The National Parks of New York Harbor umbrella was created in September 2003 as a means of drawing more visitors to the National Park Service properties in the New York City region. The organizers' primary concern was the under-visitation of the parks that comprise the Gateway National Recreation Area, one of the first urban parks when it was created, rather than the acquisition of parkland. Maria Burks, the first Commissioner, was charged with increasing awareness of park units other than the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and saw the solution to this problem as increasing the number of ferries that connect and serve the properties. As a result, when the ferry contract for the Statue of Liberty was up for bid, a discussion occurred about asking interested parties to include increased harbor service as part of their packages, but this request did not receive much focus in the end. Part of Federal Hall National Memorial was repurposed as a new visitors' center in late 2006 to meet the needs of the organization's diverse properties and the visitors thereto and the center has been used as a forum for visitor input into National Park Service programming.
Many of the National Park Service sites in New York and New Jersey maintain structural firefighters or wildland firefighters depending on the type of the site.
Structural fire suppression for the Statue of Liberty is provided by the City Of New York Fire Department and by the Jersey City Fire Department at Ellis Island. Initial and supplemental support is provided by the National Park Service which created the Statue of Liberty Fire Brigade in 2011. The Statue of Liberty Fire Brigade consists of a crew of federal NPS firefighters who are trained and certified as Structural Firefighter I, Structural Firefighter II and Wildland Firefighters.
Fire suppression for Sandy Hook National Recreation area is provided solely by the National Park Service Sandy Hook Fire Brigade and an NPS Wildland Fire Crew with Wildfire Brush Truck is maintained year-round in Staten Island for the Staten Island Gateway Sites. For additional wildland fire support on large fires firefighters from the Statue of Liberty Fire Brigade and the Sandy Hook Fire Department have responded to supplement the NPS wildland firefighters assigned to Staten Island.
Emergency medical care on Liberty Island and Ellis Island is provided year-round by National Park Service Emergency Medical Technicians. Patient transports are coordinated with Jersey City Medical Center Ambulances but emergency response and patient care on the islands falls solely upon the National Park Service Emergency Medical Technicians.
Emergency medical care at Gateway parks in Brooklyn and Staten Island is provided jointly by seasonal National Park Service Emergency Medical Technicians and the City Of New York.
Emergency medical care at Governors Island and Manhattan sites are provided by contracted "Senior Care EMS" Emergency Medical Technicians.
Conservancy
The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy is a 501 non-profit organization with offices on Wall Street in New York that works in partnership with the National Parks of New York Harbor. Its 2006, revenues were $1.255 million. Among its programs are a tour of the forts that comprise the harbor properties and efforts to deepen the connections between Gateway and the other properties in the Harbor.
