The National Park Service (NPS)  https://www.nps.gov/  is responsible for caring for and preserving America’s national parks, monuments, lakes, seashores, historic sites, and national military parks. It was established in 1916 https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-1725/pdf/COMPS-1725.pdf  though previously established national parks and military parks such as Yellowstone and Shiloh were administered by the War Department.

Laws governing NPS can be found Title 54 of the U.S. Code  https://uscode.house.gov/browse/prelim@title54&edition=prelim; and regulations are in Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-36. Park service site visitor statistics can be found at https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/ and management and administrative reports on NPS properties can be found at https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/ NPS’ proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget is $2.2 billion https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-04/2027bibnps508.pdf and its estimated workforce of full-time employees is 13,119.

This blog was submitted by Bert Chapman, Purdue University.