National parks are well-known in the public’s mind in providing recreational opportunities and for protecting some of the most pristine and wild natural areas in the United States. Less widely appreciated is the role that these same parks play in supporting and encouraging science. Science is conducted, applied, and welcomed in national parks every day. And science has been a part of parks for generations. The National Park Service (NPS) protects places that have played important and sometimes pivotal roles in the history of various scientific disciplines by providing vast outdoor laboratories to scientists for decades. Examples include Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, where the first evidence for ecological succession was recorded; Yellowstone National Park, where thermophilic bacteria were first discovered (including one that made modern DNA sequencing technology possible); and Tule Springs Fossil Bed National Monument, whose Pleistocene mammal fossils were used in the development and confirmation of Carbon-14 dating methods. Examples like these illuminate the intellectual heritage of America’s public lands and provide unique frames for public understanding of parks, history, and science. Inspired by a poster presented at ESA’s annual meeting in 2016, this session will explore the different ways that national parks have served as incubators of groundbreaking scientific discoveries in ecology and how these discoveries have touched society. Individual Ignite-style stories and videos will be followed by a panel discussion with the audience, including NPS scientists and resource managers.