The National Parks 105th Birthday: Let's Celebrate

Happy Birthday Park Service ~ NPS

The National Park Service and the National Park System turns 105 today.  The Park System as others have written is one of the greatest gifts Americans have given to world culture. For me, national parks are incredibly special because for they are the site of countless family vacations and cherished memories, but also the places where I had to honor to live and work as a park ranger.

But parks are more than this, I've realized parks are one of the last best hopes from our country and planet.  I spent many a summer in the national parks talking with tens of thousands of visitors.  Inevitably those conversations would to turn to me asking where the visitor was from.  While working in Yellowstone if I asked a local where they are from, they would say Jackson Hole or Bozeman.  Meanwhile, someone from out of state might say Washington, Idaho or Oregon. People from further away might claim the Northeast or the South.  While visitor from other countries identified with their entire homelands like Japan, Germany, or Australia. I found that the further one is away from home the more people one identifies with and relates too.

I imagine someday there will be similar parks on the moon and park rangers will ask those tourist where they are from, and if my hypothesis holds, those visitors will point to the earth and say that's where I'm from.  

National Parks have a magic power to breakdown boundaries. Not just political ones, but also psychological and social boundaries as well.  I witnessed countless times, visitors who likely were introverts or avoided contact with strangers striking up conversations with others they just met when they found out they shared something in common as simple as they both were visiting from the same city, state or region.  

This magic the National Parks have to create common ground is needed more than ever.  We need more places where people see each other as part of the same human race and with just a little prodding can find common ground upon which to start conversations.

What makes National Parks special to you?  Tells in the comments below.

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Sean Smith is an award winning conservationist and author. He is a former National Park Ranger at Yellowstone, Glacier, and the North Cascades. He is a TEDx speaker, and private pilot. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in Political Science. He got his master's in Natural Resources Management from Central Washington University in 1996. He currently runs Washington State's efforts to reduce and eliminate toxic chemicals from consumer products and serves as the Mayor Pro Tem of Covington.

He has been writing stories and books since he was a child and currently writes national park thrillers from the shadow of Mount Rainier.  All his novels can be found here: Mr. Sean D Smith