16 December 2008
Preserving Land for All to Enjoy
Parks an Important Part of Recreation in the U.S.
This article is excerpted from the IIP publication Sketchbook USA, a richly illustrated volume that depicts Americans at work, at play, in their communities, and engaging in civic life. View and download the fully formatted Sketchbook.
U.S. efforts to conserve natural areas began when the first national park at Yellowstone was established by an act of Congress in 1872 “as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” The founding of Yellowstone National Park, which covers the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, began a worldwide national park movement, and today more than 100 nations have some 1,200 national parks or equivalent preserves.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt furthered the conservation of public lands by designating five national parks, 150 national forests, the first 51 federal bird reservations, and the first four national game preserves. In A Book-Lover’s Holidays in the Open, published in 1916, Roosevelt said: “The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.”
That same year, President Woodrow Wilson established the National Park Service, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior. The National Park Service now comprises 390 areas covering more than 33.6 million hectares (84 million acres) in every state (except Delaware), the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. These areas include national parks, monuments, battlefields, military parks, historical parks, historic sites, lakeshores, seashores, recreation areas, scenic rivers and trails, and the White House. With a budget of $2.2 billion and staff and volunteers numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the National Park Service seeks to make recreation an enjoyable experience for the millions of visitors it gets each year.
This concern for the preservation of land for the enjoyment of all extends from the federal government to the 50 states. State governments across the country manage more than 5,800 park areas, covering more than 5.5 million hectares (almost 14 million acres) of land. In 2007, the National Recreation and Park Association recognized the state of Tennessee for its achievements in park management with its biannual Gold Medal Award for Excellence.
State and national parks offer visitors — from the United States and abroad — outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, fishing, boating, and horseback riding, as well as a chance to learn the history and culture of the area. In kicking off the 2007 summer travel season, National Park Service Director Mary Bomar said: “These magnificent places pay homage to our ancestors and inspire our children to become better stewards of the parks for tomorrow. … They provide incredible opportunities to experience the marvelous natural and cultural heritage of our country.”
The importance of recreational space is well recognized on the local level as well. Rare is the U.S. community lacking a park where its residents go to walk or jog, to ride bicycles, to take their children to play, to picnic with their friends and families, or simply to relax, read, and bask in the simple joy of being outdoors.
