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About Cooperating Associations
Serving the Public
through Interpretation and Stewardship of America's Public Lands
Each year millions of people visit America's national parks, forests,
wildlife refuges, and other public lands. At many of these areas,
not-for-profit partner organizations, known as "cooperating"
or "interpretive" associations, enhance these visits through
by providing information and other visitor services. The associations
provide high-quality, agency-approved publications, maps, videos,
theme-related merchandise, and educational programs to help visitors
understand the sites' natural and cultural significance. Associations
produce or purchase for sale the finest publications and other merchandise
related to the themes and resources of the areas they serve. And the
purchases visitors make at a cooperating or interpretive association
sales outlet generate revenues that help support additional interpretation,
education, and visitor service programs.
A History of Service
National parks led the way in creating cooperating associations—a
model of public-private partnership almost as old as the National
Park Service itself. In 1920, just four years after the founding
of the National Park Service, Yosemite established the first cooperating
association. The public had discovered parks, and it was clear,
even then, that the government could not furnish visitors with sufficient
educational and visitor information. A park ranger, Ansel F. Hall,
started the Yosemite Museum Association to raise money for a museum
in Yosemite National Park. Following completion of the museum, the
organization, under the new name Yosemite Natural History Association,
dedicated itself to satisfying a growing appetite among visitors
for publications about the park.
The success of the Yosemite Association sparked an interest in
establishing non-government associations in other national parks:
Rocky Mountain, Grand Teton, Mesa Verde, Zion, Yellowstone, and
others soon followed suit. Today, there are 64 national park cooperating
associations, serving nearly all of the more than 375 areas of the
National Park System.
Other federal, and even some state and local, public land management
agencies, have followed the Park Service example of working in cooperation
with nonprofit organizations to provide interpretation and visitor
services. The Bureau of Land Management has about 28 cooperating
sites. The Forest Service has partnerships with 54 interpretive
associations. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreements with
19 cooperating associations. Thirty three associations operate bookstores
on national wildlife refuges for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
In addition, an ever-growing number of organizations serve wildlife
refuges and other public lands as friends groups to raise funds,
volunteers, and other kinds of support.
These organizations are as diverse as the sites they serve. Cooperating
associations range from having a single sales facility to many outlets,
from working with one government agency to many. Some have expanded
their activities through mail-order sales and locations outside
park or forest boundaries. Some have memberships and a variety of
programs in addition to bookstore operations. Two of the largest
associations—Southwest Parks and Monuments Association and
Eastern National—are designed to serve multiple parks and to
operate in areas often too small or remote to sustain an independent
association. Through a concept of shared resources, their revenues
help support national and regional programs as well as those of
individual park units.
Unlike concessioners who have for-profit commercial operations
in national parks and forests, cooperating and interpretive associations
are founded for educational purposes. They are governed by volunteer
boards of directors, usually comprised of individuals from the community.
They operate under a formal agreement with the agency they serve
and the requirements of the state in which they are incorporated.
Although their primary role is to enhance public knowledge and understanding
of America's public lands, associations also donate substantial
support to their agencies. Proceeds from sales and other association
revenues help fund publications; museum, library, and research activities;
and other education and conservation efforts. For example, in 1999,
National Park Service cooperating associations alone returned almost
$31 million in aid to the national parks.
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