History
Prologue
In 1810 the English
poet William Wordsworth described the Lake District as a "sort
of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has
an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy". The painter George
Catlin, in his travels though the American West, wrote in 1832 that the
Native Americans in the United States might be preserved: by some
great protecting policy of government . . . in a magnificent park . . .
A nation's park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness
of their nature's beauty!. Similar ideas were expressed in other
countries – In Sweden, for instance, Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
made such a proposition in 1880. The Scottish-American naturalist John
Muir was to prove inspirational in the foundation of national parks,
anticipating many ideas of conservationism, environmentalism, and the
animal rights movement.
Establishment
The first effort by any
government to set aside such protected lands was in the United States,
when President Abraham Lincoln signed an Act of Congress on June 30,
1864, ceding the Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Giant
Sequoias (later becoming the Yosemite National Park) to the state of
California:
- [T]he said State
shall accept this grant upon the express conditions that the
premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation; shall
be inalienable for all time.
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In
1872, Yellowstone National Park was established as the world's
first truly national park. When news of the natural wonders of the
Yellowstone were first published, the land was part of a
territory. Unlike Yosemite, there was no state government that
could assume stewardship of the land, so the Federal Government
took on direct responsibility for the park, a process formally
completed in October 1, 1890. It took the combined effort and
interest of conservationists, politicians and especially
businesses - namely, the Northern Pacific Railroad, whose route
through Montana would greatly benefit by the creation of this new
tourist attraction - to ensure the passage of the legislation by
the United States Congress to create Yellowstone National Park. |
The 'dean of western
writers,' American Pulitzer prize-winning author Wallace Stegner has
written that national parks are 'America's best idea,' - a departure
from the royal preserves that Old World sovereigns enjoyed for
themselves - inherently democratic, open to all, "they reflect us
at our best, not our worst." Even with the creation of
Yellowstone, Yosemite, and nearly 37 other national parks and monuments,
another 44 years passed before an agency was created in the United
States to administer these units in a comprehensive way - the U.S.
National Park Service (NPS). Interestingly, it was a businessman,
Stephen Mather, who pushed hardest for the creation of the NPS, writing
then-Secretary of the Interior Franklin Knight Lane about such a need.
Lane invited Mather to come to Washington, DC to work with him to draft
and see passage of the NPS Organic Act, which was approved by Congress
and signed into law on August 25, 1916.
The number of areas now
managed by the National Park Service in the United States of America
consists of 390 different sites, of which only 58 carry the designation
of National Park.
Following the idea
established in Yellowstone there soon followed parks in other nations.
In Australia, the Royal National Park was established just south of
Sydney in 1879. In Canada, Banff National Park (then known as Rocky
Mountain National Park) became its first national park in 1885. New
Zealand had its first national park in 1887. In Europe the first
national parks were a set of nine parks in Sweden in 1909. Europe has
359 national parks at the moment.
After World War II,
national parks were founded all over the world. The Vanoise National
Park in the Alps was the first French national park, created in 1963
after public mobilization against a touristic project.
Features
preserved
National parks are
usually located in places which have been largely undeveloped, and often
feature areas with exceptional native animals, plants and ecosystems
(particularly endangered examples of such), biodiversity, or unusual
geological features. Occasionally, national parks are declared in
developed areas with the goal of returning the area to resemble its
original state as closely as possible.
In some countries, such
as England and Wales, areas designated as a national park are not
wilderness, nor owned by the government, and can include substantial
settlements and land uses which are often integral parts of the
landscape.
Park
mandates
Most national parks
have a dual role as offering a refuge for wildlife and as serving as
popular tourist areas. Managing the potential for conflict between these
two roles can become problematic, particularly as tourists often
generate revenue for the parks which, in turn, are spent on conservation
projects. Parks also serve as reserves for substantial natural
resources, such as timber, minerals and other valuable commodities. The
balance of the demand for extraction of these resources, against the
damage this might cause, is often a very important challenge in national
park management. National parks have been subject to illegal logging and
other exploitation, sometimes because of political corruption. This
threatens the integrity of many valuable habitats.
Other
sites designated for preservation
Some countries also
designate sites of special cultural, scientific or historical importance
as national parks, or as special entities within their national park
systems. Other countries use a different scheme for historical site
preservation. Some of these sites, if they meet the criteria required,
are awarded the title World Heritage Site by the UNESCO.
In many countries,
local governmental bodies may be responsible for the maintenance of park
systems. Some of these are also called national parks.
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Properties in Spain 
airports:
Visiting
Spain is not only about sun, great cuisine, and a warm welcome, but also its
rich monumental heritage and dazzling natural environment.
