You are here

Home » Guest Columns

Guest Columns

Revisiting the Organic Act: Can It Meet the Next Century’s Conservation Challenges?

Can the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 continue to serve the National Park Service well in its second century? Professor Robert B. Keiter, the Wallace Stegner professor of law at the University of Utah, addresses that question in the following essay.

The Impact of Olaus, Mardy and Adolph Murie Can Still Be Felt Today in Our National Parks

They are Jackson Hole’s first family of environmental protection, this valley’s version of Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Margory Stoneman Douglas, and St. Francis rolled into one clan. Newcomers soon discover the progeny of the Muries, both the amazing children and grandchildren connected to them directly by bloodline and the eminently larger number of ideological descendants.

Looking Back Two Decades On Managing The Greater Yellowstone Ecoystem

It’s almost funny sometimes to look back at commotions that were made about relatively small things within a bigger picture. Twenty years ago, a controversy erupted over a mere term and a concept that now, in hindsight, makes all of the resistance and wasted time marshaled by politicians to stop it, seem rather silly. And yet, it marked a turning point in the region that includes America's mother of national parks.

Could the Diminutive Pika Succeed Where the Polar Bear Failed In Battling Climate Change?

During my six-month internship with the Student Conservation Association, I had the opportunity to collect data for a field study on the habitat effects of climate change. Our crew of four searched for pikas while backpacking along the rocky slopes of California’s Eastern Sierra Nevada. We came to understand several traits of the pika that could make this elusive alpine mammal an important ally in the movement to stop climate change.

NPCA: Health of Everglades National Park Requires a Longer Bridge Along the Tamiami Trail

Once seen as an innovative project for its time, in 1929, Tamiami Trail was built along the northern edge of what was to become Everglades National Park and through Big Cypress National Preserve. It fulfilled the dream to create passage across the Everglades from Tampa to Miami. Today, many people feel much differently about the road that currently impedes the natural flow of water through the historic River of Grass.

Are Yellowstone's Geysers At Risk From BLM's Leasing Proposals?

The geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park were largely responsible for its designation as the world's first national park in 1872. These features are a global treasure. Nowhere else in the world can you find the array or number of geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles found in Yellowstone. More than 75 percent of the world's geysers, including the world's largest are in Yellowstone’s seven major basins.

INN Member

The easiest way to explore RV-friendly National Park campgrounds.

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.

Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.

You’ll also find stories about RVing in the parks, tips helpful if you’ve just recently become an RVer, and useful planning suggestions.

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

FREE for iPhones and Android phones.