After World War I, cities were becoming more urbanized and there was a fast-growing demand for outdoor recreation. Benton MacKaye, former US Forest Service employee, decided to fill this gap between urbanization and recreation by combining regional planning and sustainability/conservation, While MacKaye did not want the Appalachian Trail project to be a real estate endeavor in the conservation process, the project indirectly evolved over time as construction expanded across private properties because of the federal land acquisition program that occurred after the National Trails Act of 1968.[1] In 1978, the Act was amended to give National Park Service more funds and authority to acquire more land.