Akademik

a tract of land declared by the national government to be public property (Freq. 1)

↑Acadia National Park, ↑Arches National Park, ↑Badlands National Park, ↑Big Bend National Park, ↑Biscayne National Park, ↑Bryce Canyon National Park, ↑Canyonlands National Park, ↑Capitol Reef National Park, ↑Carlsbad Caverns National Park, ↑Channel Islands National Park, ↑Crater Lake National Park, ↑Denali National Park, ↑Everglades National Park, ↑Gates of the Arctic National Park, ↑Grand Canyon National Park, ↑Grand Teton National Park, ↑Great Smoky Mountains National Park, ↑Guadalupe Mountains National Park, ↑Haleakala National Park, ↑Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, ↑Hot Springs National Park, ↑Isle Royal National Park, ↑Katmai National Park, ↑Kenai Fjords National Park, ↑Kings Canyon National Park, ↑Kobuk Valley National Park, ↑Lake Clark National Park, ↑Lassen Volcanic National Park, ↑Mammoth Cave National Park, ↑Mesa Verde National Park, ↑Mount Ranier National Park, ↑North Cascades National Park, ↑Olympic National Park, ↑Petrified Forest National Park, ↑Platt National Park, ↑Redwood National Park, ↑Rocky Mountain National Park, ↑Sequoia National Park, ↑Shenandoah National Park, ↑Theodore Roosevelt Memorial National Park, ↑Virgin Islands National Park, ↑Voyageurs National Park, ↑Wind Cave National Park, ↑Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, ↑Yellowstone National Park, ↑Yosemite National Park, ↑Zion National Park, ↑Serengeti National Park

noun, pl ⋯ parks [count]

: an area of land that is owned and protected by a national government because of its natural beauty or its importance to history or science

ˌnational ˈpark noun

an area of land that is protected by the government for people to visit because of its natural beauty and historical or scientific interest

•

The area was designated a national park.

national parks and protected areas [national park national parks and protected areas]

The idea of national parks began in the US, which now has 55 of them, covering over 135 000 square miles/338 000 square kilometres. The great majority are in western states. The National Park Service is responsible for protecting the natural state of the parks for the benefit of the public. America’s parks are so popular that they are being harmed by the number of visitors and their cars. To try to stop this, the National Park Service encourages the development of public transport in the parks.

The oldest national park in the world is ↑Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872. The largest US park is Wrangell St Elias in ↑Alaska with 13 000 square miles/34 000 square kilometres. It has few visitors because it is very remote. The most popular park is the ↑Great Smoky Mountains. Many parks are well known for some special feature, such as the ↑Grand Canyon, the ↑Everglades and the ↑Petrified Forest.

There are many other sites run by the National Park Service. One of the most visited areas is the Blue Ridge Parkway in ↑Virginia and ↑North Carolina. (Parkways are roads with parkland either side.) National recreation areas such as the Golden Gate in ↑California also receive many visitors. Most have water sports and other activities. National preserves are similar to national parks but are not as well protected. Companies can even search for oil and gas on them. Ten of the 17 national preserves are in ↑Alaska, including the oldest, ↑Denali, established in 1917.

The US Bureau of Land Management is in charge of many of the wilderness areas created by ↑Congress. Visitors can camp in wilderness areas if they follow the ‘leave no trace’ policy. ↑Native Americans are allowed to use them for religious ceremonies.

National parks are also important as recreation areas in Britain. The land is not in national ownership but is mostly owned by farmers and other private landowners. The first two to be established were the ↑Lake District and the ↑Peak District in 1951 and there are now 15 national parks, which attract many thousands of visitors each year. The ↑New Forest and the ↑South Downs are the most recent additions to the list. The aim is to keep the National Parks as far as possible in their natural state, while balancing the different needs of agriculture, industry, housing and tourism. Many of the people who live in national parks depend on tourists for their living and are used to crowded roads in summer. A more serious problem is that some visitors who go regularly to a national park buy cottages in the area as second homes. This means there is less property for local people to buy and many are forced to move.

Each park is managed by a National Park Authority. The government provides 75% of the money to run the parks. National Park Authorities control development within each park, look after ↑public footpaths and run information and study centres. Some of the land in national parks is owned by the ↑National Trust but a lot is privately owned.

Some other areas, such as the ↑Gower Peninsula and the ↑Malverns, are officially protected as areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs). They tend to be less developed than national parks but still attract many visitors. Scotland has ↑national scenic areas, including the ↑Cairngorms and ↑Loch Lomond.

See also ↑nature reserves