Additional Planning-Related Policy and Guidance

Overarching Planning-Related Policies

The NPS Directives System is the basic source of service-wide policies and required or recommended practices and procedures that relate to planning for National Park Service units. It consists of three levels of documents that comprise a policy reference library.

Management Policies

Management Policies' Chapter 2 contains the most pertinent planning-related policies. In addition, there are specific references to planning across most chapters.

Director’s Orders

Director's Orders (DOs) serve as an “executive summary” of important policies and procedures. In addition to Director’s Order #2 (DO-2) and Reference Manual 2 (RM-2), many other relevant orders are available, including many also listed below.

As referenced in Director’s Order #2 (DO-2), there are several noteworthy DOs related to park planning:

• Director’s Order #12: Conservation Planning, Environmental Impact Analysis, and Decision-Making and National Park Service NEPA Handbook (2015)
• Director’s Order #41: Wilderness Stewardship and Reference Manual 41: Wilderness Stewardship
• Director’s Order #45: National Trails System and Reference Manual 45: National Trails System
• Director’s Order #46: Wild and Scenic Rivers and Reference Manual 46: Wild and Scenic Rivers
• Director’s Order #71C: Consultation with Indian and Alaskan Native Tribes
• Director’s Order #75A: Civic Engagement and Public Involvement

Policy Memos and Related Guidance

Policy memos fill time-sensitive, narrow-in-scope, or interim policy needs.

Supplemental Park Planning Guidance

Additional Provisions for Planning in Alaska

Park units established or expanded by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) in Alaska have additional provisions for conservation and management planning specific in section 1301 of that act (16 USC 3191).

Internal Planning Resources

The National Park Service’s Park Planning and Special Studies Division provides supplemental planning guidance and best practice information for National Park Service staff on an internal Park Planning & Special Studies website.

Guidance Around Specific Topics

A spectrum of planning tools and resources are available to parks, supported by specialized program staff across all directorates of the National Park Service. Learn more about some of these critical areas of planning support below.

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  Climate Change Planning

  Guidance and decision support tools help improve park planning efforts in response to continually shifting environmental conditions.

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  NEPA

  The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) helps parks plan and make decisions around preserving natural resources.

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  Park Visitation

  Visitor use management is important to their experience of parks and the protection of park resources.

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  Sustainable Investment Planning

  A sustainable investment planning frameworks provides a common set of definitions, methods, tools, and resources to assist parks.

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  Transportation

  Transportation systems are essential to visitors experiencing parks and require careful planning and collaboration with partners.

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  Wilderness

  The National Park Service manages over 26 million acres of wilderness preserving these natural areas for current and future generations.