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This week is National Park Week. The theme for this year's National Park Week is "Healthy Parks, Healthy People." The focus is designed to raise awareness of the correlation between human and environmental health. As a life writer, I find that much of my writing draws from my own experiences related to nature. How about you? Have you ever stopped to think about how you interact with nature and to what degree nature drives your own mental, physical and spiritual health?
The following is taken from the National Park Service website. You can read much more about America's National Parks and the U.S. National Park Service by going here .
"Writer and historian Wallace Stegner called national parks “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
Starting in the 1800s, the scenic natural wonders of the West, places like mineral springs in Arkansas, towering mountains and majestic trees of Yosemite, spouting geysers of Yellowstone, and the arid ruins of Casa Grande, inspired individual Americans to call for their preservation, asking their government to create something called “national parks.”
In 1916, the work of caring for these places was moved to a new agency created by Congress for that specific purpose. The National Park Service was given the responsibility to not only conserve and protect parks, but also to leave them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
The job got bigger as the number and types of parks expanded. In the 1930s, military parks and national monuments were added. Then came national parkways and seashores followed by urban parks in the 1960s. During the next decade, the size of the National Park System nearly doubled with the addition of 47 million acres in Alaska.
Today numbering close to 400, national parks now include places that commemorate more recent – and in many cases more sobering – history. The stories of the fight for civil rights, the World War II Japanese American internment camps, and Sand Creek, the site of the tragic Indian massacre in 1864, are all told in national parks.
Over the years, the work of the National Park Service has moved beyond park borders. We are honored to be invited into America’s communities to help build trails and playgrounds, return historic buildings to productive use, revitalize neighborhoods, expand affordable housing, protect watersheds, recognize and promote local history, and introduce the next generation to stewardship opportunities and responsibilities. America’s Best Idea just keeps getting better.
How many of the nation's nearly 400 national parks have you visited? Which one was your favorite? What parks are on your "bucket list" ?
The weather is constantly changing during these unpredictable Spring days. But, weather permitting and geographical proximity allowing, why not try to get out this week and enjoy one of the many many opportunities provided by the National Park Service? And if you are so inclined, why not try writing your own bit of life writing afterward -- trying to show (not tell) the experience of nature and you mingling together for a brief while?
The following is taken from the National Park Service website. You can read much more about America's National Parks and the U.S. National Park Service by going here .
"Writer and historian Wallace Stegner called national parks “the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
Starting in the 1800s, the scenic natural wonders of the West, places like mineral springs in Arkansas, towering mountains and majestic trees of Yosemite, spouting geysers of Yellowstone, and the arid ruins of Casa Grande, inspired individual Americans to call for their preservation, asking their government to create something called “national parks.”
In 1916, the work of caring for these places was moved to a new agency created by Congress for that specific purpose. The National Park Service was given the responsibility to not only conserve and protect parks, but also to leave them “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”
The job got bigger as the number and types of parks expanded. In the 1930s, military parks and national monuments were added. Then came national parkways and seashores followed by urban parks in the 1960s. During the next decade, the size of the National Park System nearly doubled with the addition of 47 million acres in Alaska.
Today numbering close to 400, national parks now include places that commemorate more recent – and in many cases more sobering – history. The stories of the fight for civil rights, the World War II Japanese American internment camps, and Sand Creek, the site of the tragic Indian massacre in 1864, are all told in national parks.
Over the years, the work of the National Park Service has moved beyond park borders. We are honored to be invited into America’s communities to help build trails and playgrounds, return historic buildings to productive use, revitalize neighborhoods, expand affordable housing, protect watersheds, recognize and promote local history, and introduce the next generation to stewardship opportunities and responsibilities. America’s Best Idea just keeps getting better.
How many of the nation's nearly 400 national parks have you visited? Which one was your favorite? What parks are on your "bucket list" ?
The weather is constantly changing during these unpredictable Spring days. But, weather permitting and geographical proximity allowing, why not try to get out this week and enjoy one of the many many opportunities provided by the National Park Service? And if you are so inclined, why not try writing your own bit of life writing afterward -- trying to show (not tell) the experience of nature and you mingling together for a brief while?
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