Editing National Park Service (section)

==Staff and volunteers==

===Directors===
{{Main|Director of the National Park Service}}
[[File:NPS DirectorandStaff.jpg|thumb|[[Stephen Mather]] (center) and his staff, 1927 or 1928]]
[[File:Charles F. Sams III, NPS Director.jpg|thumb|[[Charles Sams|Chuck Sams]], NPS Director from 2021–2025]]

===Employees===
[[File:NPS Staffing(1998-2009).JPG|thumb|left|National Park Service employment levels. Executives: abt 27; Gen Sch: 16–17,000; Others: 6–7,000<ref>Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Fiscal Year nnnn Budget Justifications;, where nnnn = 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2009</ref>]]

By the mid-1950s, the primary employees of the service were the park rangers, who had broad responsibilities on the parks' behalf. They cleaned up trash, operated heavy equipment, fought fires, managed traffic, cleared trails and roads, provided information to visitors, managed museums, performed rescues, flew aircraft, and investigated crime.<ref>''Park Ranger, The Work, Thrills and Equipment of the National Park Rangers'', Colby, C.B.; Coward-McCann, Inc., New York, 1955</ref>

The NPS employs many kinds of workers:
* [[National Park Service Ranger]]
** Interpreter
** [[National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers|Law enforcement]]
* Park management (Superintendent/Deputy)
* [[United States Park Police]]
* Emergency management (Emergency medical providers, search and rescue specialists)
** Lifeguards
* [[Dispatcher]]s
* Maintenance (including [[Carpentry|carpenters]], [[Plumbing|plumbers]], masons, laborers, auto mechanics, motor vehicle operators, [[heavy equipment operator]]s, [[electrician]]s)
* Park planning
** [[Architect]]s, [[engineer]]s, and [[landscape architect]]s
* Resource management (including archeologist, [[biologist]], [[botanist]], aquatics, soil scientist, [[geologist]])
* History ([[curator]]s, [[historian]]s, preservation technicians, historic architects, [[archivist]]s)
* Fire management (managers, weather specialist, [[firefighter]]s, engine captains, crew superintendents, battalion chiefs)
* Public affairs
* Administration (human resources, finance, accountants, information technology, budgeting, concessions management)

Locations are varied. Parks exist in the nation's larger cities like [[New York City]] ([[Federal Hall]] Memorial National Historic Site), [[Atlanta]] ([[Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site]]), and [[San Diego]] ([[Cabrillo National Monument]]) to some of the remotest areas of the continent like [[Hovenweep National Monument]] in southeastern Utah, to [[Aniakchak National Monument]] in [[King Salmon, Alaska]].<ref>''Careers in the National Parks''; Gartner, Bob; The Rosen Publishing Company, New York; 1993</ref>

===Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP)===
The [[Volunteers-In-Parks]] program was authorized in 1969 by the Volunteers in the Parks Act of 1969.<ref name="05Report">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/volunteer/managedocs.htm |title=Director's Order #7: Volunteers in Parks; June 13, 2005; Department of the Interior, National Park Service |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=October 3, 2010 |archive-date=May 30, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090530062003/http://www.nps.gov/archive/volunteer/managedocs.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> for the purpose of allowing the public to serve in the nations parks providing support and skills for their enhancement and protection.<ref name="brochure">Volunteers in Parks; National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.; 1990</ref>

Volunteers come from all walks of life and include professionals, artists, laborers, homemakers and students, performing varied duties. Many come from surrounding communities and some travel significant distances.<ref name=brochure/> In a 2005 annual report, the NPS reported that,

<blockquote>...137,000 VIPs contributed 5.2 million hours of service (or 2500 FTEs) valued at $91,260,000 based on the private sector value figure of $17.55 as used by AARP, Points of Light Foundation, and other large-scale volunteer programs including many federal agencies. There are 365 separate volunteer programs throughout the NPS. Since 1990, the number of volunteers has increased an average of 2% per year.<ref>Volunteer in Parks, FY05 Annual Report, Department of the Interior, National Park Service; GPO, Washington D.C.; 2006</ref></blockquote>

FTE stands for full-time equivalent (one work year). In 2012, the National Park Service reported that over 221,000 volunteers contributed about 6.4 million hours annually.<ref name="nps.gov">{{cite web|title=NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service)|url=https://www.nps.gov/index.htm|access-date=April 30, 2020|website=National Park Service|archive-date=April 20, 1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19970420085402/https://www.nps.gov/index.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Additionally, other types of volunteers also conduct offsite NPS public outreach and education, such as the Trails & Rails program guides on board certain segments of long-haul [[Amtrak]] routes, who offer passengers insights to the travel area's natural resources and heritage.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.amtrak.com/trails-rails-heritage-appreciation-during-your-train-ride | title=Amtrak | access-date=March 16, 2017 | archive-date=March 28, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170328070821/https://www.amtrak.com/trails-rails-heritage-appreciation-during-your-train-ride | url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/subjects/amtraktrailsandrails/about.htm | title=Partnering to Connect People with Places - Amtrak Trails & Rails |website=U.S. National Park Service | access-date=March 16, 2017 | archive-date=April 4, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404180648/https://www.nps.gov/subjects/amtraktrailsandrails/about.htm | url-status=live}}</ref>

===Artist-In-Residence===
Across the nation, there are special opportunities for artists (visual artists, photographers, sculptors, performers, writers, composers, and crafts) to live and work in a park. Twenty-nine parks currently participate in the ''Artist-In-Residence program''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/volunteer/air.htm |title=NPS Artist-in-Residence |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=October 3, 2010 |archive-date=September 4, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100904011109/http://www.nps.gov/archive/volunteer/air.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===United States Park Rangers===
{{Main|National Park Service ranger}}
{{See also|National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers}}

'''National Park Service rangers''' are among the uniformed employees charged with protecting and preserving areas set aside in the National Park System by the United States Congress and the President of the United States. While all employees of the agency contribute to the National Park Service mission of preserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources set aside by the American people for [[future generations]], the term "[[park ranger]]" is traditionally used to describe all National Park Service employees who wear the uniform. Broadly speaking, all National Park Service rangers promote [[stewardship]] of the resources in their care—either voluntary stewardship via [[heritage interpretation|resource interpretation]], or compliance with [[statute]] or [[regulation]] through [[law enforcement]]. These comprise the two main disciplines of the ranger profession in the National Park Service.

Law enforcement rangers, or protection rangers, are uniformed federal law enforcement officers with broad authority to enforce federal and state laws within NPS sites. The NPS commonly refers to law enforcement operations in the agency as ''visitor and resource protection''.

In most NPS units, law enforcement rangers are the primary police agency.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/102701|title=54 U.S. Code § 102701 - Law enforcement personnel within System|website=Legal Information Institute|language=en|access-date=2019-12-31|archive-date=August 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804045205/https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/54/102701|url-status=live}}</ref> The NPS also employs special agents who conduct more complex criminal investigations. Rangers and agents receive extensive police training at the [[Federal Law Enforcement Training Center]] and annual in-service and regular firearms training.

===United States Park Police===
{{Main|United States Park Police}}

The United States Park Police (USPP) is the oldest uniformed federal law enforcement agency in the United States. It functions as a full service law enforcement agency with responsibilities and jurisdiction in those NPS areas primarily located in the Washington, D.C. Parks, San Francisco, and [[New York City Parks]] areas.

In addition to performing the normal crime prevention, investigation, and apprehension functions of an urban police force, the park police are responsible for policing many of the famous monuments in the United States and share law enforcement jurisdiction in all lands administered by the service with a force of national park rangers tasked with the same law enforcement powers and responsibilities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/uspp/ |title=United States Park Police |publisher=Nps.gov |access-date=December 31, 2013 |archive-date=February 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219025821/http://www.nps.gov/uspp/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Youth programs===
The NPS partners with a variety of youth oriented programs. The oldest serving group is the [[Student Conservation Association]] (SCA). It was established in 1957, committed to conservation and preservation. The SCA's goal is to create the next generation of conservation leaders.

SCA volunteers work through internships, conservation jobs, and crew experiences. Volunteers conduct resource management, historic preservation, cultural resources and conservation programs to gain experience, which can lead to career development and further educational opportunities. The SCA places volunteers in more than 350 national park units and NPS offices each year.<ref>[https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/scaopportunities.htm SCA] {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

The Corps Network, formerly known as the National Association for Service and Corps (NASCC), represents 136 Service and Conservation Corps. These groups have programs in 42 states and the District of Columbia. Corpsmembers are between the ages of 16–25. Service and Conservation Corps are direct descendants of the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC) of the 1930s that built park facilities in the national parks and other public parks around the country. The Corps Network was established in 1985.<ref>{{cite web|date=September 20, 2016|title=The Corps Network|url=https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/thecorpsnetwork.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160920193920/https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/thecorpsnetwork.htm|archive-date=September 20, 2016|access-date=April 30, 2020}}</ref>

* The Youth Conservation Corps (ages 15–18) brings young people into a park to restore, preserve and protect a natural, cultural, or historical resources. Enrollees are paid for their work.<ref>[https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/ycc.htm YCC] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102091723/https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/ycc.htm|date=November 2, 2015}}</ref>
* [[Public Land Corps]] (ages 16–25) is a job helping to restore, protect, and rehabilitate a local national parks. The enrollees learn about environmental issues and the parks.<ref>[https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/plc.htm PLC] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151102092434/https://pwrcms.nps.gov/gettinginvolved/youthprograms/plc.htm|date=November 2, 2015}}</ref>