In 1872, Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, signed a bill to establish the first national park in the United States, Yellowstone National Park, which also marked the official establishment of the National Park System of the United States. In 1916, the U.S. Congress passed the Management Constitution Act to establish the National Park Service to protect natural beauty, resources, historical sites and wildlife. Since then, the concept of national parks has quietly prevailed around the world.
The United States is one of the countries with the most species of plants in the world, and national parks are also the mainstay of natural landscape resources. Up to now, there are 59 national parks in the United States, 14 of which are listed as World Heritage Sites. As the leading institution of American history and culture, the National Park Service not only protects important historical relics, but also preserves every piece of real historical memory. When passing through each national park, nature tells tourists in the most original way changes in history. For hundreds of years, the American National Park has recorded the civilization and wisdom of the ancient Indians who first set foot in North America more than 12,000 years ago with its rich resources. Although there is not much difference between national parks and other private parks in terms of form, national parks funded and managed by the government are more standardized and unified. Due to the different distributions of the national parks in the United States, the landscapes in the parks are also unique, so the number of tourists visiting is also slightly different.
Centralized management is effective
At first, the United States, like other countries in the world, did not have the concept of national parks, and people’s understanding of nature and protection of nature was still in a period of ignorance. Until the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress of social economy, the improvement of resource protection awareness and the further improvement of relevant laws, regulations, and standards, a complete set of national park management systems based on laws and regulations was gradually formed. Before the establishment of the National Park Service, the United States already had 8 national parks. In the decades after the establishment of the National Park Service in 1961, it can be regarded as the golden period of the rapid development of the national park system. The number of parks once increased from 8 to 8. The number of seats increased to more than 30. It can be seen that the centralized management has achieved obvious results.
The manager of the US national parks, the National Park Service, is under the Department of the Interior. That is to say, all construction and maintenance projects within the US national park system need to be approved and determined step by step according to the legal process. The centralized management model has achieved remarkable results in the early days of the National Park Service. The reason is that unified management enables every policy and regulation implemented in the national park system to be enforced strongly, and the Ministry of the Interior of the federal government directly manages it, avoiding the intervention of local governments, and effectively reducing the impact caused by economic, social, and cultural issues. The impact of such differences on the national parks of each state.
Over the past hundred years, the parks and scenic spots within the national park system have had their own unique characteristics, each leading the way. The national park system has strict admission standards, and scenic spots and historical sites without special historical background and resources cannot be included in the national park system. It is precisely because of these strict admission standards that the US National Park System can become a world model in the protection of natural, cultural and historical resources. Like most of the country’s national parks, the National Park Service is primarily supported by appropriations from Congress, with only a small portion of the funds coming from national park admissions.
National parks in the United States are divided into national parks and state parks. Usually, the main function of national parks is to provide tourists from all over the world with a window to understand the natural ecological environment of the United States. In fact, it is to protect the natural environment and resources. State-level national parks are available for camping, lodging, recreation and recreation. In 2016, the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the National Park in the United States, there are 16 days in the whole year that it is open to the public free of charge. Tickets must not exceed $20. In 2016 alone, the number of tourists visiting national parks according to the National Park Service has set a record for three consecutive years. In 2016, the number of tourist visits increased by 7.7% compared with 2015. The National Park System also set a 77-year record for the largest number of visitors. Basically, national parks in the United States are public welfare institutions. Under this business model that does not presuppose income generation, national parks have largely avoided the erosion of commercialization.
Dataism and investigative thinking
It is worth mentioning that the annual data of all parks, scenic spots and historical sites under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service of the United States will be truly presented on the official website of the National Park Service, including the annual passenger flow of each park and scenic spot, Data such as popularity, year-on-year and month-on-month passenger flow changes, etc., will be disclosed to the public. Transparent data disclosure fully guarantees the authenticity and integrity of the national park management system. The national park system, which has always put “public welfare” in the first place, just matches the needs of contemporary people for sustainable development. Smart Americans have long understood a truth-too much commercialization will eventually be caused by the natural environment. Come pay the bill.
The US National Park Service has never given up on the continuous exploration and research of the natural environment. Since 1967, the US Congress has approved the establishment of an official foundation for national park projects – the National Park Foundation, in order to better allocate social resources. , Integrating social forces into national parks. Since its establishment, the foundation has assumed the responsibility of linking companies, private individuals, non-governmental organizations and non-welfare organizations, and it has also become a link between the “public” and “private” forces of the national park. These unofficial forces provide technical, financial and human support for the development of national parks through the foundation. Although the U.S. federal government has been strictly controlling the entry of private capital into the national park system, and even undertook almost all of the park’s financial expenses in the early stages of national park development, the impact of the economic crisis has had a certain impact on the federal government. Financial expenditure, the government finally passed a “Concession Act” in 1965, which allowed some private capital to be injected into the national park from a legislative perspective. Private organizations such as shops, catering, accommodation, etc., like contractors, need to obtain the right to operate businesses in the park through bidding and pay certain franchise fees. The franchise fees paid by these private organizations account for about 20%. In addition, after a hundred years of transformation, the national park, which has never lost its splendor, has also done a remarkable job in environmental research.
The National Park Service and non-governmental organizations provide a sum of funds to some scientific research institutions and universities every year for research on ecological protection, species diversity research, and resource reuse. The participation of intellectuals and institutions of higher learning escorts the scientific, healthy and benign development of national parks. Today, the national parks in the United States have gone through more than a century of ups and downs. The operation mode of separation of government and enterprises has separated the roles of management and enterprises, effectively avoiding the disadvantages of emphasizing profits and ignoring environmental protection. The openness and transparency of various data in the park has also stimulated the establishment and improvement of the public participatory supervision mechanism. It is not difficult to see from the management of the National Park Service of the United States that the Park Service under centralized management has avoided the development obstruction of redundant powers and mixed public and private affairs. Financially supported.
In contrast, in China, although we have not yet established national parks, the protection of major scenic spots, historical sites and forest parks has received more and more attention from the Chinese people. We have also gradually realized that any form of development and utilization must be based on protection, and this mandatory condition cannot be compromised for any reason. More than 120 countries in the world have established national park management systems, and public welfare national parks are doomed to have large operating expenses that can only be supported by government funding. About 80% of the funds for US national parks come from government funding. However, it has to be admitted that the pioneering national park management pioneered by developed countries may not necessarily adapt to China’s current economic situation. Therefore, how to formulate a national park management system in line with China’s current national conditions may be the first problem to be solved at this stage.
