With the end of the Biden presidency, it is worth taking a moment to look back on the legacy he leaves in the national park system.
Measuring the impact of a president on the national park system can be difficult. How should their legacy be measured? Through the people they appointed to lead the National Park Service? In the number of parks established? In thousands (or perhaps millions) of acres protected?
Perhaps one of the more useful exams can be performed by holding Biden up against the shadow of the presidents that came before him. Our chief executives do not take office in the vacuum of their own agenda, but rather build off the work of their predecessors. Franklin D. Roosevelt was inspired by the bold preservationist stance taken by his cousin, Theodore Roosevelt. When JFK’s presidency was abruptly ended, Lyndon Johnson carried on his environmental agenda.
With the recent designation of Chuckwalla and Sattitla Highlands as national monuments, Biden became the president who has used the Antiquities Act the most in a single term—second only to Jimmy Carter. The nearly simultaneous end of Jimmy Carter’s life and Joe Biden’s presidency makes it an opportune time to compare their legacies on public lands.
Legacies of Building Public Land Museums
In 1933, battlefield parks controlled by the U.S. Department of War were transferred to the NPS, creating the foundation of America’s great place-based museum network. Since then, most additions to the National Park System have been small historical parks.
Both Carter and Biden saw the addition of many historic parks during their terms. Prior to the Carter administration, the majority of historic parks were focused on presidents and battlefields. Between 1976 and 1980, park units were added to help tell a much broader story of the United States. New parks created during Carter’s term ranged from Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site to Women’s Rights National Historical Park to Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
Many of the parks added under Carter were created by acts of Congress (fifteen units were added in one bill alone, the 1978 National Parks and Recreation Act). In contrast, Biden has played a much more personal role in adding historic sites to the park system. Like Carter, his additions focus on preserving more obscure elements of American history.
In 2024, President Biden issued executive orders creating national monuments that preserve American history ranging from race riots to Indian boarding schools. He also designated park sites commemorating individuals who have played significant progressive roles in the history of the United States, Frances Perkins and Mamie-Till Mobley. Between the two presidents, there has been a clear emphasis on honoring the contributions of all Americans to the development of the United States.
Legacies of Centering Indigenous Americans
Since the origins of the national park idea in Yellowstone and Yosemite, there has always been a tension between indigenous Americans and the preservation of public lands. At times, the creation of national parks has resulted in the dispossession of Native people, such as in the creation of Glacier and Mesa Verde national parks.
In recent years, efforts have been made to give indigenous voices and knowledge a more prominent voice in the public lands forum. Whether as a correction of injustice or simply a practical matter, President Biden has made significant moves to recenter indigenous perspectives both in the National Park Service and broader Interior Department.
Most prominently, Biden tapped Indigenous Americans to lead public land policy in his administration. Deb Haaland, an enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo, was appointed as Interior Secretary. Beneath her, Chuck Sams was chosen as the director of the National Park Service. Sams is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla.
In the second half of his term, Biden responded to advocacy by indigenous coalitions to preserve culturally significant and sacred landscapes. The president established five national monuments preserving Native American culture and history. The National Park Service has been tasked with management of two of them, Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada (co-managed), and Carlisle Federal Indian School National Monument.
Though not as robust as Biden, Jimmy Carter also participated in efforts to preserve indigenous culture and heritage. Among other bills, Carter signed the Indian Child Welfare Act and American Indian Religious Freedom Act, which “helped build the bedrock for Native American policy over the last century.”
Carter was also a principle architect in the protection of Alaskan lands as national parks, which was codified by congress in the Alaska National Interest Conservation Lands Act (ANILCA). Though somewhat controversial, the law included a carve out allowing Alaskans to continue subsistence hunting and fishing in protected lands. This allowed Native Alaskans to maintain their traditional ways of life.
Legacies of Protecting Whole Ecosystems
With the passage of ANILCA in 1980, President Jimmy Carter’s greatest preservation achievement was sealed. As a result of his advocacy and action, 45 million acres of Alaskan land were preserved for future generations. On the 25th anniversary of ANILCA’s passage, Carter remarked “Alaska’s parks were perhaps the last ones of large size that will be created anywhere in the United States, protecting natural landscapes on an ecosystem scale.”
Like Carter, Biden used executive action to preserve tracts of land on an “ecosystem scale.” After taking office, Biden restored Utah’s Bears Ear and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, which had been reduced by the Trump administration. Combined with three of Biden’s own national monuments and existing National Park Service lands, the Moab to Mojave Conservation Corridor was created. It represents 600 miles of nearly contiguous protected lands across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah.
Two public land legacies
With a cursory glance, one can recognize many similarities between the single-term presidencies of the two Democrats. Both administrations suffered from economic hardship, energy woes, and crisis abroad.
A deeper look reveals that both men also had a significant impact on our national parks and public lands. Both men had a particular emphasis—Carter on Alaska, Biden on indigenous heritage—and both men were relatively successful in their agendas. Both men contributed significantly to the preservation of both American lands and history.
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