Next year on August 14, 2016, the National Park Service will turn 100 years old. Throughout the last 100 years they have celebrated many achievements, but this might just be their biggest one yet. To get the celebration started, a movement called “Find Your Park” is currently underway.
Find Your Park Movement
This movement, which launched on March 30, is meant as a way to bring about public awareness and education about national parks and the National Park Service turning 100. It highlights some of the many parks and the differences among them. It also allows communities to get involved and celebrate the national parks not only in their state, but around the U.S.
About The National Park Service
There are 407 national parks in the U.S. and the National Park Service plays a big part in recreation, conservation and history. The first national park is Yellowstone. It was created in 1872 by an act of Congress. Since then, many more parks have been declared national parks. In 1916, those in Congress saw the need for an agency to be in charge of the parks so the National Park Service was created. Today, the National Park Service is responsible for over 83 million acres which includes not only national parks but historic sites, national monuments, recreation area and many other designated sites. One of the main purposes of the National Park Service is to not only manage the parks, but to protect them as well.
Future Plans
For the second century, the National Parks Service is striving to connect communities to parks and retain environmental and economic stability. They also plan on developing programs that will meet the needs of culturally diverse communities and extend conservation efforts that will benefit the next generation. They plan to do this by adapting their services to the changing needs of visitors of the national parks and becoming more innovative. Overall there’s supposed to be a lot of positive changes that will allow for a better experience at each of the national parks.
Not only do national parks provide many recreational opportunities, but they house a variety of natural ecosystems and many different species of wildlife. Without national parks some plants and animal species would become endangered or even extinct. We will keep you post on upcoming celebrations and events for the National Parks centennial as the information gets released. Do you have any favorite national parks that you like to go too? We have a great selection of National parks tours and train trips.
