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76-540: The Stansbury Mountains occupy a biological transition zone from the Great Basin to the Rocky Mountains . Much of the wilderness is alpine , with open basins and barren rocky ridges. From December through May, you can expect the upper elevations to be covered in snow. Douglas-fir , alpine fir and aspen are commonly found growing on high north-facing slopes. Juniper , mountain brush, sagebrush , and grass cover much of

152-734: A language in the Numic language group. To close a 1951 Indian Claims Commission case, the Western Shoshone Claims Distribution Act of 2004 established the United States payment of $ 117 million to the Great Basin tribe for the acquisition of 39,000 square miles (100,000 km ). European exploration of the Great Basin occurred during the 18th century Spanish colonization of the Americas . The first immigrant American to cross

228-646: A location in Utah is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This protected areas-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Great Basin The Great Basin ( Spanish : Gran Cuenca ) is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds , those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America . It spans nearly all of Nevada , much of Utah , and portions of California , Idaho , Oregon , Wyoming , and Baja California . It

304-521: A person or event, though unlike a National Historical Site, may or may not be placed at a specific historical location. Several national memorials are on the National Mall , such as the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial . National seashores and national lakeshores offer preservation of the national coast line, while supporting water–based recreation. Cape Hatteras National Seashore

380-528: A special resource study of a site to determine its national significance and suitability to be part of the National Park System. The NPS uses over 20 different titles for the park units it manages, including national park and national monument . National parks preserve nationally and globally significant scenic areas and nature reserves. National monuments preserve a single unique cultural or natural feature. Devils Tower National Monument

456-658: Is New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve at 1,164,025 acres (4711 km ). The smallest is Benjamin Franklin National Memorial at less than 0.01 acres (40 m ). While there are laws generally covering all units of the National Park System, they are subject to management policies of individual pieces of authorizing legislation or, in the case of national monuments created under the Antiquities Act , Executive Order . For example, because of provisions within their enabling legislation, Congaree National Park

532-518: Is Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve , Alaska. At 13,200,000 acres (53,000 km ), it is over 16 percent of the entire system. The smallest unit in the system is Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial , Pennsylvania , at 0.02 acres (80 m ). In addition to administering its units and other properties, the NPS also provides technical and financial assistance to several affiliated areas authorized by Congress. The largest affiliated area

608-482: Is almost entirely a wilderness area devoid of development, yet Yosemite allows unique developments such as the Badger Pass Ski Area and the O'Shaughnessy Dam within its boundaries. Such irregularities would not be found in other parks unless specifically provided for with exceptions by the legislation that created them. Most NPS units have been established by an act of Congress, with the president confirming

684-636: Is an agency of the United States federal government , within the US Department of the Interior . The service manages all national parks ; most national monuments ; and other natural, historical, and recreational properties, with various title designations. The United States Congress created the agency on August 25, 1916, through the National Park Service Organic Act . Its headquarters

760-426: Is applied to hydrographic , biological , floristic , physiographic, topographic , and ethnographic geographic areas. The name was originally coined by John C. Frémont , who, based on information gleaned from Joseph R. Walker as well as his own travels, recognized the hydrographic nature of the landform as "having no connection to the ocean". The hydrographic definition is the most commonly used, and

836-432: Is essential to a National Park Service that is science-informed at all organizational levels and able to respond with contemporary strategies for resource management and ultimately park stewardship." The "Revisiting Leopold" report mentioned climate change three times and "climate refugia" once, but it did not prescribe or offer any management tactics that could help parks managers with the problems of climate change. Hence,

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912-569: Is in Washington, D.C. , within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior. The NPS employs about 20,000 people in 431 units covering over 85 million acres (0.34 million km ) in all 50 states , the District of Columbia, and US territories . In 2019, the service had more than 279,000 volunteers. The agency is charged with preserving the ecological and historical integrity of

988-404: Is increasingly untenable, presenting practical and philosophical challenges for managers. As formerly familiar ecological conditions continue to change, bringing novelty, surprise, and uncertainty, natural resource managers require a new, shared approach to make conservation decisions.... The RAD (Resist-Accept-Direct) decision framework has emerged over the past decade as a simple tool that captures

1064-536: Is nicknamed "The Loneliest Road in America", and Nevada State Route 375 is designated the "Extraterrestrial Highway". The Great Basin is traversed by several rail lines including the Union Pacific Railroad 's Overland Route (Union Pacific Railroad) through Reno and Ogden , Feather River Route , Central Corridor and Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad . There has been a succession of indigenous peoples of

1140-489: Is not a complicated site. National historical parks are larger areas with more complex subjects. Historic sites may also be protected in other unit types. National military parks , battlefield parks , battlefield sites , and battlefields preserve areas associated with military history. The different designations reflect the complexity of the event and the site. Many of the sites preserve important Revolutionary War battles and Civil War battlefields. Military parks are

1216-511: Is noted for both its arid climate and the basin and range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin in Death Valley to the highest point of the contiguous United States , less than 100 miles (160 km) away at the summit of Mount Whitney . The region spans several physiographic divisions, biomes , ecoregions , and deserts . The term "Great Basin"

1292-658: Is the most popular trailhead. Access is limited on the west, where the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation is adjacent to the wilderness. The Deseret Peak Wilderness was a late addition to the Utah Wilderness Act of 1984 . The original Stansbury Mountains RARE II roadless area was contiguous to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wildlands on both north and south. Adjacent Forest Service roadless areas and BLM wilderness study areas remain eligible for designation as wilderness . This article about

1368-603: Is the only one with a definitive border. The other definitions yield not only different geographical boundaries of "Great Basin" regions but regional borders that vary from source to source. The Great Basin Desert is defined by plant and animal communities, and, according to the National Park Service , its boundaries approximate the hydrographic Great Basin but exclude the southern " panhandle ". The Great Basin Province

1444-518: Is the result of extension and thinning of the lithosphere , which is composed of crust and upper mantle . Extensional environments like the Basin and Range are characterized by listric normal faulting , or faults that level out with depth. Opposing normal faults link at depth producing a horst and graben geometry, where horst refers to the upthrown fault block and graben to the down dropped fault block. Sediment build-up over thousands of years filled

1520-583: The Cui-ui sucker fish (endangered 1967) and the Lahontan cutthroat trout (threatened 1970). Large invertebrates include tarantulas (genus Aphonopelma ) and Mormon crickets . Exotic species, including chukar , grey partridge , and Himalayan snowcock , have been successfully introduced to the Great Basin, although the latter has only thrived in the Ruby Mountains . Cheatgrass , an invasive species which

1596-637: The Great Basin fence lizard , longnose leopard lizard and horned lizard are common, especially in lower elevations. Rattlesnakes and gopher snakes are also present. The Inyo Mountains salamander is endangered. Shorebirds such as phalaropes and curlews can be found in wet areas. American white pelicans are common at Pyramid Lake . Golden eagles are also very common in the Great Basin. Mourning dove , western meadowlark , black-billed magpie , and common raven are other common bird species. Two endangered species of fish are found in Pyramid Lake:

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1672-694: The Humboldt Sink are a few of the "drains" in the Great Basin. The Salton Sink is another closed basin within the Great Basin. The Great Basin Divide separates the Great Basin from the watersheds draining to the Pacific Ocean. The southernmost portion of the Great Basin is the watershed area of the Laguna Salada . The Great Basin's longest and largest river is the Bear River of 350 mi (560 km), and

1748-691: The National Wilderness Preservation System , which consists of federally managed lands that are of a pristine condition, established by the Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577) in 1964. The National Wilderness Preservation System originally created hundreds of wilderness zones within already protected federally administered property, consisting of over 9 million acres (36,000 km ). Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) began with Executive Order 13158 in May 2000, when official MPAs were established for

1824-462: The cold Great Basin and Oregon High Deserts in the north. The deserts can be distinguished by their plants: the Joshua tree and creosote bush occur in the hot deserts, while the cold deserts have neither. The cold deserts are generally higher than the hot and have more even spread of precipitation throughout the year. The climate and flora of the Great Basin are strongly dependent on elevation; as

1900-831: The 2021 report specific to the need for climate adaptation : "Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD): A Framework for the 21st-century Natural Resource Manager." This "Natural Resource Report" has ten authors. Among them are four associated with the National Park Service, three with the US Fish and Wildlife Service , and two with the US Geological Survey — all of which are government agencies within the US Department of Interior. The report's Executive Summary, points to "intensifying global change." "... The convention of using baseline conditions to define goals for today's resource management

1976-524: The Basin and Range Province contains the Great Basin, but extends into eastern Oregon , southern Idaho , and the Colorado River watershed and the northwest corner of Arizona ). The Basin and Range region is the product of geological forces stretching the Earth's crust, creating many north–south trending mountain ranges. These ranges are separated by flat valleys or basins. These hundreds of ranges make Nevada

2052-551: The Fremont built small villages and grew crops like corn and squash. Seven hundred years ago, the Shoshone inhabited the area after the Fremont. They were hunter-gathers and lived in temporary homes to be able to follow animal herds and collect plants. Now, Shoshone descendants live in nearby areas. Other tribes in the area included the Ute , Mono , and Northern Paiute . All of the tribes speak

2128-466: The Great Basin . Paleo-Indian habitation by the Great Basin tribes began as early as 10,000 B.C. . Archaeological evidence of habitation sites along the shore of Lake Lahontan date from the end of the ice age when its shoreline was approximately 500 feet (150 m) higher along the sides of the surrounding mountains. The Paleo-Indians were mainly hunters and hunted bison, the extinct mammoth, and extinct ground sloth. For housing, since they followed

2204-736: The Great Basin from the Sierra Nevada was Jedediah Strong Smith in 1827. Peter Skene Ogden of the British Hudson's Bay Company explored the Great Salt Lake and Humboldt River regions in the late 1820s, following the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada to the Gulf of California. Benjamin Bonneville explored the northeast portion during an 1832 expedition . The United States had acquired claims to

2280-725: The Great Basin into three ecoregions roughly according to latitude: the Northern Basin and Range ecoregion , the Central Basin and Range ecoregion , and the Mojave Basin and Range ecoregion . Great Basin wildlife includes pronghorn , mule deer , mountain lion , and lagomorphs such as black-tailed jackrabbit and desert cottontail and the coyotes that prey on them. Packrats , kangaroo rats and other small rodents are also common, and are predominantly nocturnal. Elk and bighorn sheep are present but uncommon. Small lizards such as

2356-468: The Great Basin's central Lahontan subregion. The hydrographic Great Basin contains multiple deserts and ecoregions , each with its own distinctive set of flora and fauna. The ecological boundaries and divisions in the Great Basin are unclear. The Great Basin overlaps four different deserts: portions of the hot Mojave and Colorado (a region within the Sonoran Desert ) Deserts to the south, and

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2432-573: The Interior Stewart Udall . This report came to be referred to in later years by its chairman and principal author, A. Starker Leopold . The Leopold Report was just fourteen pages in length, but it set forth ecosystem management recommendations that would guide parks policy until it was revisited in 2012. The Leopold Report was the first concrete plan for managing park visitors and ecosystems under unified principles. Park management issues and controversies addressed in this report included

2508-487: The Interior bureau or program. The NPS budget is divided into two primary areas, discretionary and mandatory spending. Within each of these areas, there are numerous specific purposes to which Congress directs the services activities. The NPS budget includes discretionary spending which is broken out into two portions: the direct operations of the National Parks and the special initiatives. Listed separately are

2584-529: The NPS could not meet. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the NPS and began to bring park facilities up to the standards that the public was expecting. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower , Wirth began Mission 66 , a ten-year effort to upgrade and expand park facilities for the 50th anniversary of the Park Service. New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as

2660-472: The National Park Service, which have a wide variety of titles or designations. The system as a whole is considered to be a national treasure of the United States, and some of the more famous national parks and monuments are sometimes referred to as " crown jewels ". The system encompasses approximately 85.1 million acres (0.344 million km ), of which 2.6 million acres (0.011 million km ) remain in private ownership. The largest unit

2736-543: The Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery and unique natural features to making parks accessible to the public. Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas . A 1963 report titled "Wildlife Management in the National Parks" was prepared by a five-member advisory board on Wildlife Management, appointed by United States Secretary of

2812-485: The United States . The "section" is somewhat larger than the hydrographic definition. The Great Basin culture area , or indigenous peoples of the Great Basin , is a cultural classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas and a cultural region located between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The culture area covers approximately 400,000 sq mi (1,000,000 km ), or just less than twice

2888-401: The action by signing the act into law. The exception, under the Antiquities Act , allows the president to designate and protect areas as national monuments by executive order. Regardless of the method used, all parks are to be of national importance. A potential park should meet all four of the following standards: Before creation of a new unit, Congress typically directs the NPS to conduct

2964-592: The animals they were hunting, they had no permanent villages. The next group to live in the area was the Great Basin Desert Archaic, from approximately 9,000 to 1,500 years ago. They hunted animals like mule deer and antelope and gathered onions, wild rye, and pinyon pine nuts. Then, from 1,500 to 700 years ago, the Fremont lived in the area. Unlike the Paleo-Indians, who moved around to follow bison herds,

3040-583: The area of the hydrographic Great Basin. The hydrographic Great Basin is a 209,162-square-mile (541,730 km ) area that once drained internally. All precipitation in the region evaporated, sank underground or flowed into lakes (mostly saline). As observed by Fremont, creeks, streams, or rivers find no outlet to either the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean . The region is bounded by the Wasatch Mountains to

3116-403: The basin experiences a semi-arid or arid climate with warm summers and cold winters. However, some of the mountainous areas in the basin are high enough in elevation to experience an alpine climate . Due to the region's altitude and aridity, most areas in the Great Basin experience a substantial diurnal temperature variation . National Park Service The National Park Service ( NPS )

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3192-524: The concession-run campgrounds (1.42 million). In 2019, the NPS had an annual budget of $ 4.085 billion and an estimated $ 12 billion maintenance backlog. On August 4, 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act was signed into law reducing the $ 12 billion maintenance backlog by $ 9.5 billion over a 5-year period beginning in FY 2021. As of 2022, the NPS had the largest budget allocation of any Department of

3268-415: The creation of the NPS. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act that mandated the agency "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wildlife 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". Mather became the first director of

3344-594: The difficulties of managing elk populations in Yellowstone National Park and how "overprotection from natural ground fires" in California's Sequoia National Park , Kings Canyon National Park , and Yosemite National Park had begun to threaten groves of Giant Sequoia with catastrophic wildfires. The report also established a historical baseline that read, "The goal of managing the national parks and monuments should be to preserve, or where necessary to recreate,

3420-672: The down-faulted basins between ranges and created relatively flat lacustrine plains from Pleistocene lake beds of the Great Basin. For example, after forming about 32,000 years ago , Lake Bonneville overflowed about 14,500 years ago in the Bonneville Flood through Red Rock Pass and lowered to the "Provo Lake" level (the Great Salt Lake , Utah Lake , Sevier Lake , Rush Lake , and Little Salt Lake remain). Lake Lahontan , Lake Manly , and Lake Mojave were similar Pleistocene lakes. The Great Basin physiographic section of

3496-506: The east, the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges to the west, and the Snake River Basin to the north. The south rim is less distinct. The Great Basin includes most of Nevada , half of Utah , substantial portions of Oregon and California , and small areas of Idaho , Wyoming , and Baja California, Mexico . The term "Great Basin" is slightly misleading; the region comprises many small basins. The Great Salt Lake , Pyramid Lake , and

3572-704: The eastern regions of the 1848 California Gold Rush , with its immigrants crossing the Great Basin on the California Trail along Nevada's Humboldt River to Carson Pass in the Sierras. The Oregon Territory was established in 1848 and the Utah Territory in 1850. In 1869 the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit in the Great Basin. Around 1902, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad

3648-413: The ecologic scene as viewed by the first European visitors." This baseline would guide ecological restoration in national parks until a climate change adaptation policy, "Resist-Adapt-Direct", was established in 2021. National Parks director Jonathan Jarvis charged the twelve-member NPS Advisory Board Science Committee to take a fresh look at the ecological issues and make recommendations for updating

3724-402: The elevation increases, the temperature decreases and precipitation increases. Because of this, forests can occur at higher elevations. Utah juniper / single-leaf pinyon (southern regions) and mountain mahogany (northern regions) form open pinyon-juniper woodland on the slopes of most ranges. Stands of limber pine and Great Basin bristlecone pine ( Pinus longaeva ) can be found in some of

3800-647: The entire decision space for responding to ecosystems facing the potential for rapid, irreversible ecological change." Here, the iconic species of Joshua Tree National Park is a leading example. The three RAD options are: The "Resist-Accept-Direct" Framework is first described in a July 2020 paper published in Fisheries Eighteen researchers from federal and state agencies and universities collaborated in this effort, which included short case studies of where and how this framework has already been applied. The National Park System includes all properties managed by

3876-404: The first time. The initial listing of U.S. areas was presented in 2010, consisting of areas already set aside under other legislation. The NPS has 19 park units designated as MPAs. The National Park System received over 325 million recreation visits in 2023. Park visitation grew 64 percent between 1979 and 2015. The 10 most-visited units of the National Park System handle around 30 percent of

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3952-508: The higher ranges. In riparian areas with dependable water cottonwoods ( Populus fremontii ) and quaking aspen ( Populus tremuloides ) groves exist. Because the forest ecosystem is distinct from a typical desert, some authorities, such as the World Wildlife Fund , separate the mountains of the Great Basin desert into their own ecoregion: the Great Basin montane forests . Many rare and endemic species occur in this ecoregion, because

4028-584: The individual mountain ranges are isolated from each other. During the Last Glacial Period , the Great Basin was wetter. As it dried during the Holocene epoch, some species retreated to the higher isolated mountains and have high genetic diversity. Other authorities divide the Great Basin into different ecoregions, depending on their own criteria. Armen Takhtajan defined the "Great Basin floristic province". The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency divides

4104-463: The largest single watershed is the Humboldt River drainage of roughly 17,000 sq mi (44,000 km ). Most Great Basin precipitation is snow, and the precipitation that neither evaporates nor is extracted for human use will sink into groundwater aquifers , while evaporation of collected water occurs from geographic sinks . Lake Tahoe , North America's largest alpine lake , is part of

4180-420: The lower terrain. Cattle are still allowed to graze on range allotments in portions of the area. The summit of Deseret Peak offers a splendid 360-degree view. Backpackers and horse packers enjoy this area. Hunters come in search of mule deer . Some very steep terrain is traversed by the trails. Deseret Peak Wilderness has about five system trails totaling approximately 19 miles (31 km). South Willow Canyon

4256-523: The most mountainous state in the country. The Great Basin's two most populous metropolitan areas are the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area to the west and the Wasatch Front to the east (with the latter being significantly more populous than the former). The region between these two areas is sparsely populated, but includes the smaller cities of Elko , Ely , Wendover , West Wendover , and Winnemucca . To

4332-485: The most popular areas do charge entrance fees. Fees vary site to site and are charged either on a per-vehicle or per-person basis, with most passes valid for 7 days. The America the Beautiful Pass series waives the per-vehicle fee or per-person fee for the holder and up to 3 other adults (children age 15 and younger are admitted for free at most sites). Annual passes for single areas are also available for those who visit

4408-656: The newly formed NPS. On March 3, 1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933. The act gave the president the authority to transfer national monuments from one governmental department to another. Later that summer, new president Franklin D. Roosevelt made use of this power after NPS Deputy Director Horace M. Albright suggested that the NPS, rather than the War Department , should manage historic American Civil War sites. President Roosevelt agreed and issued two executive orders to implement

4484-874: The north are; in California Susanville , in Oregon Burns and Hines , in Idaho Malad and in Wyoming Evanston . To the south are Cedar City , Tonopah , and Bishop and the very southern area of the basin has the communities of Pahrump , Palmdale , Victorville , and Palm Springs . Interstate Highways traversing the Great Basin are Interstate 80 (I-80) and I-15 , and I-70 and I-84 have their respective endpoints within its boundaries. Other major roadways are U.S. Route 6 (US 6), US 50 , US 93 , US 95 and US 395 . The section of US 50 between Delta, Utah , and Fallon, Nevada ,

4560-553: The original Leopold Report. The committee published their 23-page report in 2012, titled, "Revisiting Leopold: Resource Stewardship in the National Parks". The report recommended that parks leadership "manage for change while confronting uncertainty." "... New and emerging scientific disciplines — including conservation biology, global change science, and genomics — along with new technological tools like high-resolution remote sensing can provide significant information for constructing contemporary tactics for NPS stewardship. This knowledge

4636-400: The overall visits. The top 10 percent of parks (43) handle over 64 percent of all visits, leaving the remaining more than 380 units to accommodate around 36 percent of visits. (Note that only 380 sites recorded visitors during 2021 due to COVID-19-related closures). Most areas of the National Park System do not charge entrance fees and are completely supported by tax dollars, although some of

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4712-478: The places entrusted to its management and with making them available for public use and enjoyment. Artist George Catlin , during an 1832 trip to the Dakotas, was perhaps the first to suggest the concept of a national park. Indian civilization, wildlife, and wilderness were all in danger, wrote Catlin, unless they could be preserved "by some great protecting policy of government   ... in a magnificent park   ... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all

4788-400: The reorganization. These two executive orders transferred to the NPS all of the War Department's historic sites as well as national monuments that the Department of Agriculture had managed and parks in and around Washington, D.C. that an independent federal office had previously operated. The popularity of the parks after the end of the World War II left them overburdened with demands that

4864-429: The same site often. Over 15 million visitors spent a night in one of the national park units during 2015. The largest number (3.68 million) were tent campers. The second largest group (3.38 million) stayed in one of the lodges, followed by miscellaneous stays (on boats, group sites—2.15 million). The last three groups of over-night visitors included RV campers (2.26 million), backcountry campers (2.02 million) and users of

4940-425: The site. Big Cypress National Preserve and Big Thicket National Preserve were created in 1974 as the first national preserves. National reserves are similar to national preserves, but the operational authority can be placed with a state or local government. New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve was the first to be established in 1978. National historic sites protect a significant cultural resource that

5016-506: The sites of larger actions, such as Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park , Vicksburg National Military Park , Gettysburg National Military Park , and Shiloh National Military Park —the original four from 1890. Examples of battlefield parks , battlefield sites , and national battlefields include Richmond National Battlefield Park , Brices Cross Roads National Battlefield Site , and Antietam National Battlefield . National memorials are areas that officially memorialize

5092-488: The territory north of the 42nd parallel via the 1819 Adams–Onís Treaty with Spain and 1846 Oregon Treaty with Britain. The US gained claims to most of the rest of the Great Basin via the 1848 Mexican Cession . The first non-indigenous settlement was in 1847 in the Great Salt Lake Valley, leading to the first American religious settlement effort of the Mormon provisional State of Deseret in 1849 in present-day Utah and northern Nevada. Later settlements were connected with

5168-451: The wild[ness] and freshness of their nature's beauty!" Yellowstone National Park was created as the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no state government to manage it (Wyoming was a U.S. territory at that time), so the federal government managed it directly through the army, including the famed African American Buffalo Soldier units. The movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands

5244-402: Was constructed in the lower basin and Mojave Desert for California-Nevada rail service to Las Vegas, Nevada. The climate varies throughout the Great Basin by elevation, latitude, and other factors. Higher elevations tend to be cooler and receive more precipitation. The western areas of the basin tend to be drier than the eastern areas because of the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada . Most of

5320-420: Was created in 1937. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore , created in 1966, were the first national lakeshores. National rivers and wild and scenic riverways protect free-flowing streams over their length. The riverways may not be altered with dams, channelization, or other changes. Recreational pursuits are encouraged along the waterways. Ozark National Scenic Riverways

5396-510: Was created in 1968 and consists of two major components: National scenic trails are long-distance trails through some of the most scenic parts of the country. They received official protection in 1968. The Appalachian Trail is the best known. National historic trails commemorate the routes of major historic events. Some of the best known are the Trail of Tears , the Mormon Trail , and the Santa Fe Trail . These trails are administered by several federal agencies. Wilderness areas are part of

5472-818: Was defined by botanist Armen Takhtajan to extend well beyond the boundaries of the hydrographically defined Great Basin: it includes the Snake River Plain , the Colorado Plateau , the Uinta Basin , and parts of Arizona north of the Mogollon Rim . The Great Basin physiographic section is a geographic division of the Basin and Range Province defined by Nevin Fenneman in 1931. The United States Geological Survey adapted Fenneman's scheme in their Physiographic division of

5548-504: Was established in 1964. National recreation areas originally were units surrounding reservoirs impounded by dams built by other federal agencies, the first being Lake Mead National Recreation Area . Some national recreation areas are in urban centers, such as Gateway National Recreation Area and Golden Gate National Recreation Area , which encompass significant cultural as well as natural resources. The National Trails System preserves long-distance routes across America. The system

5624-453: Was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather . With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard , Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior . They wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in

5700-550: Was the first in 1906. While the National Park Service holds the most national monuments, a monument may be managed or co-managed by a different entity such as the Bureau of Land Management or the Forest Service . National preserves are for the protection of certain resources and operate similar to many National Parks, but allow limited resource extraction. Activities like hunting, fishing, and some mining may be allowed depending on

5776-422: Was unintentionally introduced, forms a critical portion of their diets. Feral horses ( mustangs ) and feral burros are highly reproductive, and ecosystem-controversial, alien species. Most of the Great Basin is open range and domestic cattle and sheep are widespread. The Great Basin includes valleys, basins, lakes and mountain ranges of the Basin and Range Province . The basin and range topography

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