When Canada created a Dominion Parks Branch in 1911, it became the first country in the world to establish an agency devoted to managing its national parks. Over the past century this agency, now Parks Canada, has been at the centre of important debates about the place of nature in Canadian nationhood and relationships between Canada’s diverse ecosystems and its communities.

Today, Parks Canada manages over forty parks and reserves totaling over 200,000 square kilometers and featuring a dazzling variety of landscapes and is recognized as a global leader in the environmental challenges of protected places. Its history is a rich repository of experience, of lessons learned—critical for making informed decisions about how to sustain the environmental and social health of our national parks.

Featuring contributions by Ben Bradley, George Colpitts, Oliver Craig-Dupont, Lyle Dick, E. Gwyn Langemann, Alan MacEachern, I.S. MacLaren, Brad Martin, David Neufeld, Ronald Rudin, John Sandlos, C.J. Taylor, and Bill Waiser

The Historical National Parks Act