Assignment 7- Reagan Smith

          On October 1^st 1890, the US Congress created Yosemite National Park. This was eighteen years after Yellowstone National Park was created, which is “widely held to be the first national park in the world.” This also preceded the official creation of the National Park Service which was created by an act signed by President Wilson. To my knowledge, this is one of the, if not THE first legislative initiative by the US towards protecting our nation’s wildlife, and environment as a whole. This is largely a positive move because it helps to protect the great hills and valleys, waterfalls, and huge trees that can be found there. The creation of Yosemite helped to begin a trend of protecting similar parks, eventually to the total of 58 that there are today. 84.9 million acres of the United States are currently designated as National Park land, but with that being a mere 3.6% of our total land, there are probably still areas that could be protected to prevent damage.

Image Credit: http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-yosemite-national-park