The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is one of our country’s boldest conservation experiments.  Congress squeezed the nation’s largest urban park between some of the most expensive real estate in the country, a refuge for wildlife and city dwellers alike.

Comprised of several different land management units spanning three California counties, it is one of the most recognized and visited portions of the San Francisco Bay Area. Indeed, many of the GGNRA's lands are world-renowned destinations: from Alcatraz Island to Muir Woods, millions of visitors enter the GGNRA each year to explore the Bay Area's history, culture, and environment.

Yet there is much more to the GGNRA than most visitors recognize. Congress has established an expansive legislative boundary for the Park. This legislative boundary includes all the widely recognized GGNRA areas such as Mori Point, Fort Funston, Crissy Field, and the Marin Headlands, but also lands adjacent to Point Reyes National Seashore; lands the GGNRA manages in cooperation with other public agencies; and even lands the GGNRA doesn't currently own or manage, but may have an option to purchase in the future. There is even a marine component, extending about 1/4 mile out to sea. Collectively, the lands within the legislative boundary are sometimes referred to as the "Golden Gate National Parks," which is a more inclusive moniker for this unit of the National Park System.

Some of these less-recognized GGNRA lands are exceptional biological resources. For example, lands adjacent to Edgewood County Park and the San Francisco Peninsula watershed lands both contain threatened and endangered species, and Angel Island and Mount Tamalpais also contain superlative biological resources. As a participant in the 2008 GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year, you may explore all of these lands in your search to connect with and restore the 33 endangered and threatened species found in the Park.