National Parks Traveler's writers crank out more than 1,000 stories a year specific to national parks and protected areas. The following stories from the past year deserve a second read.
CCC crews head to work in Shenandoah National Park/NPS
Celebrating The CCC In The National Parks
“National Parks of the Country Will Ring with Sound of Conservation Workers.” So read a headline in the May 20, 1933, edition of the Happy Days newspaper, the official publication of the newly formed Civilian Conservation Corps. And it was true: Established in March of that year, the corps became the most popular and enduring of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal “make-work” programs.
The Care And Keeping Of History
As I enter one of the National Park Service’s conservation labs in Charles Town, West Virginia, I see what look like black shards of various sizes arranged on a large white table. It’s clear that this artifact has gone through something dramatic and destructive.
There is a Kiowa legend that Devils Tower rose up from the ground to save seven maidens from a bear, whose claws created the striations in the rock / NPS
A Hell Of A Place: The Devil's Role In National Park Place Names
Our forefathers were fiendish, hellish, you might even say devilish. Need proof? Look at the maps and the names of many of the places we visit. And then ask yourself, “Why in the Hell are so many places in our Western national parks named after the infernal demon, and his lair?”
Groups Continually At Work To Acquire Private Lands Key To National Parks
Ecosystem restoration. Protecting vistas from trophy homes. Critical wildlife habitat. Preserving Civil War history. And yes, even recreational needs are among the many reasons groups work to purchase private inholdings across the National Park System, which contains approximately 2.6 million acres of inholdings.
A Return To Supercolonies Nesting Wading Birds Crowd Everglades National Park
Swirling clouds of blue, white, and pink once rose above the Everglades in drifts that practically stained the sky when herons, egrets, storks, ibises, and spoonbills that numbered in the hundreds of thousands nested in the River of Grass. They took to the sky in giant, whirling clouds of feathers, intent on providing their chicks with enough food to fledge.
A Tale Of Two Caves: Going Underground At Wind Cave And Jewel Cave
By drips and weeps over thousands if not millions of years, beauty is created underground. Here in the subterranean world the moist air and mineral-rich water create castles, not in the sky, but in the caves of the National Park System.
National Parks: Core Reserves Of The Eastern Wildway
In a bid to counter development, a group is working, parcel-by-parcel, to establish a corridor flora and fauna can travel north and south along the Eastern Seaboard.
Essay | Plan, Think, And Don’t Be Stupid In A National Park
Photographer Rebecca Latson recently completed a 3-week road trip and move from southeast Texas up to central Washington State. During that time, she visited five national parks. In those parks, she saw some pretty stupid stuff such as litter, people driving faster than the posted speed limit, and poor choices in hiking footwear, to name a few things. Rebecca wrote an article of her observations, which are a good reminder for us all to do some planning and be a little more thoughtful of how we treat our national parks as guests.
Essay | The Last Train To Grand Canyon: How Amtrak Fails The National Parks—And America
Once upon a time, passenger trains were the transportation lifeblood of the country. Along the way, they carried countless visitors to Western national parks. Once again Congress' mettle for supporting passenger rail traffic -- Amtrak -- is being tested, and historian Alfred Runte makes an argument for supporting passenger trains.
Traveler Special Report: Mixing Energy Development And National Parks
While the U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently deferred the auction of oil and gas leases near Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve in Colorado, the issue of energy development is not dead there, nor in many other areas of the National Park System. Contributor John Miles takes a look at the state of oil and gas exploration in the park system in this article.
Walking The Cades Cove Loop Without Vehicles At Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Sometimes, you just have to take advantage of the less hectic side of the national parks. Contributor Danny Bernstein did that recently when she left her car behind and took to walking the 11-mile loop around Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Entrance sign to Manzanar War Relocation Center/Ansel Adams
Musings Of A Volunteer In The National Park System
A chance opportunity to volunteer at Manzanar National Historic Site opens the eyes into not only the history preserved by the National Park Service, but the shortage of hands to accomplish that vital mission.
Oil Survey Leaves Rutted And Damaged Wetlands At Big Cypress National Preserve
An oil company looking for energy reserves beneath Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida left miles of deeply rutted and damaged wetlands despite requirements calling for immediate mitigation. The company is back in the field now, and environmentalists fear more damage is being done.
Brown Booby at Channel Islands National Park/NPS
Birds And Climate Change: Study Predicts Upheaval In National Park Bird Species
They were not supposed to be there, but they were: More than 100 brown-hooded, white-breasted seabirds, along with four nests, at chilly Channel Islands National Park off California's coast. This was not balmy Baja California, which normally is the northern-most range for tropics-loving Brown boobies, but rather a windswept chain of islands with average high temperatures in the mid-60s and water temperatures in the 50s.
The Wild And Scenic Rivers Act At Fifty
The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act turns 50 this fall, and despite its longevity, there's a fractional amount of river miles in the United States that are protected by that legislation.
Trails Into History: Walk Into The Past On A National Historic Trail
It was 50 years ago that the National Trails System was designated. Today there are 30 trails under that designation, and they range from the path followed by Lewis and Clark into history to the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail. Choose any one of the 19 National Historic Trails and you can walk, or paddle, into history.
Wolves At Glacier Bay National Park Find Frisbee To Play With
Most everyone loves to fling a Frisbee around the yard. But when that Frisbee gets flung or washes up onto an out-of-reach beach at Glacier Bay National Park, and it becomes a toy for wolves, that's a problem, according to park staff.
Voyageurs National Park Wolves Know How To Fish
There's a Chinese proverb that goes like this: Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. At Voyageurs National Park, the wolves have taken it upon themselves to learn how to fish for some of their meals.
National Academies Of Sciences Questions Approach To Everglades Restoration
A review of work to restore the normal ecology of the Everglades by the National Academies of Sciences urges that a re-assessment be done to ensure the planning and projects are keeping climate change and its impacts in mind.
Shenandoah National Park Crowdsources "Then And Now" Photo Gallery
Back in 2016, for the centennial of the National Park Service, Shenandoah National Park staff chose about 50 historic photos from the park's archives and recruited volunteer photographers to re-create each photo. Most of the historic photos date to the 1930s so the 2016 photos document ~75 years of change in the landscape. The resulting photo gallery is amazing, and incredible.
Joshua Tree National Park's signature Joshua trees could vanish due to climate change/Kurt Repanshek file
Study: National Parks Bearing The Brunt Of Climate Change Impacts
Yellowstone National Park escaped the summer without any large conflagrations in its forests, but that could be an anomaly under the current pace of climate change. Pikas could vanish from parks such as Lassen Volcanic and Great Basin. Glaciers and Joshua trees could be seen only in photographs and paintings in their namesake parks, and Virgin Islands and Hawai'i Volcanoes national parks could see diminished rainfall.
Are Yellowstone's Gases Dangerous?
Are gas emissions at Yellowstone dangerous? You may ask this question while walking along the boardwalks of Yellowstone's geyser basins, where you'll see billowing white gas plumes or wrinkle your nose at a stinky "rotten egg" smell. In fact, it's a question that has been considered by scientists and visitors to the area for over a century.
Air In Some National Parks As Polluted As That In Cities In Summer
You're hiking to the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, and at one point you pause to both take in the scenery and take in big gulps of air. Fresh air, you believe. Unfortunately, in summer those gulps of air likely contain unhealthy amounts of ozone.
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