Dry Tortugas National Park

John Newton

Samuel Mudd

The National Park Service (NPS) was only 26 years old when the United States entered World War II. The young bureau faced very real threats to its mission, with increasing pressure to contribute its natural and cultural resources to the war effort even as its budget and staff were slashed. Under the leadership of Director Newton B. Drury, the NPS was able to do its part for the war while maintaining its public trust responsibilities to the American people.

Across the US, changes in water availability are altering which plants grow where. These changes are evident at a broad scale. But not all areas experience the same climate in the same way, even within the boundaries of a single national park. A new dataset gives park managers a valuable tool for understanding why vegetation has changed and how it might change in the future under different climate-change scenarios.

Fire burns across south Florida in a landscape level prescribed fire operation.

Meet Judd Patterson, Data Manager for the South Florida Caribbean Network. As a data manager, helps wrangle all the information that we collect on the health of our park resources. Judd is excited about the stories data can tell through time, whether that's looking back at park records from over a hundred years ago, or making sure the science we do in our parks today become time capsules for future generations to learn about how things were back in 2021.

Construction of Fort Jefferson began in 1846 on Garden Key, surrounding a brick lighthouse that had been built there in 1825. The fort was intended to protect American shipping interests in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the largest all-masonry fort in the United States. Explore Fort Jefferson via HDP’s virtual tour, point cloud, animations, and archival HABS documentation.

Finding aid for the Thomas J. Allen Photographs in the NPS History Collection.

Each park-specific page in the NPS Geodiversity Atlas provides basic information on the significant geologic features and processes occurring in the park. Links to products from Baseline Geologic and Soil Resources Inventories provide access to maps and reports.

The National Park Service is working to increase overall coral health and resilience to climate change and other environmental stressors and prevent the extirpation of multiple species in the Southeastern U.S.