Kids who visit a handful of Civil War-era units of the National Park System will be able to earn a special Junior Ranger patch, one that recognizes them as Junior Civil War Historians.

A coalition announced plans today to sue federal agencies, including the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency, for failing to protect airsheds over national parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges.

How important is it to you to know that Glacier National Park saw record visitation in 2010, that visitation to Great Smoky Mountains National Park dipped, or that overall visitation to the National Park System declined by 1 or 2 percent or rose by 1 or 2 percent in any one year?

Across the National Park System many changes are expected from climate change, from more wildfires and vanishing glaciers to invasions of non-native species and flight of long-term residents. Writer/photographer Michael Lanza, concerned that today's park landscapes will change significantly by the time his young kids are his age, has been touring the park system with his family to show his children what they might miss later in life.