The National Park Service: An Analysis Of The National Park Service

The National Park Service is a United States federal government agency that manages all of the United States national parks and many national monuments. In addition to the parks and monuments the National Park Service manages other conservation and historical properties throughout the country. The National Park Service is tasked with preserving the historical and ecological integrity of the properties it is in charge of managing, as well as making sure these properties are available for full public use. In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson signed the act that creates the National Park Service This was a new federal bureau in the Department of the Interior that was responsible for protecting the thirty-five national parks and mountains, which

There are more than twenty-thousand employees that work in a wide reaching variety of organizations and disciplines. The employees work from the parks, to covering specific regions, to working in national programs throughout the National Park Service. At the top of the National Park Service is a Director who is supported by senior executives who manage national programs, policy, and budget in the Washington, DC, headquarters, and seven regional directors responsible for national park management and program implementation. In addition to the employees there are park partners and volunteers who work in a boots on the ground type of role in the

We are so fortunate to live in California and have access to so many of the properties operated by the National Park Service. There are thirteen national parks in California and I have been to seven of them. Enjoying the outdoors is something that is innate to our family. Even before our children could walk they were enjoying hikes through Yosemite in backpacks. This is an amazing fact that I learned from the map given to me in Sequoia National Park; “The only place Giant Sequoias grow now is on the west slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. The 75 distinct groves are found within a narrow band about 260 miles long and 15 miles wide, at its widest point.” (Sequoia National Park, 2012). Without the National Park Service protecting and maintaining parks like Sequoia National Park, there may not be any place like this for my children to learn about this beautiful country that we live