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Entrance-Fee-Free Weekends Are Costly To National Park Service, But Seem to Be Boosting Visitation

If trends hold, this weekend should be a busy one in the National Park System. Or maybe it won't be. For while it is the last entrance-fee-free weekend in the parks this summer, and the first two seemed to bring out more visitors than normal, there is no apparent hard-and-fast trend tied to these weekends.

Private Development of Fort Hancock in Gateway National Recreation Area Collapses for Lack of Financing

In a turn of events that raises questions about the National Park Service's ability to conduct due diligence, the agency has declared null and void a 60-year-lease given to a developer eight years ago for three dozen historic buildings at Fort Hancock in Gateway National Recreation Area. This decision comes in the wake of six extensions given the developer to prove he had the necessary financing in place to handle the project.
Image icon GATE-Fort_Hancock_History.pdf

Grand Teton National Park's Snake River Proves Yet Again Too Challenging For Visitors

Rule No. 1 when you're launching your craft into the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park: Know what you're up against. Rule No. 2: If you're not up to the challenge, take a hike. A trio of Utahns failed to follow those rules and wound up relying on park rangers to save them. Their rental canoe, however, has yet to be recovered.

Climate Change and National Parks: A Survival Guide for a Warming World -- Salmon of the Pacific Northwest

Life is not easy for salmon in the Pacific Northwest. They’re born inland, usually in a stream far from the ocean. Then, when they’re old enough, they have to swim all the way to the ocean, hopefully timing it right so there will be plenty to eat when they arrive. Some years later, if they’ve managed to avoid the Pacific’s predators, they have to retrace that journey to return to where they were born so they can mate. And then they die.