A new conservation easement has made today’s 12th anniversary celebration extra special at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, America’s only privately-owned national park. A buffer now protects three miles of the border, providing a big boost to the park’s prairie preservation efforts and helping to solidify the park’s reputation as a good neighbor.

How happy can a birthday celebration be when it's overshadowed by the possibility of a blight on the landscape? Of course, one person's blight is another's prosperity. But in the case of Arches National Park, it would seem that we as a nation need to better define how we value those special places called national parks.

Talk about ambitious. The folks at Zion National Park are planning to do the first substantial rehabilitation of the Mount Carmel Highway in nearly 80 years, something that will not be an overnight job.

The 20th Annual Antietam National Battlefield Memorial Illumination is slated for December 6, weather permitting. Situated along the five-mile driving tour are 23,110 luminaries – one for each solder killed, wounded, or missing in 12 hours of savage combat on September 17, 1862.