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Tranquil alpine meadows, seashores teeming with life, snow-capped mountains, rushing waterfalls, silent Anasazi cliff dwellings, majestic redwoods, painted canyons---these are your awe-inspiring neighborhoods when you camp in a national park. From Acadia to Zion, most of our 391 national parks allow tent and RV camping and, with price... more »
The four corners is a description of the United States where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona meet. In the four corners are red rock canyons, towering mountains, pristine forests, rushing rivers, stunning deserts ancient Indian ruins are waiting for you to visit. more »
The U.S. National Park Service oversees all of the various lands that have been set aside by the government to preserve the natural beauty and environment. The concept of national parks in the United States began in the early 1800s with a variety of poets and painters pushing for the maintenance of the American West. These ideas were... more »
Arkansas is home to six national parks, created to either protect the natural wildlife and habitat or to commemorate a historic event. The parks can be found throughout Arkansas. From the northerly Pea Ridge Military Park to Arkansas National Post Park in the southeast, thousands of visitors head to Arkansas each year to visit these... more »
The United States has a stupendous array of National Parks, from Maine to Montana and a host of other regions. Here are some of the very best, based on scenery, popularity and range of activities. more »
State and national parks around the nation are areas set aside to preserve their natural beauty...
Glacier National Park in Montana, with about 1.4 million acres of wildnerness, is open...
Explore Grand Teton because it's there, looming high in Wyoming. Grand Teton National Park is...
If you were born with a love of working outdoors, a career in the forestry profession may be for...
A surprising number of Americans look overseas when it comes time to travel, forgetting the wealth of domestic attractions. The National Park... more »
Getting a National Parks Passport can be like going on a cross country scavenger hunt. It gives you information to all the national parks in the... more »
Yellowstone National Park is America's oldest national park, and was established in 1872. It's not only one of America's largest national parks,... more »
America's most dramatic beauty is primarily west of the Mississippi. With a few exceptions, rolling hills and gentle countryside rest east of the... more »
The Youth Conservation Corps is the youth division of the National Parks Service and leads the nation in programs that introduce young people to... more »
A national park is a reserve of natural or semi-natural land, declared or owned by a national government, set aside for human recreation and enjoyment, and protected from most development. While ideas for national parks had been suggested previously, what is held to be the first one established was the United States Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872. An international organization, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and its World Commission on Protected Areas, has defined National Parks as its category II type of protected areas. The largest national park in the world meeting the IUCN definition is the Northeast Greenland National Park, which was established in 1974. According to the IUCN, there are now 6,555 national parks worldwide (2006 figure)http://www.exmoor-nationalpark.gov.uk/2006_feb_3.
Definition
In 1969 the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) declared a national park to be a relatively large area with particular defining characteristicsGulez, Sumer (1992). A method of evaluating areas for national park status.. A national park was deemed to be a place where:
* one or several ecosystems are not materially altered by human exploitation and occupation, where plant and animal species, geomorphological sites and habitats are of special scientific, educative and recreative interest or which contain a natural landscape of great beauty.
* the highest competent authority of the country has taken steps to prevent or eliminate as soon as possible exploitation or occupation in the whole area and to enforce effectively the respect of ecological, geomorphological or aesthetic features which have led to its establishment.
* visitors are allowed to enter, under special conditions, for inspirational, educative, cultural and recreative purposes.
In 1971 these criteria were further expanded upon leading to more clear and defined benchmarks to evaluate a nationa read more at » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National+park
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