It’s never too late to start planning on turning off the television, shutting down the computer, and getting your butt outside.
The United States National Park Service is the federal agency that manages all of our national parks. The agency was created in August, 1916, through a campaign by Stephen Mather, J. Horace McFarland and journalist Robert Sterling Yard as part of the United States Department of the Interior. It was created through an act of Congress, signed by President Woodrow Wilson, known as the National Park Service Organic Act which mandated that an agency be created “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.”
The National Park System has grown from one million acres of wilderness known as Yellowstone National Park back in 1872, to include over 18 million acres in almost 400 national parks today. To quote the National Park Service, we are truly owners of the world’s greatest collection of nature, history and culture through our National Parks System. Continue reading