NPS Mission - National Park Service

National Park Service FY 2013 Budget Justifications
At A Glance…
Healthy Parks Healthy People US
The NPS vision for the next century is for park lands to take their rightful
place in creating a healthy and civil society. The Healthy Parks Healthy
People US is an initiative, administered by the NPS Office of Public
Health, working to reintegrate human, environmental and ecological health
into the mission of public parks and lands. The NPS works with national,
state, and local parks, as well as business innovators, healthcare leaders,
scientists, foundations, and advocacy organizations, to foster the healthrelated
role that parks can and do play in our society. The Healthy Parks
Healthy People US approach is part of a global movement founded on the
convergence of actions and responsiveness of this generation to create a
sustainable world. The Office of Public Health will work to implement a set
of decisive actions empowering NPS staff to work across institutional
boundaries and divisions to illuminate the role of parks and public lands in
contributing to the health of people and the environment.
Fire and Aviation Management: The NPS conducts its fire activities under the Department’s Office of
Wildland Fire Coordination. The Department’s Wildland Fire Management funds fire prevention,
readiness, wildfire response, and rehabilitation activities performed by the land management agencies
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The program strives to achieve both a cost-efficient and technically
effective fire management program that meets resource and safety objectives, while minimizing both the
cost of wildfire response and damage to resources.
The Fire and Aviation Management program includes the structural fire, wildland fire, and aviation
programs. The Structural Fire Management Program establishes Servicewide policy, standards,
operational procedures, and accountability for structural fire prevention, education, protection, and
suppression. The NPS protects many historic structures that were built before building and fire codes
were in place and supports retrofitting and maintaining those structures to the extent possible to meet
today’s fire and life safety codes, while maintaining the historic character and fabric of the structure. Parks
are able to meet their structural fire responsibilities through the availability of tools and training needed to
maintain fire protection systems and engine company operations, and develop structural fire management
plans.
The Aviation Management Program provides cross-cutting oversight to one of the most complex aviation
programs in the Federal government, due to the geographical scope of the national park system, diversity
of missions, and conditions under which missions occur. NPS averages more than 17,000 flight hours
annually on missions related to search and rescue, animal capture and tagging, drug eradication, law
enforcement, backcountry patrol, natural resource management, wildland fire management, and transport
of personnel and cargo. Aviation-related activities are inherently dangerous and highly technical. The
NPS Aviation Management Program regulates and monitors these activities and enforces internal and
external regulations, policies and mandates in order to assure the safe delivery of aviation services critical
to the protection of NPS employees and natural and cultural resources across the system.
The Wildland Fire program fire operations require the mobilization of a complex organization that includes
management, command, support, and firefighting personnel, as well as aircraft, vehicles, machinery, and
communications equipment. Program activities also include fire operations safety, preparedness, and
suppression; interpreting and implementing fire policy; conducting research on fires, hazardous fuels
reduction treatments; providing Servicewide oversight on prescribed fires; air quality and smoke
management, fire science, and fire behavior; and helping to manage the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned
Center where incidents are analyzed for best practices.
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