In the fall of 2009, PBS will air Ken Burns's and Florentine Films' new series THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA. The six-episode, twelve-hour series is directed by Burns and produced with his long-time colleague, Dayton Duncan, who also wrote the screenplay.

At its heart, the film is the story of an idea, as uniquely American as the Declaration of Independence and just as radical - that the most special places in the nation should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone. As such, it follows in the tradition of Burns's exploration of other American inventions, such as baseball and jazz.

Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales - from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - the documentary is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background - rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy. It is a story full of struggle and conflict, high ideals and crass opportunism, stirring adventure and enduring inspiration - set against the most breathtaking backdrops imaginable.

The narrative traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, and what Burns believes is the most stunning cinematography in Florentine Films' history, the film chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and save them from destruction. It is simultaneously a biography of compelling characters and a biography of the American landscape.

Like the idea of freedom itself, the national park idea has been constantly tested, constantly evolving, and inherently full of contradictory tensions: between individual rights and the community, the local and the national; between preservation and exploitation, the sacred and the profitable; between one generation's immediate desires and the next generation's legacy.

It has been called "America's best idea," and no activity of the federal government engenders such universal support and public loyalty, yet the story of how these special places became preserved as parks, the role of individual citizens in creating them, and the powerful stories of people's emotional connection to them remains relatively unknown.

THE NATIONAL PARKS will include extensive outreach, educational and on-line components to create a national discussion about public land and preservation as the country prepares to celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016.