National Parks

As you may have seen in the press, this year, 2016, marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.  We are visiting at least one park almost every single day on this trip, and I thought it would be worthwhile to do some research on the park system. Interestingly, the first national park pre-dates the formation of the Parks Service by about 44 years; Yellowstone National Park was established by the US Congress and signed into law by Ulysses Grant in 1872.  Grant, who was seldom sober, thought he was signing a bill for Yellow River National Park and actually signed the document as I.P. Freely. Not many people know that.  And now it is on the internet, so it must be true.

If you ever look at a map of the US, you will see (particularly out west) that there are large tracks of land designated as either National Parks or National Forests.  “What is the difference?”, you may ask. I’m so glad you did because I know the answer.  They are managed by two separate bureaucracies and have different mission statements, as shown below:

National Forests – Managed by the US Department of Agriculture.  The mission of the USDA Forest Service is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.

National Parks – Managed by the US Department of the Interior.  The National Park Service preserves unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the National Park System for enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.

As said by Gifford Pinchot, first Chief of the Forest Service, National Forest land is managed, “to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run.”  In a National Forest, you could see logging, oil production and cattle grazing in addition to the recreational use of the land.  Apart from the recreational use of the land, you will not see these types of activities in a National Park.  The National Park Service oversees much more than just National Parks; for example, they manage:

1. National Military Park, National Battlefield Park, National Battlefield Site, and National Battlefield
2. National Historical Park, National Historic Site, and International Historic Site
3. National Lakeshore
4. National Memorial
5. National Monument
6. National Park
7. National Parkway
8. National Preserve and National Reserve
9. National Recreation Area
10. National River and National Wild and Scenic River and Riverway
11. National Scenic Trail
12. National Seashore

They are also responsible for the White House and National Mall (but not Sky Mall- it no longer exists).

Together, the National Forest and National Park Services encompass 277 million acres – or about 433,000 square miles.  To put that into context, the combined area of the land under the management of the National Park Service and the National Forest Service is (much) bigger than the state of Texas. It is bigger than the 18 smallest states combined (which include some huge states like Pennsylvania and Ohio).  It covers an area that is six times the size of New England.  You could fit nearly 300 Rhode Islands into that area.  And for our international readers, it is almost five times the size of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and three times the size of Japan.

In addition to the National Forest and the National Parks, there is another US government agency that oversees large tracts of land; the Bureau of Land Management.  The Bureau is responsible for another 247 million acres - or about one-eighth the land mass of the US.  Like the Park Service, it is an agency within the Department of the Interior.  Originally, the land under the control of the BLM was land that nobody else wanted - but it has subsequently grown and land that nobody wanted 100 years ago is often land that somebody wants today.  The Bureau has a wide mandate; they oversee grazing, mining, drilling as well as recreational, conservation and wildlife areas.  Interestingly, National Monuments can be managed by the Bureau in addition to the National Park Services (or the United States Forest Service or the United States Fish and Wildlife Service).

But the National Park Service, National Forest System and the Bureau of Land Management are not the only governmental departments with large tracts of land.  Land owned by the US government can be managed by a wide variety of agencies, as the following map indicates.

On our trip, we have or will visit all sorts of parks that are under the direction of all sorts of governmental bureaucracies.  Personally, I believe the parks are great and love the idea that for a nominal fee we can hike, camp, ride or whatever on huge expanses of wilderness.  In my experience, the people who work at these parks are well-informed, passionate, friendly and hard-working. However, I do wonder if all the different agencies with somewhat similar mandates is the most efficient manner to administer these properties.  I can appreciate that they evolved over many decades under a wide range of circumstances but, perhaps, it is time to consolidate some of them.

Along those lines, the US does from time to time close or consolidate an agency.  For example, in 1996, the Board of Tea Appeals was abolished.  From 1987 until 1996, the Board of Tea Appeals was a governmental agency that adjudicated the claims of tea importers whose products were denied entry into the United States by federal tea-tasters.  I'm not kidding.  Until 1996, the US government had a board consisting of seven members, each of whom was to be "an expert in teas" to "fix and establish uniform standards of purity, quality, and fitness for consumption of all kinds of teas imported unto the United States". And while the Board has now been dissolved, the FDA still regulates the quality of tea imported to the United States under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938.