National Parks

A national park is a reserve of land, usually owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are a protected area of IUCN category II. more...

The largest national park in the world is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974. The number of areas managed by the National Park Service in the United States of America consists of over 400 different sites, of which 58 carry the designation of National Park.

History

Prologue

Some fundamental ideas were first articulated in the 19th century by people from various countries. 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.

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