Padre Island National Seashore has landed $300,000 for research into kemp's ridley sea turtles, the smallest and most endangered of sea turtle species.

If you’ve spent much time exploring our national parks, you’ve undoubtedly run into some of the nearly 300,000 Americans who in a typical year offer their services as VIPs, or “Volunteers in Parks.” They may have sold you a book in a park visitor center or answered your questions about hiking trails. You might have run into a volunteer patrolling one of those trails or leading an interpretive walk.

I had a short conversation with Charles Sams, the new director of the National Park Service who is getting his bearings in Washington with the agency. Understandably, as he’s being briefed on the multitude of issues across the National Park System and Park Service, the conversation didn’t dig deeply into many topics he found waiting for him.

Motorists at Haleakalā National Park hit and killed two endangered nenē, or Hawaiian goose, in recent weeks, prompting park staff to urge visitors to slow down.