The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government,within the United States Department of the Interior. The Service manages all national parks;most national monuments;and other natural,historical,and recreational properties,with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25,1916,through the National Park Service Organic Act. Its headquarters are in Washington,D.C.,within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior.
A National Parkway is a designation for a protected area in the United States given to scenic roadways with a protected corridor of surrounding parkland. National Parkways often connect cultural or historic sites. The U.S. National Park Service manages the parkways.
Conrad Louis Wirth was an American landscape architect,conservationist,and park service administrator. He was the longest-serving director of the National Park Service (NPS),serving from 1951 to 1964.
The Peaks of Otter are three mountain peaks in the Blue Ridge Mountains,overlooking the town of Bedford,Virginia,which lies nine miles (14 km) to the southeast along State Route 43. These peaks are Sharp Top,Flat Top,and Harkening Hill.
Stephen Tyng Mather was an American industrialist and conservationist who was the first director of the National Park Service. As president and owner of Thorkildsen-Mather Borax Company he became a millionaire. With his friend the journalist Robert Sterling Yard,Mather led a publicity campaign to promote the creation of a unified federal agency to oversee National Parks administration,which was established in 1916. In 1917,Mather was appointed to lead the NPS,the new agency created within the Department of the Interior. He served until 1929,during which time Mather created a professional civil service organization,increased the numbers of parks and national monuments,and established systematic criteria for adding new properties to the federal system.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway,is a 25-mile-long (40 km) parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon,Virginia,northwest to McLean,Virginia,and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely within Virginia,except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island within the District of Columbia.
National Park Service rangers are among the uniformed employees charged with protecting and preserving areas set aside in the National Park System by the United States Congress and the President of the United States. While all employees of the agency contribute to the National Park Service mission of preserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources set aside by the American people for future generations,the term "park ranger" is traditionally used to describe all National Park Service employees who wear the uniform. Broadly speaking,all National Park Service rangers promote stewardship of the resources in their care—either voluntary stewardship via resource interpretation,or compliance with statute or regulation through law enforcement. These comprise the two main disciplines of the ranger profession in the National Park Service.
George Alexander Grant (1891–1964) was an American photographer who served as the first Chief Photographer for the U.S. National Park Service (NPS).
George Benjamin Hartzog Jr. was an American attorney and Director of the National Park Service. Admitted to the bar in South Carolina in 1942,he became an attorney for the General Land Office in the Department of the Interior in 1945,and six months later transferred to the National Park Service.
Shenandoah National Park is a national park in the Eastern United States that encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The park is long and narrow,with the Shenandoah River and its broad valley to the west,and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont to the east. Skyline Drive is the main park road,generally traversing along the ridgeline of the mountains. Almost 40% of the park's land—79,579 acres —has been designated as wilderness areas and is protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The highest peak is Hawksbill Mountain at 4,051 feet (1,235 m).
Robert G. "Bob" Stanton is a retired career civil service administrator who served for almost four decades in the United States National Park Service. He was the first African American to be appointed as the Director of the Park Service,serving 1997–2001.
Russell Errett Dickenson began his National Park Service (NPS) career as a ranger at Grand Canyon National Park in 1946 and served in a wide range of park and central office assignments —most prominently as head of National Capital Parks,deputy director,and Pacific Northwest regional director —before ascending to the directorship in May 1980. Having risen through the traditional ranks and enjoying the respect of his colleagues,Dickenson was enthusiastically welcomed to the job and supported in his effort to restore organizational stability after a succession of short-term directors. As when Walker's deputy,he preferred improving the service's stewardship of its existing parks to seeking new ones. The only Interior Department bureau chief to be retained by the Reagan administration in 1981,Dickenson obtained its support and that of Congress for the Park Restoration and Improvement Program,which devoted more than a billion dollars over five years to park resources and facilities. Dickenson retired in March 1985.
William Jerome Whalen III was the 10th director of the United States National Park Service. He joined Park Service in 1965 as a Job Corps counselor and advanced to posts in National Capital Parks and Yosemite before becoming superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972. His experience in the burgeoning urban parks field contributed to his appointment as director in July 1977,yet the most significant event of his tenure was President Jimmy Carter's proclamation of much Alaska wilderness as national monuments in 1978,doubling the area under NPS jurisdiction. Friction with park concessioners led to congressional calls for Whalen's removal in 1980,and Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus returned him to Golden Gate. He left the NPS in 1983.
Since 1872 the United States National Park System has grown from a single,public reservation called Yellowstone National Park to include 430 natural,historical,recreational,and cultural areas throughout the United States,its territories,and island possessions. These areas include National Parks,National Monuments,National Memorials,National Military Parks,National Historic Sites,National Parkways,National Recreation Areas,National Seashores,National Scenic Riverways,and National Scenic Trails.
The following articles relate to the history,geography,geology,flora,fauna,structures and recreation in Yellowstone National Park.
Jonathan B. Jarvis served as the 18th Director of the United States National Park Service,confirmed by the United States Senate on September 25,2009,and serving until his retirement on January 3,2017.
Battery Kemble Park is a park in Northwest Washington D.C.,administered by the National Park Service.
Throughout the first century of the United States National Park Service (NPS),the organization's workforce has grown more inclusive and gender-balanced. When the organization was formed in 1916,few female rangers worked within its ranks. As the organization grew,more women were hired into white-collar and clerical positions. As social activism and second-wave feminism movements gained ground in the 1960s and 70s,women were hired into more diverse occupations and leadership roles within the NPS. Today,the National Park Service still faces a gender disparity with 37% of the workforce being female and has been criticized for its response to several sexual harassment cases.
National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers or United States Park Rangers are uniformed federal law enforcement officers with broad authority to enforce federal and state laws within National Park Service (NPS) sites. The National Park Service commonly refers to law enforcement operations in the agency as Visitor and Resource Protection. In units of the National Park System,law enforcement rangers are the primary police agency. The National Park Service also employs special agents who conduct more complex criminal investigations. Rangers and agents receive extensive police training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers and annual in-service and regular firearms training. The United States Park Police shares jurisdiction with law enforcement rangers in all National Park Service units,although this agency primarily operates in the Washington,D.C.,New York City,and San Francisco areas.
Raymond David Vela is a parks administrator who is the former acting director of the United States National Park Service.
