When you imagine the most breathtaking views on this planet, what do you see? Is it a dense, rich, old-growth forest of trees so grand that you feel like an ant between gargantuan blades of grass? Do you picture all-seeing red cliffs dusted with a fresh layer of desert sand or ancient mountains that tower over plains cut with crystal blue rivers? In the United States of America, 429 units of land are protected and managed by the National Park Service — 63 of which bear the title of “National Park.” You may know Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Everglades, but do you know where they came from and why they’re important? Learn all about the parks that make people — America’s National Parks.
What Are National Parks?
To understand National Parks, you need to know where they came from and what they are. In essence, National Parks are breathtaking regions and lands necessary to preserve for educational and humanitarian purposes. For land to be considered to become part of the National Parks System, it needs to meet the following three criteria outlined by nps.gov:
“Possess nationally significant natural, cultural or recreational resources,” “Be a suitable and feasible addition to the National Park System” and “Require direct NPS management instead of protection by some other government agency or by the private sector.”
While the first-ever officially established National Park was Yellowstone National Park in 1872, the National Park Service wasn’t established until 1916 — 44 years later, according to the Library of Congress.
But now, well over 100 years later, the National Parks Service continues to uphold its mission to “preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of this and future generations” as outlined on nps.gov.
Why Are National Parks Important?
National Parks were created to preserve beautiful lands for the benefit of humanity. So National Parks are important because of their impact on people.
Anna Renner, a junior at Texas Christian University, is an avid skier and hiking enthusiast. She appreciates National Parks for their impact on the mind and soul.
“There are few places where I have felt safe enough to be truly seen. Unapologetically authentic,” said Renner. “National Parks protect those places, and for that I’m forever grateful.”
Renner’s feelings are common among frequent visitors to national parks. University of Miami senior Isabella Anderson agrees with Renner’s sentiment but highlights another side to the importance of National Parks:
“I think national parks are an extremely important way for people to reconnect with nature,” said Anderson. “I think they are also important examples of how we can protect the natural beauties of the world for everyone to enjoy.”
As Anderson noted, aside from their impacts on people, National Parks are also important because of the land. National Parks are land preserved to be as least touched by man as possible, meaning that in some cases, these parks are bubbles of ecosystems otherwise lost to urbanization.
“In many cases, National Parks and other federally protected areas such as National Grasslands contain the largest contiguous parcels of relatively undisturbed ecosystem types,” said Dr. William Drennan, a professor of ocean science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. “In some cases, they contain the only significant remaining examples.”
While part of the importance of national parks lies in the form of land and its preservation, unfortunately, sometimes that land isn’t enough to preserve entire ecosystems from disruption or destruction.
“In many cases, the Parks are simply not big enough to conserve entire ecosystems,” said Drennan. “This means that in some cases, large predators … which may be essential to the maintaining the ecosystem in balance, are not protected because part of their range lies outside park boundaries. The problem is exacerbated by climate change because the ranges of many species are shifting, with new ranges potentially outside Park boundaries and protection.”
Despite this, scientists are working to combat these issues by studying the landscapes and making necessary changes to the boundaries and maintenance of National Parks.
An example of a park that benefited from these changes is in Miami’s backyard: Everglades National Park.
“In the case of the Everglades, the Park was expanded in 1989 to include critical lands not included in the original boundaries,” said Drennan. “The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan of 2000 was passed to improve the quality and quantity of water entering the Park.”
There’s always more work to be done to protect and preserve our parks, but the importance of National Parks and their impact on people is ever-growing as concrete spreads across the globe.
Tell Me About Parks
Want to visit the parks but don’t know where to start? Here are three notable national parks and some interesting information about each one to get you excited to visit.
Grand Teton National Park | Wyoming | Est. 1929
While Grand Teton National Park is perhaps most famous for its eight towering peaks and pristine mountain lakes, the roughly 484 square miles that make Grand Teton National Park as we know it today are the product of dedication, effort and time, as this park took decades to become what it is today.
According to the National Park Service, the story goes that in 1923, local ranchers and businesspeople held a meeting to discuss the preservation of the Teton Mountain Range and valley as the West began to develop. Around the same time, in 1926, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. began privately purchasing property in the valley, eventually accumulating 35,000 acres of land that he intended to transfer to the Federal government to become part of the National Park.
Grand Teton National Park was officially established by Congress in 1929; however, Rockefeller, Jr. donated his purchased land to the government in 1949.
So, in 1950, the park’s original boundaries were combined with Rockefeller Jr.’s land and the nearby Jackson Hole National Monument, which Franklin D. Roosevelt created in 1943, to become today’s Grand Teton National Park.
Capitol Reef National Park | Utah | Est. 1971
In 1969, Paul Newman and Robert Redford brought two of the American West’s most iconic outlaws — Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — to life on the silver screen. But in the late 1800s, the real Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid evaded the law by hiding in a collection of canyons appropriately titled “Robber’s Roost” — which just so happens to be right next to Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park.
While Robber’s Roost isn’t within the park’s boundaries, the famous outlaws spent ample time traveling through and hiding in the roughly 377 square miles of land encompassed by Capitol Reef today.
The park pays homage to Butch Cassidy specifically through the iconic Cassidy Arch, which is accessible through the 3.1-mile Cassidy Arch Trail, according to capitolreefcountry.com.
Capitol Reef National Park also contains important archeological and geological sites, including the roughly 100-mile-long monocline or “warp in the Earth’s crust” known as the Waterpocket Fold and the Fremont Culture Petrographs — images carved into stone by The Fremont Culture, a native ancestral people who lived in Utah and other areas of the West from around 300 to 1300 CE (all according to NPS.Gov).
Denali National Park and Preserve | Alaska | Est. 1917 and 1980
First and foremost, while we know the roughly six million acres that make up Denali National Park and Preserve as an American National Park, it’s important to acknowledge the land’s history with and significance to Alaska native communities.
According to nps.gov, “Denali is at the intersection of the traditional lands of five different native groups: the Ahtna, Dena’ina, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim and Tanana peoples.”
According to travelalaska.com, archaeological history connected to indigenous peoples on these lands can be traced back roughly 12,600 years. These lands continue to be significant to Alaskan native groups, specifically Athabaskan cultures, today.
So while it was first established as Mount McKinley National Park in 1917, amidst controversy over its name, this park was renamed and re-established in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act as Denali National Park and Preserve in 1980. The park’s new name, “Denali,” comes from one Athabaskan oral place name for the park’s tallest mountain, according to nps.gov.
Speaking of Mount Denali, while Mount Everest in Nepal might be the world’s highest mountain by elevation, it’s not the tallest. According to USA Today, if you compare Everest’s vertical rise — a measure of a mountain’s height from its base elevation to its peak — to that of Mount Denali in Denali National Park, the Alaskan mountain is larger by around 3000 feet.
At the end of the day, remember just like parks impact people, people impact parks. If you choose to visit a National Park — which we hope you do — be aware of how you interact with wildlife and the environment and be sure to leave the park in the same condition that you found it. America’s National Parks can only stay as preserved as the visitors leave it.
If you want more information on America’s 63 National Parks and other units visit nps.gov.
words&photo_nicole faccina. design_marita gavioti.
This article was published in Distraction’s Summer 2024 print issue.
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