Once billed as the most desirable property for industrial development in the Commonwealth of Virginia, the site that historians argue determined the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg is saved forever following a 16-year, $12-million fundraising campaign to ensure its protection. To seal the deal on the largest and most complex private battlefield preservation effort in the nation’s history, the American Battlefield Trust enlisted the participation of a preservation-friendly developer, a flexible financial lender and forward-thinking government officials, as well as tens of thousands of individual donors.

Legislation that would protect Grand Canyon National Park from uranium mining will be considered by a Senate subcommittee along with other measures that would direct the Interior and Agriculture departments to tackle forest restoration projects, allow the federal government to sell land for housing, and expand Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.

Avoiding alligators—real and imagined—on a slough slog in the Everglades.

Nine trails, encompassing nearly 600 miles, have been added to the National Trails System by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.