Since boyhood I've embraced a vision of the National Park Service as an agency that not only cared for forested mountains, shimmering lakes, foaming cataracts, dusty trails and a wildlife menagerie that stretched from alligators to wolverines, but also as one with a science mission built around these wonders. How accurate is that vision?

“Does any skeptic suppose that a true mountaineer regrets any heroic mountain exploit because of some mishap…does he suppose that any of the many zealous navigators who sailed in that vain quest, the discovery of the mild open sea about the North Pole, bewailed the suffering he endured or the brave efforts he made? Does he imagine that man will ever cease his attempts…to reach the summit of unconquered peaks, simply because of possible mishaps and sufferings attendant thereon?”

Would a change in the national park system's gun laws pose a threat to wildlife? In Alaska, there are some concerns that brown bears at Katmai National Park and Preserve might appear too threatening to some gun owners.

A plan by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to send a flood through the Grand Canyon has drawn numerous questions from Grand Canyon National Park officials, who fear the flooding as proposed would impair park resources.