National Park Laws: Organic Act, Title 36, and Funding

The laws governing national parks in the United States begin with the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 and extend through dozens of statutes that address monument designations, visitor conduct, wildlife protection, historic preservation, wilderness, environmental review, concessions, and funding. Together, these national park laws set a conservation-first mission for more than 400 park units covering roughly 85 million acres, and they translate that mission into rules that shape everything from what you can bring into a park to how the agency pays for maintenance.

The Organic Act and Its Dual Mandate

Signed on August 25, 1916, the Organic Act created the National Park Service inside the Department of the Interior and gave the agency a single defining sentence to work from: “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”¹ That is the “dual mandate”: conservation on one side, public enjoyment on the other, with the requirement that use never impair the resource.

The Act places the agency under a Senate-confirmed Director with substantial land management or conservation experience, supported by two Deputy Directors.² It gives the Secretary of the Interior rulemaking authority over the parks, backs those rules with criminal penalties, guarantees free public access to natural curiosities, authorizes leases for visitor facilities, and permits limited resource management such as removing diseased or infested timber.³

When conservation and use conflict, agency policy treats conservation as predominant, a rule stated plainly in the NPS Management Policies.⁴ That is not a slogan. It is the frame the Park Service uses when deciding whether an activity is “appropriate” and whether it will cause impairment or unacceptable impacts.

Making the Mandate Apply to Every Park Unit

For decades it was unclear whether the Organic Act’s conservation duty applied only to the big-name parks or to every unit in the system. The National Park System General Authorities Act of 1970 settled the point by declaring that all areas managed by the Park Service share a common purpose: “to conserve and protect for the edification and enjoyment of the American public—now and in the future—areas and places of national significance.”⁵ Battlefields, historic sites, recreation areas, and national lakeshores stand on the same legal footing as Yellowstone.

Congress reinforced the point in 1978 with the Redwood Amendment, prompted by litigation around Redwood National Park. The amendment provides that management of park system units “shall not be exercised in derogation of the values and purposes for which these various areas have been established, except as may have been or shall be directly and specifically provided by Congress.”⁶ In practice, when conservation and a competing use collide, the Park Service cannot side with the competing use unless Congress specifically authorized it.

The Antiquities Act and National Monuments

The Antiquities Act of 1906 was the first federal law protecting cultural and natural resources on public lands. It lets the President designate national monuments on federal land to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest,” limited to the smallest area compatible with their proper care.⁷ Presidents have used the power nearly 300 times. Grand Canyon, Acadia, Olympic, and Zion all started as monuments before Congress later redesignated them as national parks.⁸

The Act also requires a permit for archaeological work on federal land, sends excavated materials to public museums, and imposes penalties for unauthorized excavation.⁷ Two amendments narrowed presidential authority in specific places. A 1950 law requires Congressional approval for any new or enlarged monument in Wyoming. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 requires Congressional approval for any Alaskan monument larger than 5,000 acres.

Can a President Shrink a Monument?

The statute grants the power to create monuments but says nothing about undoing them. A 1938 Attorney General opinion concluded that the Act “does not authorize [the President] to abolish [national monuments] after they have been established,” and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 reserved to Congress the authority to modify or revoke monument withdrawals.⁸

The question is now in active litigation. In December 2017, President Trump signed a proclamation reducing Bears Ears National Monument by roughly 85 percent, triggering suits by five tribes and several environmental groups.⁹ President Biden restored the original boundaries in October 2021 and added 11,200 acres, and the original suit was stayed. Utah and other parties then challenged the Biden-era boundaries. In June 2026, the Tenth Circuit reversed a lower court’s dismissal and sent the cases back for further proceedings; the Biden-era boundaries and management plans remain in effect during the remand.¹⁰ The Trump administration has also considered reducing boundaries or removing protections for six additional monuments totaling more than five million acres.¹¹

Visitor Rules Under Title 36

The rules a visitor actually encounters come from Title 36 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter I. Part 2, “Resource Protection, Public Use and Recreation,” is the core regulation covering activities from camping and fishing to audio disturbances and gambling.¹² Some of the most commonly relevant prohibitions:

Possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing, digging, or disturbing natural, cultural, or archaeological resources, including wildlife, plants, fossils, minerals, and cave formations. Metal detectors are prohibited unless authorized for scientific use.
Feeding, touching, teasing, or intentionally disturbing wildlife.
Firearms may be possessed in park units if the possessor complies with applicable federal, state, and local laws, but hunting and discharge of firearms are generally prohibited, as is carrying a loaded weapon in a motor vehicle, with limited exceptions.
Launching, landing, or operating unmanned aircraft within park boundaries is prohibited.
Pets must generally be leashed on a leash no longer than six feet and are restricted to developed areas such as campgrounds, parking lots, and roads. They are typically prohibited on trails and in the backcountry.
Marijuana possession or use is prohibited on all federal lands regardless of state law.

Individual parks can add restrictions through a superintendent’s compendium or through special regulations under 36 CFR Part 7.¹³ Fishing generally follows state law unless a park designates otherwise, and state fishing licenses are not required in certain parks, including Yellowstone, Glacier, Olympic, and Denali.¹²

Penalties, Rangers, and Which Law Applies

Violating the Secretary’s regulations under the Organic Act carries up to six months in prison, a fine of up to $500, or both, though those fines can be enhanced under the federal alternative-fine statute at 18 U.S.C. § 3571.¹⁴ Congress has layered targeted statutes on top for specific conduct: unauthorized hunting and fishing, destruction of property at military parks, and archaeological crimes.

The Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 supplies the primary modern criminal penalties for looting archaeological sites on federal land. Unauthorized excavation, removal, or trafficking can result in fines up to $20,000 and two years in prison, or up to $100,000 and five years for repeat offenders. Vehicles, metal detectors, and other equipment used in the crime can be forfeited.¹⁵¹⁶

Park rangers with law enforcement commissions are federal officers. They can carry firearms, make warrantless arrests for federal offenses in their presence, execute warrants, and investigate crimes on parkland.¹⁷ The Secretary can designate federal, state, or local officers as special police to supplement rangers when needed.

When someone commits an act on parkland that would be a crime under state law but no federal statute covers it, the Assimilative Crimes Act fills the gap. Under 18 U.S.C. § 13, the offender is “guilty of a like offense and subject to a like punishment” as provided by the law of the state where the park sits.¹⁸ The case is still tried in federal court; the state law supplies the charge and the sentence. This applies only where the federal government holds exclusive or concurrent legislative jurisdiction.¹⁹

Wildlife, Plants, and Historic Sites

Two big wildlife statutes overlay the Park Service’s own rules. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 requires every federal agency, the Park Service included, to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service before taking any action that may affect a listed species or its critical habitat.²⁰ More than 600 threatened or endangered species have habitat inside the parks, from the Carolina northern flying squirrel in Great Smoky Mountains to sockeye salmon in Olympic.²¹

The Lacey Act, enacted in 1900 as the country’s first federal wildlife protection law, prohibits trafficking in fish, wildlife, or plants taken in violation of any federal, state, tribal, or foreign law. It works as a backstop: if wildlife is taken illegally under the ESA, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or a state game law, any later sale, transport, or purchase of that wildlife is a separate Lacey Act violation. Criminal penalties run from misdemeanor fines of up to $100,000 and one year in prison to felony penalties of up to $250,000 and five years for knowing violations involving contraband valued above $350.²²²³ Enforcement falls to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, the Park Service, and other Interior Department agencies.²⁴

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 requires federal agencies, including the Park Service, to consider how their actions affect historic properties. Section 106 requires an agency to identify properties listed in or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, then consult with State Historic Preservation Officers, tribal officials, and the public to avoid, minimize, or mitigate adverse effects.²⁵ The process does not always mandate preservation, but it forces the agency to account for preservation values before acting.²⁶

Wilderness, Air Quality, and Environmental Review

The Wilderness Act of 1964 established the National Wilderness Preservation System. Inside designated wilderness within a national park, the Act bars commercial enterprises, permanent roads, and generally motor vehicles, motorized equipment, aircraft landings, and other mechanical transport.²⁷ Exceptions cover the minimum requirements to administer the area, health and safety emergencies, and continued aircraft or motorboat use where established before designation. Wilderness designation does not lower the Organic Act’s underlying protections; it adds to them, guided by NPS Management Policies Chapter 6 and Director’s Order 41.²⁸

Many of the largest parks and wilderness areas are “mandatory Class I areas” under the Clean Air Act, a status Congress created in 1977 for national parks over 6,000 acres and wilderness areas over 5,000 acres that existed at the time. Class I areas get the most stringent air quality protections. The Prevention of Significant Deterioration program limits pollution increases near them, and the Regional Haze Rule requires states to demonstrate reasonable progress toward restoring natural visibility.²⁹³⁰

The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requires federal agencies to evaluate the environmental consequences of proposed actions before deciding. For the Park Service, that means management decisions affecting park resources go through a formal analysis with public involvement, tracked through the Planning, Environment and Public Comment system.³¹ In February 2026, the Department of the Interior published a final rule rescinding roughly 80 percent of its prior NEPA regulations and moving most of that content into a departmental handbook.³²

Concessions and Commercial Operations

Lodges, restaurants, gift shops, marinas, and guided tours run under the National Park Service Concessions Management Improvement Act of 1998. Contracts are awarded competitively, with proposals evaluated on resource protection, reasonable rates, operator experience, financial capability, and the proposed franchise fee.³³ Contracts generally run up to 10 years, extendable to 20 where significant investment is required. Eighty percent of franchise fees stay at the park that generated them; 20 percent is available system-wide.³⁴

The concessions system generates roughly $1.5 billion in annual gross revenue and returns about $135 million in franchise fees to the Park Service.³³ The 2016 National Park Service Centennial Act added contracting authority for expanding and modernizing visitor facilities, along with a Centennial Challenge Fund that matches federal dollars with private donations one-to-one.³⁵

Funding: Entrance Fees, the LWCF, and the Great American Outdoors Act

The Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act authorizes parks to charge entrance and use fees. Just over 100 of the more than 400 park units collect entrance fees, and at least 80 percent of the revenue generated at a park stays at that park for maintenance, visitor safety, accessibility improvements, and habitat restoration.³⁶ The law bars charging fees to visitors under 16, to school groups on noncommercial educational outings, and to people driving through without using facilities.³⁷ A July 2025 executive order directed the Interior Department to develop a strategy for higher entrance fees for nonresidents while improving affordability for U.S. residents.

The Great American Outdoors Act, passed in 2020, is the most significant park funding legislation in a generation. It provides up to $1.3 billion per year over five years, drawn from energy development revenue, to address the maintenance and repair backlog. It also permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund at up to $900 million a year, financed by offshore oil and gas royalties, for acquiring essential parklands and supporting state conservation grants.³⁸ The deferred maintenance backlog now stands at more than $33 billion.³⁹

Operational pressure has grown alongside those authorities. The fiscal year 2026 budget request proposed $2.1 billion for the Park Service, a substantial reduction from the roughly $2.9 billion in the prior year’s continuing resolution, and cut the Historic Preservation Fund and several grant programs.³⁹ The House Appropriations Subcommittee rejected the deepest cuts in its fiscal year 2027 bill, setting the operations budget at $2.9 billion.⁴⁰

Since January 2025, the Park Service has lost nearly 25 percent of its permanent workforce, more than 4,000 positions, through resignation initiatives, early retirements, mass terminations, and reorganization.⁴¹⁴⁰ More than 90 parks reported operational problems between April and July 2025, with cuts to maintenance at 30 parks, reduced or canceled education programs at 16, and diminished emergency response capacity at eight. The agency was recently approved to refill roughly 600 positions. A Secretary’s Order directed all national parks to remain open and accessible despite the shortages.

1
GovInfo. National Park Service Organic Act Compilation
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. Title 54, Subtitle I – National Park System
3
National Park Service. Organic Act of 1916
4
National Park Service. Management Policies
5
NYU Environmental Law Journal. The Legislative History of the NPS Conservation and Nonimpairment Mandate
6
GovInfo. 54 U.S.C. § 100101
7
National Park Service. Antiquities Act
8
Virginia Law Review. Presidents Lack Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments
9
NRDC. NRDC et al. v. Trump – Bears Ears
10
National Parks Conservation Association. Court Reverses Decision on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante
11
Earthjustice. Trump Administration Considers Attacking Six National Monuments for Energy Development
12
eCFR. 36 CFR Part 2 – Resource Protection, Public Use and Recreation
13
National Park Service. Mount Rainier National Park – Laws and Policies
14
U.S. Department of Justice. Criminal Resource Manual 1632 – Protection of Government Property
15
National Park Service. Archaeological Resources Protection Act
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 U.S.C. Chapter 1B – Archaeological Resources Protection
17
FindLaw. 54 U.S.C. § 102701
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. § 13 – Assimilative Crimes Act
19
FLETC. Territorial Jurisdiction on Federal Property
20
National Park Service. Rare and Endangered Species – Laws and Policies
21
National Parks Conservation Association. Endangering Park Wildlife
22
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Lacey Act
23
Every CRS Report. Lacey Act – Congressional Research Service Report
24
U.S. Department of the Interior. Lacey Act Hearing
25
National Park Service. National Historic Preservation Act
26
GSA. Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act
27
Wilderness.net. Wilderness Act
28
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29
EPA. Visibility Regulatory Actions
30
National Academies of Sciences. Protecting Visibility in National Parks and Wilderness Areas
31
National Park Service. NEPA and the National Park Service
32
U.S. Department of the Interior. National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
33
Federal Register. Commercial Visitor Services – Concession Contracts
34
Congress.gov. National Park Service Concessions Management Improvement Act
35
GovInfo. National Park Service Centennial Act
36
National Park Service. Fees at Work
37
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 16 U.S.C. Chapter 87 – Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act
38
National Park Service. Great American Outdoors Act
39
U.S. Department of the Interior. NPS FY2026 Budget
40
National Parks Conservation Association. House Rejects Deep Funding Cuts to National Parks
41
The New York Times. Trump Cuts National Parks