William Jerome Whalen III (July 18,1940 –September 28,2006) was the 10th director of the United States National Park Service.
Whalen joined the Park Service in 1965 as a Job Corps counselor and advanced to posts in National Capital Parks and Yosemite before becoming superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972. His experience in the burgeoning urban parks field contributed to his appointment as director in July 1977,yet the most significant event of his tenure was President Jimmy Carter's proclamation of much Alaska wilderness as national monuments in 1978,doubling the area under NPS jurisdiction. Friction with park concessioners led to congressional calls for Whalen's removal in 1980,and Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus returned him to Golden Gate. He left the NPS in 1983.
A native of Burgettstown,Pennsylvania,Whalen joined the National Park Service as a job corps counselor in 1965 and became well known in Washington,D.C.,as manager of the Summer in the Parks Programs. He was deputy superintendent at Yosemite National Park and then managed all NPS areas in the San Francisco Bay Area,including the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. As Director of the NPS he saw the national parks double in area. Management of an expanded system including vast new parks in Alaska challenged his best talents. Whalen later returned to the Bay Area and served as general superintendent of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. He died of a heart attack in 2006. [1] [2] [3] The GGNRA park headquarters,Fort Mason building 201,is named the William J. Whalen Building in his honor. [4]
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco,California,and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
The National Park Service (NPS) 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 is in Washington,D.C.,within the main headquarters of the Department of the Interior.
Muir Woods National Monument is a United States National Monument managed by the National Park Service and named after naturalist John Muir. It is located on Mount Tamalpais near the Pacific coast in southwestern Marin County,California. The Monument is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area,and is 12 miles (19 km) north of San Francisco. It protects 554 acres (224 ha),of which 240 acres (97 ha) are old growth coast redwood forests,one of a few such stands remaining in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Gateway National Recreation Area is a 26,607-acre (10,767 ha) U.S. National Recreation Area in New York City and Monmouth County,New Jersey. It provides recreational opportunities that are not commonly found in a dense urban environment,including ocean swimming,bird watching,boating,hiking and camping. More than 8.7 million people visited Gateway National Recreation Area in 2022,making it the fourth-most visited unit of the National Park Service.
Fort Point,known historically as the Castillo de San Joaquín is a masonry seacoast fortification located on the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed.
A national recreation area (NRA) is a protected area in the United States established by an Act of Congress to preserve enhanced recreational opportunities in places with significant natural and scenic resources. There are 40 NRAs,which emphasize a variety of activities for visitors,including hiking,camping,boating,fishing,swimming,biking,horseback riding,and wildlife viewing,in areas that include multiple-use management for both conservation and limited utilization of natural resources. They have diverse features and contexts,being established around reservoirs,in urban areas,and within forests. Due to their size,diversity of activities,and proximity to population centers,NRAs are among the most visited units of the National Park System,with six among the thirty most visited sites.
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located in San Francisco,California,United States. The park includes a fleet of historic vessels,a visitor center,a maritime museum,and a library/research facility. Formerly referred to as the San Francisco Maritime Museum,the collections were acquired by the National Park Service in 1978. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park was authorized in 1988;the maritime museum is among the park's many cultural resources. The park also incorporates the Aquatic Park Historic District,bounded by Van Ness Avenue,Polk Street,and Hyde Street.
Crissy Field is a public recreation area on the northern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula in California,United States,located just east of the Golden Gate Bridge. It includes restored tidal marsh and beaches.
Fort Mason,in San Francisco,California is a former United States Army post located in the northern Marina District,alongside San Francisco Bay. Fort Mason served as an Army post for more than 100 years,initially as a coastal defense site and subsequently as a military port facility. During World War II,it was the principal port for the Pacific campaign.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the second-most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States,with more than 15.6 million visitors in 2022. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world,with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.
Sutro Heights Park is an historic public park in the Outer Richmond District of western San Francisco,California. It is within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.
Fort Baker is one of the components of California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Fort,which borders the City of Sausalito in Marin County and is connected to San Francisco by the Golden Gate Bridge,served as an Army post until the mid-1990s,when the headquarters of the 91st Division moved to Parks Reserve Forces Training Area. It is located opposite Fort Point at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay.
James Preston Delgado is an American maritime archaeologist,historian,maritime preservation expert,author,television host,and explorer. Delgado is a maritime archaeologist with over four decades of experience in underwater exploration. He has participated in over 100 shipwreck investigations worldwide,including notable sites such as the RMS Titanic,USS Independence (CVL-22),USS Conestoga (AT-54),USS Monitor,USS Arizona (BB-39),USS Nevada (BB-36),Sub Marine Explorer,the buried Gold Rush ships of San Francisco,the atomic bomb test fleet at Bikini Atoll,the slave ship Clotilda,and Kublai Khan's lost fleet from the Mongol invasions of Japan.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has a number of programs aimed at Mission blue butterfly habitat conservation,which include lands traditionally inhabited by the Mission blue butterfly,an endangered species. A recovery plan,drawn up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1984,outlined the need to protect Mission blue habitat and to repair habitat damaged by urbanization,off highway vehicle traffic,and invasion by exotic,non-native plants. An example of the type of work being done by governmental and citizen agencies can be found at the Marin Headlands in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In addition,regular wildfires have opened new habitat conservation opportunities as well as damaging existing ones.
Fort Funston is a former harbor defense installation located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco. Formerly known as the Lake Merced Military Reservation,the fort is now a protected area within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and is used widely as an off-leash dog park. It was named in honor of Frederick N. Funston (1865–1917),a Major General in the United States Army with strong connections to San Francisco,and included several artillery batteries. The fort is located on Skyline Boulevard at John Muir Drive,west of Lake Merced.
George Benjamin Hartzog Jr. was an American attorney and Director of the National Park Service.
Battery Kemble Park is a park in Northwest Washington D.C.,administered by the National Park Service.
Architects of the National Park Service are the architects and landscape architects who were employed by the National Park Service (NPS) starting in 1918 to design buildings,structures,roads,trails and other features in the United States National Parks. Many of their works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places,and a number have also been designated as National Historic Landmarks.
Fort Cronkhite is one of the components of California's Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Today part of the National Park Service,Fort Cronkhite is a former US Army post that served as part of the coastal artillery defenses of the San Francisco Bay Area during World War II. The soldiers at Cronkhite manned gun batteries,radar sites,and other fortifications on the high ridges overlooking the fort.
Michael T. Reynolds is a career parks administrator who served as an acting director of the United States National Park Service in the first Trump administration.