Members of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) at a camp in Oregon.
CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
The National Park Service, created by President Woodrow Wilson, turned 110 years old on August 25.
Its 12,600 full-time employees oversee 85 million acres and manage a multibillion-dollar budget.
Recent cuts have threatened the agency’s ability to maintain its operations and visitor levels.
Before federal rangers became stewards of America’s 63 national parks, responsibility was fragmented among several agencies — including the Department of the Interior, the US Army, and the Forest Service.
At the time, federal lands, largely in the western US, received minimal management due to a lack of coordinated leadership and policy from the era’s politicians. Some Americans also questioned the idea of converting land and monuments into parks.
That all changed on August 25, 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the “Organic Act of 1916,” creating what is now known as the National Park Service. In the first decade following the act’s adoption, American industrialist and conservationist Stephen Tyng Mather became the first NPS director and helped establish Grand Canyon, Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Denali (formerly Mount McKinley) as national parks, and successfully lobbied for legislation allowing the purchase of land from private owners in the eastern US.
Today, the NPS — which celebrated its 110th birthday on Tuesday — oversees 433 sites across 85 million acres of federal land, from national parks and monuments to historic sites, battlefields, trails, rivers, and recreation areas. The goal is to conserve each location’s scenery, wildlife, and historical objects.
The NPS has also worked alongside numerous federal work-relief programs over the decades, particularly during the New Deal era. The Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC — Franklin D’ Roosevelt’s so-called “tree army” — was one of them.
Within months of the program’s creation in 1933, the US Army and other agencies were developing plans to have 250,000 young men in camps around the country by July 1 that year.
“They built everything from some of the most well-known structures in parks in the country to things in your own backyard that you might not even be aware of,” Neil Maher, a historian at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, previously told Business Insider.
CCC workers later played a role in disaster relief, including during the March 1937 Ohio River flood in Louisville, Kentucky. The NPS and its partners have also worked to fight fires, create and expand access to state and national parks, and string telephone lines.
The agency’s discretionary funding requests have also fallen. After rising from $3.5 billion in 2022 to $3.8 billion in 2024, the NPS requested $3.6 billion in 2025 and just $2.1 billion for 2026.
Still, Americans love to visit the parks. The NPS saw 323 million visits in 2025, a slight decrease of 2.7% from 2024. Here’s how the NPS has evolved over the years, and how its employees and sister programs have fundamentally reshaped the landscape of the US.
Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the US and the world, established in 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant.
A high-angle wide shot of the Lower Falls of Yellowstone Falls, two waterfalls on the Yellowstone River, located within Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, circa 1955. (Photo by Union Pacific System/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
Union Pacific System/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images
The park covers about 3,500 square miles across Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. About 96% of that is in Wyoming, with Idaho holding just 1%.
In the first year after NPS was established, it saw roughly 453,000 visitors across its 13 parks.
Tourist photo of two women standing at the edge of the Grand Canyon in the early 20th century. (Photo by Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images)
Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images
The NPS visitation reached its peak in 2024, attracting nearly 332 million visitors, according to agency data.
The most popular national park is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, with about 13 million visitors in 2024. Part of the reason Great Smoky draws larger crowds is that it’s free to enter; it also sits within a day’s drive of more than half of the US population.
Runners-up are the Grand Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, each with about 5 million visitors in 2024.
National park visitor spending added $56.3 billion to the national economy in 2024 and led to $18.8 billion in labor income, according to NPS data.
The NPS is heavily dependent on seasonal workers — about 5,000 as of 2026 — who welcome and educate guests on the parks.
A US Forest Service Ranger driving his automobile railroad speeder (also known as a railway motor car or section car) during a fire patrol in a National Forest in Colorado, USA, 17th January 1921. (Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Seasonal work generally lasts between three and six months and occurs during the height of each park’s specific tourist season.
Many seasonal positions, though not all, offer employee housing, according to the Association of National Park Rangers, a nonprofit organization that supports NPS employees.
The CCC, which ran from 1933 to 1942, was part of FDR’s New Deal.
CCC camp members form the letters of their organization in Tamworth, New Hampshire, in 1934.
New York Times Co./Getty Images
When FDR took office, the Great Depression was gripping the US. More than 12 million people were unemployed, and Roosevelt wanted to put them to work. The idea was to marry conservation projects with jobs that paid the workers well.
The CCC could focus on forestry, preventing soil erosion, flood control, and similar projects that would avoid financial loss, Roosevelt wrote to Congress in March 1933. “This is brought home by the news we are receiving today of vast damage caused by floods on the Ohio and other rivers,” he added.
He summed up the dual goals by writing: “It will conserve our precious natural resources. It will pay dividends to the present and future generations.”
Often described as Roosevelt’s pet project, the CCC reflected his view of conservation.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt Visiting a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp.
Bettmann/Getty Images
“Unless we maintain an adequate material basis for our civilization, we cannot maintain the institutions in which we take so great and so just a pride; and to waste and destroy our natural resources means to undermine this material basis,” Theodore Rooseveltsaid in 1907. FDR’s notions of conservation were similar to his distant cousin’s.
FDR grew up on his family’s 1,200-acre estate in Hyde Park, New York. There, he saw firsthand how clearing land led to erosion. In 1912, he started planting what would turn out to be more than half a million trees on the property over the course of his lifetime.
Women couldn’t enroll in the CCC.
Diane White and Violet Tanner play cards at Camp Tera, one of the She-She-She camps, near Bear Mountain, New York.
Bettmann via Getty Images
Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady, spearheaded “She-She-She” camps for about 8,500 unemployed women. These summer programs took place from 1933 to 1937 and were meant to “provide healthful employment and useful instruction amid wholesome surroundings for needy young women.”
Their work was very different, according to the New England Historical Society. They put on plays, sewed, and fixed toys.
“The creation of jobs appeared to be the solution for the male population alone,” the historian Elaine S. Abelson wrote.
The range and scope of the CCC’s projects were enormous.
A Civilian Conservation Corps enrollee controls a road surfacing roller.
Bettmann/Getty Images
Eventually, every state and several territories had camps. They worked on farms in Nebraska, built visitor centers in North Dakota, and installed stairs in Oregon caves.
NPS employee duties depend on the park. Some in snowier parks tend to winter patrol, while others focus more on visitor experience and education.
NPS worker watches snow removal at Mt. Rainier National Park.
The Washington Post/Getty Images
While workers in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park may manage visitor safety and protect natural resources during an eruption, those at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington, which averages roughly 680 inches of snow a year, may clear avalanche debris, manage snow-covered trails, and respond to winter hazards.
The NPS has more than a dozen different types of sites based on historical importance and natural value.
A National Park Service (NPS) ranger addressing visitors at the former United States Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California, United States, circa 1980. (Photo by Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Michael Montfort/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
There are national parks, national monuments, national historic sites, national seashores, national battlefields, and national recreation areas, among others.
Alcatraz Island, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is a National Historic Landmark off the coast of San Francisco, recognized for its historical significance as a former federal prison that held some of America’s most notorious criminals, including mob boss and tax evader Al Capone.
Today, there are thousands of national parks and protected areas around the world.
Minister Bob Carr with Ranger, Peter Brookhosue (left) and Alan Morris, chief ranger (right), both rangers with the Sydney Harbour National Parks and Wildlife service, sat Nielson Park beach demonstrating the whale/seal rescue equipment. May 24, 1985. (Photo by Susan Debra Windmiller/Fairfax Media via Getty Images).
Susan Debra Windmiller/Fairfax Media via Getty Images
The largest national park in the world is Northeast Greenland National Park, which covers 375,000 square miles. That’s 18 times larger than the largest national park in the US: Wrangell — St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska, which covers more than 20,000 square miles.
Other highly visited national parks across the globe include Banff National Park in Canada, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam, and Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.
NPS’ Junior Ranger Program, which began in the 1960s, offers children the chance to learn more about the parks.
LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 09: United States National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis tells 10-year-old Tigran Nahabedian, a Park Service Junior Ranger with 32 Ranger Badges, that he will be The National Park Service Director one day at the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument April 9, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. Tigran from Ojai, CA was invited to The National Park Service national tour on in an effort to increase diversity among visitors. The “Find Your Park” campaign features virtual view kiosks, where Angelenos can video chat with park staff and visitors at national parks throughout the country. (Photo by Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Al Seib /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
To become a Junior Ranger, one must visit a NPS site, participate in several Junior Ranger activities at the site — one of which includes filling out an activity booklet — and take the Junior Ranger pledge.
The pledge states: “I am proud to be a National Park Service Junior Ranger. I promise to appreciate, respect, and protect all national park places. I also promise to continue learning about the landscape, plants, animals, and history of these special places. I will share what I learn with my friends and family.”
The 2025 government shutdown — and subsequent federal budget cuts — shut down some parks for weeks.
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – NOVEMBER 5: A sign posted by the National Park Service noting that the Benjamin Rush Gardens remain closed on November 5, 2025 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The government entered into its 36th day of being shut down, making this the longest-lasting government shutdown in U.S. history.
Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images
In Philadelphia, the Independence National Historical Park — home to the Liberty Bell — shut its doors for 43 days in late 2025 due to the government shutdown.
The shutdown, prompted by Senate disagreements over Affordable Care Act subsidies and Medicaid, led to national park staff furloughs and a halt in visitor services.
Across the nation, tourists were unable to access national park sights and attractions they normal could access.
Staffing issues have continued into summer 2026.
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 1: A U.S. Department of the Interior, National Parks Service and Freedom 250 sign hangs outside of a renovation project on June 1, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
At Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, 48% of permanent positions were vacant as of April, according to the union that represents park employees. The union said the staffing shortage was “placing enormous strain on existing staff, reducing the quality of visitor services, and impairing our ability to carry out the mission of the NPS.”
National Park advocates organized a nationwide action on NPS’ birthday.
A tourist stands in front of the valley overlook in Yosemite National Park on June 12.
William Hale Irwin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit that advocates for the national parks, held a nationwide day of action to celebrate the parks on NPS’ birthday.
Throughout 20 different parks, the nonprofit held 30 events, including educational opportunities, thank-you postcard signing to park rangers, petition signature collections to send to Congress, and more.
“This Day of Action is an opportunity for all Americans to show that parks bridge differences and close divides,” David Lamfrom, vice president of NPCA’s regional programs, wrote in a statement. “They are places that inspire us, educate us, and connect us to our history. Online and in parks across the country, people can take action for America’s legacy: our national parks.”
Editor’s Note: This story was first published in April 2025 and updated in August 2026.
