On August 25, 1916, US President Woodrow Wilson signed legislation creating the National Park Service, establishing a unified federal system for managing some of the country’s most important natural landscapes, historic places and protected lands.

National parks already existed in the United States. Yellowstone, for example, had been established in 1872. However, there was no single federal agency responsible for managing the various parks and monuments under the Department of the Interior.

The 1916 law changed that. It created the National Park Service and gave the new agency a mission to conserve scenery, natural and historic objects and wildlife, while allowing the public to enjoy these places in a way that would leave them unimpaired for future generations.

From a real estate and land use perspective, the decision represented an important shift in thinking about the value of land. Valuable property did not necessarily have to be opened for construction, commercial exploitation or private development. Land could also carry environmental, historic, cultural and public value significant enough to justify long term protection.

Over the following decades, the system expanded far beyond spectacular natural landscapes. Historic buildings, battlefields, monuments, recreation areas and other culturally important properties became part of a much broader national preservation framework.

Today, the National Park Service manages 433 individual areas covering more than 85 million acres across the United States and its territories.

The events of August 25, 1916 therefore offer an enduring lesson for real estate and urban planning. Development is only one way of creating value from land. In some cases, restricting development and preserving a place for future generations can create an equally powerful form of economic, cultural and social value.

More than a century later, the balance between development, private property interests, public access and land conservation remains one of the central questions facing growing cities and real estate markets around the world.