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.

A team of international scientists will visit Glacier National Park and its northern neighbor, Waterton Lakes National Park, in September to study risks that might be posed by coal mining in British Columbia not far from the parks.

If cost were no object, whose national park painting would you hang on your wall? Would it be a Thomas Moran, an Albert Bierstadt, or a Maynard Dixon?

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.