NPS manages the National Park System—over 80 million acres of land in the nation—comprising a network of natural, historic, and cultural treasures. NPS’ lands are contained in 388 units that include a diverse array of national parks, military parks, national monuments, national historic sites, recreation areas, and other designations. Of the 388 units in the National Park System, 19 are located in the District. As the system’s federal manager, NPS is charged with preserving and protecting these public lands for future generations. NPS’ National Capital Regional Office manages the 19 units in the District as well as other units in surrounding areas in Maryland and Virginia. The National Capital Region has six management units, referred to by NPS as superintendencies, that manages properties in the District. These management units are (1) National Capital Parks-Central (Central), (2) National Capital Parks-East (East), (3) Rock Creek Park (Rock Creek), (4) White House-President’s Park (White House), (5) George Washington Memorial Parkway (GW Parkway), and (6) Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park (C&O Canal)—each with a superintendent/director who is responsible for managing properties within his/her jurisdiction. Figure 1 depicts examples of NPS-managed properties in the District, and figure 2 depicts the geographic areas covered by the National Capital Region management units. For the last several decades, GAO, the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General, and Interior itself has reported that NPS did not have an accurate inventory of existing assets, or a reliable estimate of deferred maintenance costs for these assets. In an effort to more effectively manage its assets NPS has developed a new asset management process to enable the agency to have a reliable inventory of its assets and process for reporting on the condition of those assets. The cornerstone of the new asset management process is the Facility Management Software System (FMSS) that allows park, regional office, or NPS headquarters managers to track when, what, and how much maintenance and related costs has been directed at each specific asset. When fully developed and implemented, the new system will, for the first time, enable the agency to have a (1) reliable inventory of its assets, (2) process for reporting on the condition of the assets in its inventory, and (3) consistent, system-wide methodology for estimating the deferred maintenance costs for its assets. Depending on the extent of deferred maintenance required, NPS ranks the assets in FMSS as being in good, fair, poor, or serious condition. Essentially, the lower the estimated deferred maintenance costs, the better the condition of the assets, including properties. In addition, NPS develops general management plans for its units for the purpose of making proactive decisions that address future opportunities at NPS properties, including planning for visitor use, managing the natural and cultural resources on properties, and developing properties. Accordingly, these plans may identify new or expanded recreational opportunities to enhance visitors’ experience. NPS has developed four general management plans—two final and two draft—that encompass some of the properties it manages in the District. However, if it is determined that federal ownership or management of the assets would be better served elsewhere, either the Congress or NPS can take the necessary action, for example, by transferring title or jurisdiction, or through memoranda of agreement, cooperative agreements, or leases. NPS manages 356 federally owned properties in the District covering about 6,735 acres. These properties vary by type and size. Properties in the circles, squares, and triangles category represent the greatest number of NPS-managed properties. Properties in the parks and parkways category comprise the greatest number of the total acres, about 93 percent, managed by NPS. The majority of all NPS-managed properties in the District, however, are less than 1 acre. Appendix II provides additional descriptive information on the 356 NPS-managed properties in the District. NPS manages a diverse array of properties in the District that vary by types and include properties, such as parks, parkways, and triangles. The properties also vary in size, ranging from less than 1 acre to about 1,750 acres. NPS does not classify the properties it manages by categories, nor does it use a standard definition for the types of properties it manages. Nevertheless, NPS typically uses terms that are descriptive of the properties. For example, NPS refers to a triangular-shaped property as a “triangle” and a circular-shaped property as a “circle.” For ease in reporting, we grouped NPS-managed properties into the following four categories: (1) park and parkways; (2) circles, squares, and triangles; (3) Mall/Washington Monument and grounds; and (4) other. Table 1 shows the number of properties in the four categories. The majority of the 356 NPS-managed properties in the District are in the circles, squares, and triangles category, representing about 60 percent of the total properties that NPS manages in the District. Circles, squares, and triangles range in size from 0.01 acres to about 7 acres, with an average size of 0.3 acres. Triangles represent the largest number of properties (178 of the 200 properties) in this category and are managed by the Central, East, and Rock Creek management units. The remaining properties consist of 15 circles and 7 squares. A recent National Capital Planning Commission report refers to the circles, squares, and triangles as designed landscape parks that include fountains, monuments, memorials, and other civic art features. Examples include Dupont Circle, Thomas Circle, Logan Circle, Farragut Square, McPherson Square, and Bolivar Triangle. Figure 3 shows the percent of NPS-managed properties by category. Figure 4 shows the number of properties by component of the circles, squares, and triangles category. Appendix III provides additional information on properties in the circles, squares, and triangles category. There are 95 properties in the parks and parkways category, which contain about 6,246, or 93 percent, of the total acres of NPS-managed property in the District. Figure 5 shows the percentage of the NPS-managed property acres, by category. Three properties—Rock Creek Park, Piney Branch Parkway, and Anacostia Park—contain about 50 percent of the acres associated with properties in this category. The Central, East, and Rock Creek management units manage about 99 percent of the properties and 93 percent of the total acreage in the parks and parkways category. Figure 6 shows the acreage of properties in the parks and parkways category managed by the National Capital Region management units. The majority of the NPS-managed properties are less than 1 acre in size. Of the 356 properties in the District, 242, or about 68 percent, are less than 1 acre in size. Of these, 108 properties are less than one-tenth of an acre. Most of the properties less than 1 acre are managed by the Central and East management units. The most common types of properties less than 1 acre are triangles, center parking, and curb parking. Figure 7 shows the percentage and number of NPS-managed properties by size. The majority of NPS-managed properties in the District have some type of recreational facilities, including sports facilities. To identify what recreational facilities are available on the 356 NPS-managed properties in the District, we asked NPS officials to identify the (1) types of recreational facilities on the properties, such as park benches, outdoor grills, playgrounds, and picnic tables, or shelters and (2) sports-related facilities, such as basketball and tennis courts and baseball and softball fields. NPS officials reported that 202 properties had some type of recreational facility, including 25 properties that had 205 sports facilities. The remaining 154 (of the 356) properties did not have either of the above type facilities. Regardless of whether they have facilities, NPS officials believe that the properties they manage provide some form of recreation. Appendix IV provides information on the properties without either type of recreation facilities. About 60 percent of the NPS-managed properties in the District have some type of recreational facility, including sports facilities. Of the 356 properties, 22 had both sports facilities and other types of recreational facilities, 177 had recreational facilities, exclusive of sports facilities, and 3 had sports facilities only. Table 2 shows the number of properties with the specific type of recreational facilities, exclusive of sports facilities. Twenty-five of the 356 properties have a total of 205 sports facilities, such as tennis courts or softball and baseball fields. About 92 percent of the sports facilities are located on properties in the parks and parkways category, about 6 percent in the Mall/Washington Monument and grounds category, and about 1 percent each in the circles, squares, and triangles and other categories. Figure 8 shows by category, the number of properties containing sports facilities and the total number of sports facilities on those properties. As table 3 shows, 109, or 53 percent, of the 205 sports facilities are tennis and racquetball courts and multiple-use fields. Multiple-use fields are generally areas that can be used to play various sports, such as soccer, football, softball, and baseball. Tennis and racquetball courts total 73, or 36 percent, of the sports facilities, whereas multiple-use fields total 36, or 18 percent. The tennis and racquetball courts are located at 7 different NPS- managed properties while the multiple-use fields are found at 14 different properties. Most of the sports facilities are managed by NPS’ Central, East, and Rock Creek management units. Together these management units managed approximately 98 percent of the total sport facilities. Appendix V provides additional information on properties with sports facilities. According to NPS assessments and information reported in its FMSS database, most NPS-managed properties with sports facilities are in good or fair condition.