The National Park Service NPS

Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872, but for forty-four years there was no agency to run it or the dozen parks that followed. The Army patrolled Yellowstone and Yosemite. Monuments created under the Antiquities Act of 1906 were scattered across three departments. The Organic Act of August 25, 1916, created the National Park Service inside the Interior Department with a mandate that still governs it: to conserve the scenery, wildlife, and historic objects of the parks and to provide for their enjoyment in a way that leaves them unimpaired for future generations. Those two goals, conservation and enjoyment, have pulled against each other ever since.

The system now holds 433 units covering about 85 million acres. Sixty-three carry the title national park, from Acadia to Zion, but the majority are national monuments, historic sites, battlefields, seashores, recreation areas, parkways, and memorials, including the National Mall and the Statue of Liberty. The Service also administers programs beyond its own boundaries: the National Register of Historic Places, the National Historic Landmarks, historic preservation grants to states and tribes, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund assistance that has helped build local parks in nearly every county.

Rangers, the Service's public face, do everything from leading walks to fighting wildfires to making arrests, since the Park Service is also a law enforcement agency. The permanent workforce of about 20,000 roughly doubles with seasonal hires each summer. The Director is appointed by the President and, since 1996, requires Senate confirmation. Visitation has climbed to more than 330 million a year, straining roads, trails, and staff at the most famous parks and prompting timed-entry reservation systems at several of them.

The Service carries a maintenance backlog estimated at more than twenty billion dollars, the product of decades in which Congress funded new units more readily than upkeep of old ones. The Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 dedicated several billion dollars toward that gap. Staffing cuts and hiring freezes in 2025 reduced the permanent workforce and raised concerns about safety and services during peak season. The parks remain among the most popular things the federal government does, with approval across party lines that few other agencies can claim.