Service

The law that established the National Park Service, the Organic Act of 1916, has been interpreted in many ways, not always emphasizing conservation and preservation. The first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, tried to enforce his preservationist beliefs but was not always successful. Mather worked hard to make the service a professional organization and an influential part of the Washington bureaucracy.

He also recognized that, to make the national park system truly national, some parks needed to be established in the East. All existing parks were in the West, but the majority of the country’s population and wealth were in the East. Although the scenery of the East was not considered as spectacular as that of the West, local groups worked with state and local governments as well as with residents to establish Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia, and Mammoth Cave National Parks in the 1920s and 1930s.

Evolving Responsibilities

In 1933, the federal government expanded the role of the National Park Service to include federal lands that had been under the control of the Departments of War and Agriculture, including monuments, historic sites, and buildings, and national military parks. By preserving and managing important historical sites along with natural ones, the Park Service enlarged its role and more completely fulfilled its mission of 1916.

By 2025, there were 433 national park areas in the United States. Their popularity with Americans and international travelers continued to grow in the early twenty-first century, frequently resulting in damage to the very resources that attract more than 300 million visitors each year. However, federal funds have often not kept pace, occasionally forcing the National Park Service to close sections of parks and rely more on volunteers. In 2017, the National Park Service proposed doubling or tripling entry fees at seventeen highly popular parks to help finance decades of deferred maintenance. In 2018, NPS announced approval for a nominal increase in entrance fees. This additional revenue would help provide funds to address needed maintenance on infrastructure and provide an improved tourist experience. The parks are also susceptible to temporary full or partial closures during government shutdowns, such as the thirty-five-day shutdown in 2018-2019 or the shutdowns resulting from the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic.

In an attempt to decrease operating costs, around twenty national parks implemented a cash-free policy in 2023, but visitors challenged this decision and filed a lawsuit in 2024. A judge dismissed the case in February 2025, but it was refiled the following month, prompting the government to file another motion to dismiss the case. Amid these lawsuits, the National Park Service continued facing significant funding cuts and budget challenges, as well as a staffing crisis. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the Park Service experienced a 10 percent staffing reduction between 2010 and 2025, and between January and August 2025, the service lost 24 percent of its permanent staff, making it difficult for remaining employees to maintain operations.

The National Park Service continues to manage these national treasures by balancing use and preservation. One such example is its focus on resilience and sustainability, which aims to reduce environmental impact and costs associated with park operations. This is done through a partnership with the National Park Foundation. The National Park Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting efforts to reduce waste and conserve water and energy resources by using renewable energy. This became increasingly important as the impact of climate change on national parks intensified in the 2020s, with the melting of glaciers, biodiversity loss, and an increase in wildfires, such as the devastating fire in Grand Canyon National Park.

The National Park Service also issued new guidelines in 2022 to increase cooperation between Indigenous Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians on co-stewardship of National Park lands. The guidelines were part of a broader policy within the federal government to adopt co-stewardship policies across all federal land agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. 


Bibliography

"About Us." National Park Service, 27 Feb. 2025, www.nps.gov/aboutus/index.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Gee, Alastair. "Rotting Cabins, Closed Trails: Why We're Shining a Light on US National Parks." The Guardian, 29 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/29/national-parks-repair-backlog-grand-canyon-zion. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Gonzales, Angela. "3 Competing Visions for the Future of Our National Parks." National Parks Conservation Association, 11 Aug. 2025, www.npca.org/articles/10178-3-competing-visions-for-the-future-of-our-national-parks. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Grusin, Richard. Culture, Technology, and the Creation of America’s National Parks. Cambridge UP, 2004.

Lomax, Becky. USA National Parks. Avalon, 2022.

Mason, Kathy S. Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916. Michigan State UP, 2004.

Mateo, Rony, editor. American National Parks: Current Issues and Developments. Novinka Books, 2004.

Milman, Oliver. "US National Parks Staff in ‘Survival Mode’ to Keep Parks Open amid Trump Cuts." The Guardian, 7 Aug. 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/us-national-parks-trump-cuts. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

"National Park Service Announces Plan to Address Infrastructure Needs & Improve Visitor Experience." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/04-12-2018-entrance-fees.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

“National Park Service Issues New Policy Guidance to Strengthen Tribal Co-Stewardship of National Park Lands and Waters.” National Park Service, 13 Sept. 2022, www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/national-park-service-issues-new-policy-guidance-to-strengthen-tribal-co-stewardship-of-national-park-lands-and-waters.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

"Resilience & Sustainability." National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/area-of-work/resilience-sustainability. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Ridenour, James M. The National Parks Compromised: Pork Barrel Politics and America’s Treasures. ICS Books, 1994.

Runte, Alfred. National Parks: The American Experience. 5th ed., The Lyons Press, Guilford, 2021.

Soukup, Michael A., and Gary E. Machlis. American Covenant National Parks, Their Promise, and Our Nation’s Future. Yale UP, 2021.

Treisman, Rachel. "A Wildfire Destroyed the Historic Grand Canyon Lodge. It Burned Down Once Before ." NPR, 14 July 2025, www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5467273/grand-canyon-lodge-wildfire-history. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Yochim, Michael J., and William R. Lowry. Requiem for America’s Best Idea: National Parks in the Era of Climate Change. High Road Books, 2022.

Full Article

The US Congress established the National Park Service to manage and promote the use of federal parks, monuments, and reservations. Its purpose was to ensure that the scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife in the parks could be enjoyed by the public and at the same time left unimpaired for future generations.

Background

Thirty-seven national parks were already in existence when Congress formed the National Park Service on August 25, 1916. The creation of Yellowstone, the first national park in the world, like that of later parks, engendered struggles between those who wanted to preserve federal lands, preservationists, and those who wanted to use them, utilitarians. In general, Congress encouraged the economic development of federal lands. Yet many different groups—preservationists, local business people, the railroad industry, and scientists—each with its own particular interests, were able to convince Congress to pass the Yellowstone Act in 1872, thereby preserving more than 800,000 hectares. Despite the law, Yellowstone’s pristine status was soon under attack. Conflicts continued at the end of the century: An attempt to establish a gold mine outside the park was blocked by President Bill Clinton; ranchers were upset with the reestablishment of wolves inside the park in 1995, though this venture has been considered a success by scientists and the public. Furthermore, in 2003, the government put restrictions on snowmobile use within the park.

Congress used the Yellowstone Act as the basis for establishing other parks. For most of these, preservation was more theoretical than practical. For example, in Yosemite National Park, established in 1890, preservationists, including John Muir, lost a long battle to utilitarians, including Gifford Pinchot, over the flooding of the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide San Francisco with water in 1913. This loss would later be used by preservationists as a rallying cry against future attempts to impinge on the national parks. Debate about Hetch Hetchy continued into the twenty-first century.

The Antiquities Act

In 1906, Congress passed the Antiquities Act to protect federal lands of historical, scientific, and cultural interest. Congressional representative John Lacey of Iowa had recognized that scenic wonders were not the only lands worthy of preservation. Lacey’s original objective was to protect American Indian ruins and artifacts of the Southwest from looters, vandals, and other criminals. The wording of the act, however, has allowed presidents to have considerable latitude in setting aside sites as national monuments. Some national parks, including Mesa Verde and Grand Canyon, were first made into national monuments. Their conversion into national parks involved compromise, including permitting railroad rights of way, farming by Indigenous Americans, and the recognition of valid land claims and mining rights within park boundaries.

Establishment of the National Park Service

Without a central federal office coordinating national parks, many problems developed. The parks competed with one another for federal appropriations. No government agency had the authority to determine national park criteria, thus allowing local interests to convince Congress of the value of protecting natural wonders in places few people had seen. Protection of resources from economic exploitation in all parks was difficult. Congress was not interested in adding to the federal bureaucracy and establishing a new government agency to administer the parks.

The Forest Service, in the Department of Agriculture, wanted to maintain its role as a major federal landholding agency. It and the Reclamation Service, in the Department of the Interior, opposed new national parks in general, since, from their viewpoint, parks overemphasized preservation of federal lands and did not allow sufficient economic use. Years of campaigning by such men as Secretaries of the Interior Richard Ballinger, Walter Fisher, and Franklin Lane, J. Horace McFarland (president of the American Civic Association), Representative William Kent, Senator Reed Smoot, and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (son of Frederick Law Olmsted and a renowned landscape architect in his own right) helped to convince Congress of the value of a new agency. After much controversy, in 1916, Congress passed the National Parks Act, establishing a central authority within the Department of the Interior and stating its responsibilities.

Impact of the Park Service

The law that established the National Park Service, the Organic Act of 1916, has been interpreted in many ways, not always emphasizing conservation and preservation. The first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, tried to enforce his preservationist beliefs but was not always successful. Mather worked hard to make the service a professional organization and an influential part of the Washington bureaucracy.

He also recognized that, to make the national park system truly national, some parks needed to be established in the East. All existing parks were in the West, but the majority of the country’s population and wealth were in the East. Although the scenery of the East was not considered as spectacular as that of the West, local groups worked with state and local governments as well as with residents to establish Shenandoah, Great Smoky Mountains, Acadia, and Mammoth Cave National Parks in the 1920s and 1930s.

Evolving Responsibilities

In 1933, the federal government expanded the role of the National Park Service to include federal lands that had been under the control of the Departments of War and Agriculture, including monuments, historic sites, and buildings, and national military parks. By preserving and managing important historical sites along with natural ones, the Park Service enlarged its role and more completely fulfilled its mission of 1916.

By 2025, there were 433 national park areas in the United States. Their popularity with Americans and international travelers continued to grow in the early twenty-first century, frequently resulting in damage to the very resources that attract more than 300 million visitors each year. However, federal funds have often not kept pace, occasionally forcing the National Park Service to close sections of parks and rely more on volunteers. In 2017, the National Park Service proposed doubling or tripling entry fees at seventeen highly popular parks to help finance decades of deferred maintenance. In 2018, NPS announced approval for a nominal increase in entrance fees. This additional revenue would help provide funds to address needed maintenance on infrastructure and provide an improved tourist experience. The parks are also susceptible to temporary full or partial closures during government shutdowns, such as the thirty-five-day shutdown in 2018-2019 or the shutdowns resulting from the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic.

In an attempt to decrease operating costs, around twenty national parks implemented a cash-free policy in 2023, but visitors challenged this decision and filed a lawsuit in 2024. A judge dismissed the case in February 2025, but it was refiled the following month, prompting the government to file another motion to dismiss the case. Amid these lawsuits, the National Park Service continued facing significant funding cuts and budget challenges, as well as a staffing crisis. According to the National Parks Conservation Association, the Park Service experienced a 10 percent staffing reduction between 2010 and 2025, and between January and August 2025, the service lost 24 percent of its permanent staff, making it difficult for remaining employees to maintain operations.

The National Park Service continues to manage these national treasures by balancing use and preservation. One such example is its focus on resilience and sustainability, which aims to reduce environmental impact and costs associated with park operations. This is done through a partnership with the National Park Foundation. The National Park Foundation is a nonprofit organization that focuses on supporting efforts to reduce waste and conserve water and energy resources by using renewable energy. This became increasingly important as the impact of climate change on national parks intensified in the 2020s, with the melting of glaciers, biodiversity loss, and an increase in wildfires, such as the devastating fire in Grand Canyon National Park.

The National Park Service also issued new guidelines in 2022 to increase cooperation between Indigenous Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians on co-stewardship of National Park lands. The guidelines were part of a broader policy within the federal government to adopt co-stewardship policies across all federal land agencies, including the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management. 


Bibliography

"About Us." National Park Service, 27 Feb. 2025, www.nps.gov/aboutus/index.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Gee, Alastair. "Rotting Cabins, Closed Trails: Why We're Shining a Light on US National Parks." The Guardian, 29 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/29/national-parks-repair-backlog-grand-canyon-zion. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Gonzales, Angela. "3 Competing Visions for the Future of Our National Parks." National Parks Conservation Association, 11 Aug. 2025, www.npca.org/articles/10178-3-competing-visions-for-the-future-of-our-national-parks. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Grusin, Richard. Culture, Technology, and the Creation of America’s National Parks. Cambridge UP, 2004.

Lomax, Becky. USA National Parks. Avalon, 2022.

Mason, Kathy S. Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916. Michigan State UP, 2004.

Mateo, Rony, editor. American National Parks: Current Issues and Developments. Novinka Books, 2004.

Milman, Oliver. "US National Parks Staff in ‘Survival Mode’ to Keep Parks Open amid Trump Cuts." The Guardian, 7 Aug. 2025, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/07/us-national-parks-trump-cuts. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

"National Park Service Announces Plan to Address Infrastructure Needs & Improve Visitor Experience." National Park Service, www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/04-12-2018-entrance-fees.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

“National Park Service Issues New Policy Guidance to Strengthen Tribal Co-Stewardship of National Park Lands and Waters.” National Park Service, 13 Sept. 2022, www.nps.gov/orgs/1207/national-park-service-issues-new-policy-guidance-to-strengthen-tribal-co-stewardship-of-national-park-lands-and-waters.htm. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

"Resilience & Sustainability." National Park Foundation, www.nationalparks.org/area-of-work/resilience-sustainability. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Ridenour, James M. The National Parks Compromised: Pork Barrel Politics and America’s Treasures. ICS Books, 1994.

Runte, Alfred. National Parks: The American Experience. 5th ed., The Lyons Press, Guilford, 2021.

Soukup, Michael A., and Gary E. Machlis. American Covenant National Parks, Their Promise, and Our Nation’s Future. Yale UP, 2021.

Treisman, Rachel. "A Wildfire Destroyed the Historic Grand Canyon Lodge. It Burned Down Once Before ." NPR, 14 July 2025, www.npr.org/2025/07/14/nx-s1-5467273/grand-canyon-lodge-wildfire-history. Accessed 2 Sept. 2025.

Yochim, Michael J., and William R. Lowry. Requiem for America’s Best Idea: National Parks in the Era of Climate Change. High Road Books, 2022.

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