The Legal and Organizational Framework

T he National Park Service (NPS) administers a very complex, and often confusing, organizational landscape. While many people might readily identify Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Everglades as national parks, they might not realize that in official NPS nomenclature, sites such as the Mount Rushmore Memorial, Gettysburg National Military Park, and the Cape Cod National Seashore are not. Actually, properties labeled “national parks” number only 59 of the 401 official units that are included in what is called the national park system. Making up the other units of the national park system are national battlefields (11), national battlefield parks (4), national battlefield sites (1), national military parks (9), national historical parks (46), national historic sites (78), international historic sites (1), national lakeshores (4), national memorials (28), national monuments (79), national parkways (4), national preserves (18), national reserves (2), national recreation areas (18), national rivers (15), national scenic trails (3), national seashores (10), and other designations (11). 1 Despite the technicality that only 59 units are really officially categorized as national parks, it is common practice to refer to all units administered by the Park Service as national parks. Friends groups and cooperating associations serve all NPS designations. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.