Now in a fully updated edition, this invaluable reference work is a fundamental resource for scholars, students, conservationists, and citizens interested in America's national park system. The extensive collection of documents illustrates the system's creation, development, and management. The documents include laws that established and shaped the system; policy statements on park management; Park Service self-evaluations; and outside studies by a range of scientists, conservation organizations, private groups, and businesses. A new appendix includes summaries of pivotal court cases that have further interpreted the Park Service mission.

It's here! Now you can stamp your way through the entire National Park System with the newest addition to the Passport To Your National Parks line of products: the Collector's Edition Passport. Beauty and practicality meet artfully in this deluxe version of the popular Passport, taking you above and beyond the original by providing space for Passport stickers and cancellation stamps for every single park, as well as space for extra cancellations. The park sites are color-coded by region, each area featuring a color map that pinpoints park locations. With a spiral binding that makes it easy to lie open flat, a hard cover that ensures durability and longer life, and pages graced with beautiful color photographs, it's the ultimate stamping ground.

Two men played a crucial role in the creation and early history of the National Park Service: Stephen T. Mather, a public relations genius of sweeping vision, and Horace M. Albright, an able lawyer and administrator who helped transform that vision into reality. In Creating the National Park Service, Albright and his daughter, Marian Albright Schenck, reveal the previously untold story of the critical "missing years" in the history of the service. During this period, 1917 and 1918, Mather's problems with manic depression were kept hidden from public view, and Albright, his able and devoted assistant, served as acting director and assumed Mather's responsibilities. Albright played a decisive part in the passage of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916; the formulation of principles and policies for management of the parks; the defense of the parks against exploitation by ranchers, lumber companies, and mining interests during World War I; and other issues crucial to the future of the fledgling park system. This authoritative behind-the-scenes history sheds light on the early days of the most popular of all federal agencies while painting a vivid picture of American life in the early twentieth century.

"Audrey's love of nature and the national parks is equaled only by her love for people." -Juan Martinez, National Geographic Emerging Explorer, Wyoming "Audrey opens up the country to us in a whole new way. She weaves the beauty, history and culture she has found in our national parks into a spellbinding story that makes me want to get out there even more." - Rue Mapp, founder, Outdoor Afro, California "In Our True Nature, Audrey Peterman expresses the joy and wonder to be found in our national parks. Her effervescent words bubble with the enthusiasm she has for the parks and all they bring to humanity." - John Poimiroo, CEO, National Parks Promotion Council "Audrey's writing is so vivid, I feel like I am there with her, whether it's in the wilds of Alaska or the historic town of Harpers Ferry, Virginia. This is a welcome guide for anyone interested in history, beauty, nature, travel, adventure or just understanding what it means to be an American." -Al Calloway, historian and writer, Florida ________ Audrey Peterman is a national award winning environmentalist. A native of Jamaica and a citizen of the US, she and her husband Frank co-authored the book, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Treasures and Tells Why Every American Should Care. Since 1995 she has visited more than 160 of the 397 units of the National Park System and is an advocate for their continued protection.