park

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The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page.

Central Park, New York, the most visited city park in the United States

Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park: Simpson Reed Discovery Trail. This redwood forest area is an example of a State park.

The Queen Elizabeth Park, Vancouver, Canada

Englischer Garten, Munich, Germany

Parade Gardens, a park in Bath, England

Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming, U.S.

Public park, Tours, France.

Laleh Park's southwestern entrance with a statue of Biruni, a medieval Persian astronomer. Tehran, Iran.

A park is a protected area, in its natural or semi-natural state or planted, and set aside for human recreation and enjoyment. It may consist of rocks, soil, water, flora and fauna and grass areas.

Wilderness parks are intact and undeveloped areas used mainly by wild species. Many parks are legally protected by law.

Protected wilderness zones are required for some wild species to survive. Some protected parks focus mainly on the survival of a few threatened species, such as gorillas or chimpanzees.

Government-owned or operated parks

National parks

A national park is a reserve of land, usually, but not always declared and owned by a national government, protected from most human development and pollution. National parks are a protected area of IUCN category II. The largest national park in the world is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974.

In the United States the concept of preserving landscapes for the pleasure of the people was established on June 30, 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Yosemite Grant. A policy of preservation, rather than co-usage as in the National Forests, where grazing, farming and logging are licensed, was implemented four decades later during the presidential administration of Teddy Roosevelt, and Yosemite became a national park. Tourism and, later, recreation were the intended purposes of the lands Roosevelt set aside in the system. John Muir was instrumental in this effort.

These parks were termed national parks and today are looked after by the U.S. National Park Service. U.S. state governments have also set aside land to preserve for the enjoyment of the public. There are also national parks in many other countries.

Sub-national parks

In Federal systems, many parks are managed by the local levels of government, rather than by the central government. In the United States these are called state parks and in Canada provincial or terriorial parks, except in Quebec where they are known as National Parks (see Quebec nationalism).

Urban parks

A park is an area of open space provided for recreational use, usually owned and maintained by a local government. Parks commonly resemble savannas or open woodlands, the types of landscape that human beings find most relaxing. Grass is typically kept short to discourage insect pests and to allow for the enjoyment of picnics and sporting activities. Trees are chosen for their beauty and to provide shade.

The world's first public park is claimed to be the City Park, Budapest, Hungary, which was property of the Batthyány family. In 1808 an Imperial law converted it to the English style. Some years later the Count Batthyány ordered that it should be established as a public park. The second public park in the world is the Peel Park, Salford, England opened on 22 August 1846.^[1][2][3] Another possible claimant for status as the world's first public park is Boston Common (Boston, Massachusetts, USA), set aside in 1634, whose first recreational promenade, Tremont Mall, dates from 1728. True park status for the entire common seems to have emerged no later than 1830, when the grazing of cows was ended and renaming the Common as Washington Park was proposed (renaming the bordering Sentry Street to Park Street in 1808 already acknowledged the reality).

Park can be divided into active and passive recreation. Active recreation is that which require intensive development and often involves cooperative or team activity, including playgrounds, ball fields and skateparks. Passive recreation is that which emphasizes the open-space aspect of a park and which involves a low level of development, including picnic areas and trails. Organized football matches take place in parks

Many smaller neighborhood parks are receiving increased attention and valuation as significant community assets and places of refuge in heavily populated urban areas. Neighborhood groups around the world are joining together to support local parks that have suffered from urban decay and government neglect.

A linear park is a park that has a much greater length than width. A typical example of a linear park is a section of a former railway that has been converted into a park (i.e. the tracks removed, vegetation allowed to grow back). Parks are sometimes made out of oddly shaped areas of land, much like the vacant lots that often become city neighborhood parks.

Private parks

Private parks are owned by individuals or businesses and are used at the discretion of the owner. There are a few types of private parks, and some which once were privately maintained and used have now been made open to the public.

Hunting parks originally referred to an area maintained as open space where residences, industry and farming were not allowed, often originally so that nobility might have a place to hunt — see medieval deer park. These were known for instance, as deer parks (deer being originally a term meaning any wild animal). Many country houses in Great Britain and Ireland still have parks of this sort, which since the 18th century have often been landscaped for aesthetic effect. They are usually a mixture of open grassland with scattered trees and sections of woodland, and are often enclosed by a high wall. The area immediately around the house is the garden. In some cases this will also feature sweeping lawns and scattered trees; the basic difference between a country house's park and its garden is that the park is grazed by animals, but they are excluded from the garden.

In some countries, especially the United Kingdom, the concept of the country park was popular in the 1970s, and many such parks were established with government support during that time. Country parks are often located near to urban populations, and provide recreational facilities typical of the countryside rather than the town.

Other uses

The term park is also used in reference to industrial areas, often termed industrial parks. Some technology research areas are also called research parks. Small environmental areas, often part of urban renewal plans, are called pocket parks. The word park may also be used in community names, such as Oak Park or College Park. Sometimes the active recreational aspect may be expressed in the extreme of naming an amusement park, usually privately owned. A car park is an area of land or a building in which cars are parked.

An amusement park, or theme park is a generic term for a collection of rides and other entertainment attractions assembled for the purpose of entertainment.

References

See also

Look up park in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Parks

• Greenway (landscape)
• List of municipal parks in the United States
• List of national parks
• List of U.S. state parks
• Provincial park (Canada)
• Public Open Space
• Urban park

External links

• The Royal Parks (London, UK)
• Parks Canada Agency (Canada)
• Essay on public parks
• The Trust for Public Land Center for City Park Excellence
• Parks Canada - Official National Parks and Mountain Guide
• UK Government policy on parks