Efforts by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to make it easier to visit and enjoy federal lands managed by the Interior and Agriculture departments make strides in the right direction, but also raise troubling questions when it comes to the protection of the National Park System and the workload and resources for the staff-strained National Park Service, according to the National Parks and Conservation Association.

Dropping water levels at Lake Mead National Recreation Area have revealed a barrel with human remains tied to an apparent murder possibly dating to the 1970s.

Today, Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone is a treeless plain characterized by steaming ground, geysers, and mudpots. But thousands of years ago, it was heavily forested with less hydrothermal activity. Lake sediments tell the tale.

The National Park Service has decided to move ahead with rebuilding a roughly 6-mile stretch of the South Unit Loop Road at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.