National Parks

Marie Thurman

What will you feel as you enter a national park? Many words have been written to describe the experience, but nothing can truly capture the complete amazement as the breathtaking views catch your breath. It's something you must discover for yourself at least once in your lifetime, if not time and time again. Though songs, poems and photographs have tried to capture the essence of national parks, only your senses will tell the true story. In this research paper I will be discussing national parks. I will be explaining what qualifies a park to be a national park, and two main national parks in the United States, Yosemite National Park and The Grand Canyon.

History and Definition

A national park is a noun defined as a tract of land declared public property by a national government with a view to its preservation and development for purposes of recreation and culture. National parks are usually geographically located in places that have been largely undeveloped, and feature areas with native animals, plants, and endangered ecosystems. Once in a while a national park will be located in a developed area with the main goal of returning the area to its original state as much as possible (http://en.wikipedia.org).

National Parks are areas protected by IUCN category II which is The World Conservation Union or International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. IUCN is an international organization dedicated to natural resource conservation. Category II most specifically deals with national parks, or a natural area of land or sea, designated to protecting the ecological integrity of one or more ecosystems for present and future generations; exclude exploitation or occupation inimical to the purposes of designation of the area; the IUCN also provides a foundation for spiritual, scientific, educational, recreational, and visitor opportunities, all of which must be environmentally and culturally compatible (http://en.wikipedia.org).The main purpose of a national park is to offer refuge for wildlife and also serve as popular tourist sites. Sometimes problems occur when trying to accomplish these two purposes, especially since the tourists are the ones who generate revenue for the parks. The revenue is then spent on conservation projects. The United States consists of 390 different national park sites, but only 58 are actually considered national parks.

The recent history of national parks has been marked by a great expansion of government roles in protecting the environment. A growth of public interest in and support for this process has also been included with the expansion of national parks. National-park systems have grown rapidly. In the 1930s national parks reached a peak when it became widely recognized that those rangelands in the public domain had been disastrously overgrazed and that many privately owned farmlands had been depleted or exhausted. (http://search.eb.com) There are