National Parks Traveler

Crater Lake National Park would establish more than a dozen new hiking trails and examine building a trail around the Oregon park’s namesake lake under a Trail Management Plan that will serve as a blueprint for the next 25 years.

Two public meetings have been scheduled to discuss National Park Service options for dealing with the possibility that wolves at Isle Royale National Park will vanish without human intervention.

With biologists working on a plan to restore grizzly bears to the mountains of northern Washington, North Cascades National Park recently published a trio of videos outlining the options for moving forward and describing what the threatened species would bring to the ecosystem.

Somewhere in drawing up the blueprint for making America great again, Donald Trump forgot about America's Best Idea. We can only hope it's a temporary oversight. As for Congress, well, the Republican leadership should know better. But at the moment the inaugural blush is still fresh and House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are more than happy to kowtow to President Trump.

In celebration of Black History Month in February, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park will offer several programs to recognize and honor the remarkable achievements of African-Americans from New Bedford. All events are free and will be held at the visitor center located in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Legislation calling for the purchase of 65,000 acres of land just south of Lake Okeechobee in Florida would bolster the flow of fresh water through the "river of grass" and is being supported by the Everglades Coalition, which wants the Florida Legislature to adopt the measure.

I can never go home again. The land that I grew up on, an estate not far from NYC that my parents cared for, but that belonged to someone else, is now in the hands of a new owner and a new family entrusted with its care. That land, to some degree, told me who I am. The trees, the ground beneath my feet and the wildlife provided the details to a family story that grew and changed over time, as family stories do. It held the particulars of my parent’s journey from a small, southern town to New York in the 1950’s, as a poor black couple with big dreams for themselves and their children. Without access to that story, it would be easy to feel unmoored, rootless, and insecure about my place, my past and my future. Who am I? Where did I come from? What does the future hold?

The arrival of 2017 has opened a new chapter for the National Park Service and the National Park System, one that in the first days of the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress is fraught with concern over both the stability of the agency and the health of the parks.

For the first time in more than a year, vehicles were allowed to drive into the Elwha Valley of Olympic National Park on Thursday when Olympic Hot Springs Road reopened.

Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota will be fully open to visitors with regular cave tours from January 30 through February 10, as a mechanical assessment of the monument's elevators is being rescheduled.