When did national parks began?

Answer 1

In the 1890's national land policy in the United States focused on making permanent federal control over some lands. It was a shift towards conservation and the Forest Reservation Act of 1891 set aside timberland from private use. Before this Congress had started to set aside areas of natural beauty into national parks. Yellowstone became a national park in 1872 and president Teddy Roosevelt set aside some 194,505,000 acres by the end of his term in 1909. He also set aside land for parks, dam sites, public purposes, along with federal government reserved oil, coal, and grazing lands. By the 1930's there was an general acceptance that the national government would reserve and administer millions of acres for the public. The Taylor act of 1934 provided for improved administration and the conservation of 80 million of federal grazing land. This law reflected desire for more efficient administration of public lands to preserve Natural Resources. In 1964 the Wilderness Act was passed that set aside millions of acres as wilderness with very restrictive rules on their use. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 emphasized the principle of permanent ownership of the public lands and gave the secretary of the interior greater powers to enforce restrictive policies on the use of public lands. Yet, in the 1980's there was a move to permit greater economic development in parts of the public domain and this included Alaska.

Answer 2

The enabling legislation establishing the National Parks Service was signed into law on 1916 August 25. There were national parks prior to this, but no agency specifically designated to manage them.

Answer 3

The first national park in the U.S. was Yellowstone; the legislation establishing it as under federal protection was signed into law on 1872 March 1.

Answer 4

National Park Service was created in 1916.