Land unit designations is where things get really confusing. Not only does the shear number of different designations lead to confusion, but, to makes matters worse, designations are not constrained by the management agency. Instead, for example, National Monuments can be managed by any one of five different federal agencies: the National Park Service (NPS), Forest Service (FS), Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Regardless I'll introduce some of the most common unit designations.

As of 2017, there are over 25K protected land units in the U.S. covering almost 640M acres or 28% of land in the U.S. Some units are managed as wilderness while other are operated with varying degrees of allowable commercial exploitation.

National Park (NP)

NPs can only be created by an Act of Congress and are generally large natural places (e.g., Yellowstone NP and Denali NP and Preserve) having a wide variety of attributes, at times including significant historic assets (e.g., Mesa Verde NP). Hunting, mining, and consumptive activities are not authorized in NPs.

Many current NPs been previously protected as national monuments by Presidents under the Antiquities Act of 1906 before being upgraded by Congress. Seven national parks (including six in Alaska) are paired with a national preserve, areas with different levels of protection that are administered together but considered separate units and whose areas are not included in the figures below. Criteria for the selection of NPs include natural beauty, unique geological features, unusual ecosystems, and recreational opportunities (though these criteria are not always considered together).

Twenty-eight states have national parks, as do the territories of American Samoa and the United States Virgin Islands. California has the most (nine), followed by Alaska (eight), Utah (five), and Colorado (four). The largest national park is Wrangell–St. Elias NP  in Alaska: at over 8M acres, it is larger than each of the nine smallest states. The next three largest parks are also in Alaska. The smallest park is Gateway Arch NP, in St. Louis, at approximately 193 acres.

NPs set a visitation record in 2017, with more than 84 million visitors. The most-visited national park is Great Smoky Mountains NP in North Carolina and Tennessee, with over 11.3 million visitors in 2017, followed by Grand Canyon NP in Arizona, with over 6.2 million. In contrast, only 11,177 people visited the remote Gates of the Arctic NP and Preserve in Alaska in the same year.

National Memorial

A national memorial is commemorative of a historic person or episode. The memorial need not be located on a site directly related to the subject and many, such as the Lincoln Memorial, do not have the word “national” in their titles.

The earliest and perhaps most recognizable is the uniquely designated Washington Monument, which was completed in 1884 and transferred to the NPS in 1933. The most recent is the World War I Memorial, designated in 2014. National memorials are located in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Washington, D.C., has the most, 11, followed by Pennsylvania and New York, each with three.

National Preserve

National preserves are areas having characteristics associated with national parks (e.g., Mojave National Preserve), but in which Congress has permitted continued public hunting, trapping, oil/gas exploration and/or extraction. Many existing national preserves, without sport hunting, would qualify for national park designation. The first national preserve in the U.S. was Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida, followed soon after by Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, both established in 1974.

National Lakeshore & Seashore

National Seashores and Lakeshores are coastal areas federally designated as being of natural and recreational significance as a preserved area. The first national seashore, Cape Hatteras, was established in 1953, and the first National Lakeshore, Pictured Rocks, was established in 1966. The newest National Lakeshore or Seashore is Canaveral, established in 1975. All of the National Lakeshores are on Lakes Michigan and Superior, and nine of the ten National Seashores are on the Atlantic Ocean, including two on the Gulf of Mexico with Point Reyes being the lonesome National Seashore on the Pacific Ocean. Some are developed and some relatively primitive. Hunting is allowed at many of these sites.

National Battlefield

This general title includes national battlefield, national battlefield park, national battlefield site, and national military park. The National Park Service (NPS) does not distinguish among the four designations in terms of their preservation or management policies. In 1958, an NPS committee recommended national battlefield as the single title for all such park lands.

The designation applies to “sites where historic battles were fought on American soil during the armed conflicts that shaped the growth and development of the United States … .” In 1890, Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park was the first such site created by Congress. Originally these sites were maintained by the War Department, but were transferred to the National Park Service in 1933. Other examples include Antietam National Battlefield, Manassas National Battlefield Park, and Vicksburg National Military Park.

National Recreation Area (NRA)

Twelve NRAs in the system are centered on large reservoirs and emphasize water-based recreation (e.g., Glen Canyon NRA and Lake Mead NRA). Five other NRAs are located near major population centers (e.g., Golden Gate NRA near San Francisco and Gateway NRA near New York City). Such urban parks combine scarce open spaces with the preservation of significant historic resources and important natural areas in location that can provide outdoor recreation for large numbers of people.

National Historic Site (NHS) and National Historical Park (NHP)

Usually, an NHS contains a single historical feature that was directly associated with its subject (e.g., Andersonville NHS, Brown v. Board of Education NHS, Golden Spike NHS, and Sagamore Hill NHS). Derived from the Historic Sites Act of 1935, a number of historic sites were established by secretaries of the Interior, but most have been authorized by acts of Congress. In contrast, the NHP designation generally applies to historic parks that extend beyond single properties or buildings (e.g., Appomattox Court House NHP, Chaco Culture NHP, and Valley Forge NHP).

Most NHPs and NHSs are managed by the NPS. Some federally designated sites are owned by local authorities or privately owned, but are authorized to request assistance from the NPS as affiliated areas. One unit, Grey Towers NHS, is managed by the FS.

National Parkway

The parkway designation refers to a roadway and the parkland paralleling the roadway (e.g., Blue Ridge Parkway and John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway). All were intended for scenic motoring along a protected corridor and often connect cultural sites.

National Monument (NM)

NMs protect areas similar to NPs, without as many limitations, but can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President. National monuments can be managed by one of several federal agencies: NPS, FS, FWS, BLM, and NOAA (in the case of marine NMs).

The Antiquities Act of 1906, signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt, authorizes the President to declare by public proclamation landmarks, structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest situated on lands owned or controlled by the government to be national monuments. The act resulted from concerns about protecting mostly prehistoric Native American ruins and artifacts – collectively termed “antiquities” – on federal lands in the West, such as at Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Removal of artifacts from these lands by private collectors, “pot hunters,” had become a serious problem by the end of the 19th century.

The first use of the Antiquities Act protected a large geographic feature occurred in the same year as its signing – President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower NM in 1906. At 583,000 square miles, Papahānaumokuākea Marine NM is the largest protected area proclaimed. The smallest, Father Millet Cross NM (now part of a state park), was a mere 0.0074 acres.

Since the Antiquities Act was first signed into effect in 1906, all but four sitting presidents, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush have chosen to enlarge or dedicate new national monuments. President Obama, in his last term in office, erected the most monuments, under the Antiquities Act, than any President before him with 26.

The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld presidential proclamations under the Antiquities Act, ruling each time that the Act gives the president nearly-unfettered discretion as to the nature of the object to be protected and the size of the area reserved. See Cameron v. U.S., 252 U.S. 450 (1920); Cappaert v. U.S., 426 U.S. 128 (1976). However, the President’s ability to retroactively reduce the size of a NM remains an open question for the courts to answer. This was the center of the debate over the tremendous reductions in size of the Bears Ears NM and Grand Staircase-Escalante NM in 2017.

National Wild & Scenic Rivers System

There are several variations to this category: national river and recreation area, national scenic river, wild river, etc. The first was authorized in 1964 and others were established following passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 was enacted to preserve certain rivers with outstanding natural, cultural, and recreational values in a free-flowing condition for the enjoyment of present and future generations.

The Act is notable for safeguarding the special character of these rivers, while also recognizing the potential for their appropriate use and development. It encourages river management that crosses political boundaries and promotes public participation in developing goals for river protection.

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Congress declares that the established national policy of dams and other construction at appropriate sections of the rivers of the United States needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition to protect the water quality of such rivers and to fulfill other vital national conservation purposes. (Wild & Scenic Rivers Act of 1968)

Designation as a wild and scenic river is not the same as a NP designation, and generally does not confer the same level of protection as a Wilderness Area designation. However, wild and scenic designation protects the free-flowing nature of rivers in non-federal areas, something the Wilderness Act and other federal designations cannot do. Designation does not alter property rights.

Federally administered National Wild and Scenic rivers are managed by one or more the NPS, BLM, FS, and FWS. Of the 156 National Wild and Scenic Rivers, the most are managed by the FS, followed by the NPS; fifteen of those managed by the NPS are official units, while others are part of other parks. Thirty-eight are managed under the BLM’s National Conservation Lands (originally called the National Landscape Conservation System) while the FWS manages several rivers in Alaska.

National Trails System

National scenic trails, national recreation trails, and national historic trails are the titles given to these linear parklands authorized under the National Trails System Act of 1968. The Act created a series of National trails “to promote the preservation of, public access to, travel within, and enjoyment and appreciation of the open-air, outdoor areas and historic resources of the Nation.” Specifically, the Act authorized three types of trails: the National Scenic Trails, National Recreation Trails, and connecting-and-side trails. The 1968 Act also created two national scenic trails: the Appalachian and the Pacific Crest; and requested that an additional fourteen trail routes be studied for possible inclusion.

In 1978, as a result of the study of trails that were most significant for their historic associations, a fourth category of trail was added: the National Historic Trails. Since 1968, over forty trail routes have been studied for inclusion in the system. Of these studied trails, twenty-one have been established as part of the system. Today, the National Trails System consists of 30 National Scenic and Historic Trails and over 1,000 National Recreation Trails and two connecting-and-side trails, with a total length of more than 50,000 miles (80,000 km). These National Trails are more than just for hiking, many are also open for horseback riding, mountain biking, and camping.

As Congressionally established long-distance trails, each one is administered by a federal agency, either the BLM, FS, or NPS. Two of the trails are jointly administered by the BLM and the NPS.

National Forest & Grasslands

The Forest Service (FS), an agency of the USDA, manages 154 National Forest units totaling 188M acres and 20 National Grassland units totaling 3.84M acres. The largest National Forest is Tongass in Alaska, and the largest National Grassland is Little Missouri in North Dakota. There is at least one National Forest in all but ten states: Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Dakota, New Jersey, and Rhode Island (although Kansas and North Dakota have National Grasslands).

National Forests provide opportunities for recreation in open spaces and natural environments. People enjoy a wide variety of activities on national forests, including backpacking in remote wilderness areas, mastering an all-terrain vehicle over a challenging trail, enjoying the views along a scenic byway, or fishing in a great trout stream, to mention just a few. In addition, national forests and grasslands support the economic activity of the Nation through marketable products associated with timber production, livestock grazing, mineral production, and other activities. Furthermore, areas designated as wilderness by acts of Congress, prohibit logging, mining, road and building construction and land leases for purposes of farming and or livestock grazing.

President Theodore Roosevelt established the Forest Service in 1905 to manage the lands in its care for multiple uses, including wood for timber and fuel, drinking water, forage, wildlife habitat, and recreation. Multiple use means managing resources for the best combination of uses to benefit the American people while conserving the productivity of the land and the quality of the environment. Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the Forest Service, summed up the agency’s purpose as managing the Nation’s natural resources “for the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time.”

National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS)

The Wilderness Act of 1964 established the NWPS of federal lands “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” The Wilderness Act initially protected 54 wilderness areas (9.1M acres) by withdrawing them from standard multiple use management and established a process for adding new lands to the NWPS. Lands classified as wilderness through the Wilderness Act could be under jurisdiction of the FS, NPS, or FWS. The BLM did not manage wilderness until passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) in 1976. With some exceptions, prohibitions include closure to motorized and mechanized vehicles, timber harvest, new grazing and mining activity, or any kind of development.

The Wilderness Act identified the purposes of wilderness in § 2. Specifically, § 2(a) stated that the purpose was to create the NWPS of federal lands

administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness…

The act goes on to further define wilderness area management in § 2(c):

A wilderness, in contrast to those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

Designated wilderness in the National Park Service is part of the NWPS – a network of 765 wilderness areas managed by four federal agencies that protect over 109 million acres of land and water in the United States.

• NPS: 61 wilderness units (e.g., Death Valley Wilderness and Olympic Wilderness)

• BLM: 224 wilderness units (e.g., Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness and Sheephole Valley Wilderness)

• FWS: 71 wilderness units (e.g., Cabeza Prieta Wilderness and Okefenokee Wilderness)

• FS: 445 wilderness units (e.g., North Absaroka Wilderness and Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness)

Wilderness Study Area (WSA)

A WSA contains undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, and managed to preserve its natural conditions (e.g., Ah-shi-sle-pah WSA, Dark Canyon WSA, and San Rafael Reef WSA). WSAs are not included in the NWPS until Congress passes wilderness legislation.

On BLM lands, a WSA is a roadless area that has been inventoried (but not designated by Congress) and found to have wilderness characteristics as described in Section 603 of the FLPMA and Section 2(c) of the Wilderness Act.

BLM manages wilderness study areas under the National Conservation Lands system to protect their value as wilderness until Congress decides whether to designate them as wilderness. Wilderness bills often include so-called “release language” that eliminates WSAs not selected for wilderness designation. Some WSAs are managed in exactly the same manner as wilderness areas, and the rules for others permit activities that are generally excluded from wildernesses.

National Conservation Lands

National Conservation Lands, formally known as the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), is a collection of 35 million acres parceled into 873 units considered to be the crown jewels of the American West. These lands represent 10% of the 258M acres managed by the BLM. Over the years, the BLM has had to adjust its approach to public land management to fit the changing needs of the nation. The BLM historically has managed lands under its jurisdiction for extractive uses, such as mining, logging, grazing, and oil and gas production. In 1983, Congress acknowledged the value of watersheds, wildlife habitat, recreation, scenery, scientific exploration and other non-extractive uses with the designation of the first BLM-managed wilderness area—the Bear Trap Canyon unit of the Lee Metcalf Wilderness in Montana.

The NLCS, better known as the National Conservation Lands, was created in 2000 with the mission to “conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations.” The NLCS Act was signed into law in March 2009. The Act permanently unified the individual units as a public lands system, protecting the system in law so that it would no longer exist at the pleasure of each president. This marked the first new Congressionally authorized public lands system in decades.

The NLCS Act was included in the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which also added 1.2 million acres of new designations to the National Conservation Lands system, including an NM, three NCAs, Wilderness Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and National Scenic Trails.

There are ten different federal conservation designations for the units that make up the National Conservation Lands system:

• National Monuments (25)
• National Conservation Areas (16)
• Wilderness Areas (221)
• Wilderness Study Areas (545)
• National Wild and Scenic Rivers (38)
• National Scenic Trails (5)
• National Historic Trails (11)
• Cooperative Management and Protection Area (1)
• Forest Reserve (1)
• Outstanding Natural Areas (4)

National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS)

The NWRS is a system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants. Since President Theodore Roosevelt designated Florida's Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge as the first wildlife refuge in 1903, the NWRS has grown to over 5 NMs, 560 national wildlife refuges (NWRs), and 38 wetland management districts encompassing more than 150M acres.

The National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 indicates that the mission of the NWRS is to

administer a national network of lands and waters for the conservation, management, and where appropriate restoration of fish, wildlife, and plant resources and their habitats within the United States for the benefit of the present and future generations of Americans.

The NWRS maintains the biological integrity, diversity and environmental health of these natural resources and enables for associated public enjoyment of these areas where compatible with conservation efforts.

NWRs manage a full range of habitat types, including wetlands, prairies, coastal and marine areas, and temperate, tundra and boreal forests. The management of each habitat is a complex web of controlling or eradicating invasive species, using fire in a prescribed manner, assuring adequate water resources, and assessing external threats like development or contamination.

Among these hundreds of national refuges are home to some 700 species of birds, 220 species of mammals, 250 reptile and amphibian species and more than 1000 species of fish. Endangered species are a priority of National Wildlife Refuges in that nearly 60 refuges have been established with the primary purpose of conserving 280 threatened or endangered species.

NWRs are also places where visitors can participate in a wide variety of outdoor recreational activities. The NWRS welcomes nearly 50M visitors each year. The NWRS manages six wildlife-dependent recreational uses in accordance with the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, including hunting, fishing, birding, photography, environmental education, and interpretation. Hunters visit more than 350 hunting programs on refuges and on about 36,000 Waterfowl Production Areas. Opportunities for fresh or saltwater fishing are available at more than 340 refuges. There is at least one wildlife refuge in each of the fifty states.

National System of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)

Presidential Executive Order 13158, which was signed by President Bill Clinton on May 26, 2000, directed the Department of Commerce to work with the Department of the Interior, other federal agencies, states, territories, tribes and stakeholders to establish a national system of MPAs to integrate and enhance the nation’s MPAs, bringing these diverse sites and programs together to work on common conservation objectives.

“Marine protected area” is a broad term for a park or other protected area that includes some marine or Great Lakes area. Executive Order 13158 defines an MPA as

...any area of the marine environment that has been reserved by federal, state, territorial, tribal, or local laws or regulations to provide lasting protection for part or all of the natural and cultural resources therein.

The National Marine Protected Areas Center has developed a Classification System that describes MPAs in functional terms using five characteristics common to most MPAs: 1) conservation focus; 2) level of protection; 3) permanence of protection; 4) constancy of protection; and 5) ecological scale of protection.

A marine reserve or "no take" MPA is a highly protected type of MPA where removing or destroying natural or cultural resources is prohibited.  Marine reserves are rare in the United States, with about 3 percent of U.S. waters in these no-take areas. Reserves protect whole ecosystems, allowing them to return toward a more natural and balanced state.  Monitoring studies from marine reserves have shown that biomass, the size and density of organisms and the richness or diversity of species all increase within marine reserves. Reserves can be an effective way to preserve biodiversity by protecting communities and providing refuge for rare organisms.

MPAs protect ecosystems and resources such as coral reefs, kelp forests, shipwrecks, and those areas frequented by whales and other marine life. They also can provide protection to economically valuable coastal and marine resources including commercial and recreational fisheries. The national system includes MPAs throughout the marine environment of the U.S. and its territories, including coastal areas, estuaries, oceans and the Great Lakes. As a first step in developing the national system of MPAs, the MPA Center compiled an MPA Inventory of all MPAs in U.S. waters. The U.S. has over 1,600 MPAs, ranging from typically small fully protected marine reserves where extractive uses are prohibited to large, multiple-use areas where fishing, diving and other uses are permitted. Most MPAs in U.S. waters allow some type of extractive use, with less than 1% of U.S. waters fully protected marine reserves where extractive activities are not permitted.

*All photos captured on my iPhone X. Please credit accordingly.*