National Parks Traveler

Exemptions to President Trump's hiring freeze for federal employees will allow the National Park Service to address seasonal and short-term positions, but uncertainty remains over the size of the agency's permanent workforce and whether it will be sufficient to manage the more than 400 units of the National Park System, a National Parks Conservation Association official said Wednesday.

There's nothing like a good book or two to help you prepare for a national park visit, whether you're looking for some historical background, a trail or two to hike, or interested in the natural resources or local culture. With that in mind, here are a few titles you might consider in preparation of a visit to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming/Montana/Idaho.

Polling in seven Western states shows a strong majority of voters value clean air and water and outdoor recreation above energy development on public lands. And while the results showed eight in 10 voters want to retain, not decommission, national monuments, Utah officials were working to ask the Trump administration to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument designation and shrink the size of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

A congressman from Arizona is pushing legislation that would reduce National Park Service oversight of oil and gas drilling in units of the National Park System where it is allowed, according to a parks advocacy group.

The National Park Service on Tuesday received approval to hire seasonal workers for the coming year, though the status of term positions remained up in the air.

On Wednesday, February 1, the National Park Service will begin accepting applications for noncommercial river trip permits to raft the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park. The permits are for specific launch dates within calendar year 2018. A total of 463 permits will be available for 12- to 25-day river trips.

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.