National Park Service Turns 110 Today—Hooray for Rangers!

I’m in the middle of a six-week stay in our glorious National Parks. Seen so far: chipmunks, ground squirrels, ravens, one fox enjoying a successful hunt, deer, tatanka, wapiti, moose, two black bears (one in a berry patch 25 yards from the trail, another the next day 50 yards from my cabin door), lakes, streams, mountains, basaltic magma intrusions, glaciers, glacial potholes, a log cabin porch where the Wilderness Act was first drafted and where Jimmy Carter brought John Denver to meet the woman who helped pass that law and other great conservation legislation, aster, Indian paintbrush, sagebrush, six-ounce meatballs (not a natural feature, but delicious by the pair with linguine and broccolini), continental divides, geysers, bacterial mats, waterfalls, canyons, hoodoos (!), rain washing rock off the arch under which I was hiding, lightning, sleet drifts…

…and Rangers, National Park Service Rangers, every one of them knowledgeable, helpful, and dedicated to protecting our natural national treasures and protecting and enlightening the people from all over the world who come to revel in these wild places. Thank you, Rangers, for your service.

We didn’t have park rangers as we know them today until this date in 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act which established this new agency to “promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations” to serve those precious lands’ “fundamental purpose… to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Until 1916, the U.S. Army Cavalry managed our National Parks. President took out the military and sent in what has become a corps of public servants knowledgeable in history, archeology, geology, flora, and fauna and eager to help all visitors appreciate the great outdoors as much as they do.

The National Parks Conservation Association is marking this 110th anniversary of one of our most important federal agencies with a call to action nationwide to protect the NPS and our national parks from elected officials who seem to lack a patriotic appreciation of the value of parks and Rangers:

Americans are united in our love for national parks. According to a national NPCA survey, more than 2/3 of Americans reject the drastic cuts to park budgets this administration has pursued. Since January 2025, the National Park Service has lost nearly 25% of its permanent workforce, driven primarily by mass terminations, early retirements and deferred resignations.

The National Parks Conservation Association was created for moments exactly like this. And park lovers everywhere are joining us to speak up and call for an end to the devastating attacks that are wreaking havoc on the National Park Service.

[Says David Lamfrom, Vice President of Regional Programs]: “Parks are unique and beloved, and during this National Park Week, we want to be rooted in place and together with communities to speak up for them. This Day of Action is an opportunity for all Americans to show that parks bridge differences and close divides. They are places that inspire us, educate us, and connect us to our history. Online and in parks across the country, people can take action for America’s legacy: our national parks.

“At each of our thirty sites across the country, visitors will be thanking park staff, sending messages of support to Congress, and learning how to join community efforts to protect all our national parks. We encourage everyone to take a few minutes to visit our tables – and then have a great day in the parks. We hope this Day of Action builds the public voice and will needed to protect our parks every day and for the long term” [National Parks Conservation Association, press release, 2026.08.23].

Our National Parks preserve our history, our ecology, and, by being profoundly beautiful places to sit and rest and wonder, our souls. Park Rangers keep these vitally important places healthy and safe for all of us.

Support your local Rangers. Support your National Parks. And support the political candidates who will fight for our Parks and Rangers and their essential role in our democracy.

…I cannot too often repeat that the essential feature in the present management of the Yellowstone Park, as in all similar places, is its essential democracy—it is the preservation of the scenery, of the forests, of the wilderness life and the wilderness game for the people as a whole, instead of leaving the enjoyment thereof to be confined to the very rich who can control private reserves [President Theodore Roosevelt, Remarks at the Laying of the Cornerstone of the Gateway to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Montana, 1903.04.24].

Now I’m off to an evening hike to watch for moonrise over distant mountains beyond the canyon rim.