This is accomplished through bookstore sales, membership support, publication and product development, research funding, and other educational programs and activities.
By doing so, cooperating associations contribute to the understanding of a variety of stewardship issues, cultivate an appreciation of public lands, and help reduce adverse impacts on natural and cultural resources.
[2] Several similar nonprofit organizations became known as cooperating associations by 1936, and were formally recognized by Congress in 1946 (Public Law 79-633).
Within the National Park Service, authority to designate or affiliate with a cooperating association is assigned to the regional directors and cannot be re-delegated.
[4] Within the US Fish and Wildlife Service, authority is assumed to lie with the regional director but may be re-delegated to refuge managers for single site agreements.