National Preserve is a designation applied by the United States Congress to protected areas that have characteristics normally associated with U.S. National Parks but where certain activities not allowed in National Parks are permitted. These activities include public hunting, trapping, and oil and gas exploration/extraction. Most preserves are administered by the National Park Service.
The first national preserve in the U.S. was Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, followed soon after by Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, both established in 1974.
Many National Preserves would qualify as National Parks but allow hunting.
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or preserve:
“The principle of all sovereignty resides essentially in the nation.”
—French National Assembly. Declaration of the Rights of Man (Sept. 1791)
“Really to see the sun rise or go down every day, so to relate ourselves to a universal fact, would preserve us sane forever.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)