Planning a backpacking trek in Joshua Tree National Park in California? You can obtain the necessary permit online at recreation.gov.

More than two decades of battles over a copper and gold mine proposed to be built near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska came to a halt as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has denied the backers' request to dump mining wastes into the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed.

If you hope to drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road across Glacier National Park in Montana this summer, you can try to reserve your ticket beginning Wednesday at 8 a.m. MT time via recreation.gov.

Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts is beginning a vegetation removal project that aims to remove dead trees and shrubbery from the Duck Harbor floodplain in Wellfleet. Park officials say two years of periodic dune overwashes led to substantial saltwater accumulation in the area and caused a massive die-off of freshwater plants. Removing the dead vegetation will allow salt-water tolerant vegetation to recolonize the area, they say.