The National Park Service (NPS) is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. It was created on August 25, 1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act.
It is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior, a federal executive department whose head, the Secretary of the Interior, is a Cabinet officer nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Most of the direct management of the NPS is delegated by the Secretary to the National Park Service Director, who must also be confirmed by the Senate.
The 21,989 employees of the NPS oversee 398 units, of which 58 are designated national parks.
Read more about National Park Service: History, Directors, National Park System, Special Designations, Budget, Nomenclature of The National Park System, Visitors To The National Parks, Youth Programs, Accessibility, Concessions, Cooperators, I.e., Bookstores, Offices, Special Divisions, International Affairs, Initiatives, Related Acts
Famous quotes containing the words national, park and/or service:
“The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?”
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)
“The gods’ service is tolerable, man’s intolerable.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)