Park Cultural Landscapes
During the past 20 years cultural landscapes have become an integral component in historic preservation both in the United States and abroad. In the National Park Service, this field has grown rapidly since the establishment of policy in 1988 that formally identified cultural landscapes as a type of cultural resource in the system. These policies recognize the importance of considering both built and natural features and the dynamics inherent in natural processes and continued use.
The Park Cultural Landscapes Program provides direction and demonstrates high quality preservation practice regarding cultural landscapes in the National Park System. The variety of cultural landscapes in the system range from carriage roads to battlefields, designed gardens to vernacular homesteads, industrial complexes to summer estates. The program is a Servicewide effort of people in parks, support offices, centers, and partnerships dedicated to a mission of protection and preservation of cultural landscapes in the national park system for the enjoyment of present and future generations.
To strengthen the capacity of parks to preserve and manage their cultural landscapes, in 1992 the National Park Service established the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation. As the only National Park Service Center for cultural landscape preservation, training, and technology development, Olmsted Center staff works in partnership with national parks, universities, government agencies, and private nonprofit organizations with specialized skills to provide sustainable landscape preservation assistance.
Today, the National Park Service has assumed a national leadership role in the field of cultural landscapes. The stewardship of cultural landscapes in the national park system provides the richness and complexity of the human story of our nation--a story that spans at least 12,000 years and includes the living traditions of today's Native Americans and peoples whose roots lie in Africa, Oceania, Europe, and Asia.
As part of the Presidential Design Awards 2000, the Park Cultural Landscapes Program was honored with both a Federal Design Achievement Award and a Presidential Award in recognition of the program's contribution to excellence in design for the governemnt of the United States of America.
