San Francisco, open your Golden Gate -- National Parks, that is. The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy is dedicated to preserving and enhancing the national parks in the San Francisco Bay area. The not-for-profit organization is a cooperating association authorized by the US Congress to assist and support the National Park Service in operating more than 30 national park sites in and around the City by the Bay. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area includes such sites as Alcatraz Island, Fort Point, Muir Woods in nearby Marin County, and the Presidio of San Francisco (a former US Army base that was decommissioned in 1994). The conservancy was established in 1981.