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Ecuador Announces A New National Park In The Andes

On January 23, a new national park joined Ecuador’s 54 protected areas. Río Negro-Sopladora National Park lies in southern Ecuador’s Morona Santiago and Azuay provinces within the Cordillera Real Oriental mountain range and next to Sangay National Park. The area is dominated by almost-intact Andean páramos – treeless alpine plateaus – and forests that are home to a great variety of animal and plant species.

Drug Busts Made In Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

While Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument officials believe the monument that hugs the U.S.-Mexico border is much safer than it was a decade or two ago, there are still those trying to smuggle drugs into the country through the park. Already this year rangers have confiscated more than 600 pounds of marijuana in the monument.

Big Hole And Little Bighorn Battlefields: Thoughts On Cultural Tolerance And Understanding

People respond to unfamiliar cultures with a range of emotions, from curiosity to condemnation. It was curiosity (and a couple more stamps in our National Park Service passports) that recently took me and my girlfriend Craig to Big Hole National Battlefield and Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument in Montana. It was condemnation by the U.S. government of both the Nez Perce and Sioux ways of life that precipitated the tragedies remembered at these two sites.