The National Park Service (NPS) is the U.S. federal agency that manages all National Parks, many National Monuments and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations.
It was created on August 25, 1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act.
It is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior, which is a Cabinet Office of the executive branch, overseen by the Secretary of the Interior, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Most of the direct management of the NPS is delegated by the Secretary to the National Park Service Director, who must now also be confirmed by the Senate.
The 21,989 employees NPS oversee over 391 units, of which 58 are designated national parks.
History
Main article: History of the National Park Service (United States) See also: National Park Service Organic Act National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior. The movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior. They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational and recreational benefits.[4] This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed a bill that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife 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."[5] Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS.
On March 3, 1933, President Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933. The act would allow the President to reorganize the Executive Branch of the United States Government. It wasn't until later that summer when the new President Franklin Roosevelt made use of this power. Deputy Director Horace Albright had suggested to President Roosevelt that the historic sites from the American Civil War should be managed by the National Park Service, rather than the War Department. President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive Orders to make it happen. These two executive orders not only transferred all the War Department historic sites to the relatively new National Park Service, they also transferred the National Monument managed by the Department of Agriculture and the parks in and around the capital, which had been run by an independent office.
In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service and went to work on bringing park facilities up to the standards that the public expected. The demand for parks after the end of the Second World War had left the parks over burdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with President Eisenhowers support, he began Mission 66 a ten year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th Anniversary of the Park Service. New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded.
The National Park System is a term that describes the collection of all units managed by the National Park Service, and it is not necessary for the title or designation of the unit to include the term "park" - indeed most do not. The system encompasses approximately 84.4 million acres (338,000 km²), of which more than 4.3 million acres (17,000 km²) remain in private ownership. The largest unit is Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (53,000 km²) it is over 16 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, Pennsylvania, at 0.02 acre (80 m²).