ABSTRACT
This chapter describes shifts in the management policies of national parks since the 1960s. It also describes the state of national parks policy in the mid-1960s. The chapter considers the changes of the late 1960s and 1970s, exploring what caused those changes and what resulted. It explains why the more ecologically oriented emphasis of the 1970s did not result in vast changes in real park management in the 1980s and early 1990s. It reviews some of the ongoing efforts at dramatic restoration of natural conditions. In general, parks policy called for more parks but also for more people, thereby spawning the slogan "Parks are for people." Changes in national park policy during the late 1960s and 1970s resulted from several changes occurring in the broader political arena. Political support is evident in the supply of material resources, the relative autonomy given an agency, and the degree of institutional deference to bureaucratic expertise.
