Not everyone is a painter, musician, or sculptor, but it seems that everyone is a photographer. Whether tracking Yellowstone wolves, following Glacier’s goats, or watching Yosemite waterfalls, all it takes is a camera. And that’s exactly what camera manufacturers count on: Making it easier and easier, especially in the new digital world, to produce quality photographs.

While the proverbial handwriting has been on the wall ever since former U.S. Representative Charlie Taylor lost his re-election bid last November, the National Park Service finally has officially come out against building the so-called "road to nowhere" in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Non-native species that arrive in the Great Lakes via ballast waters are a substantial threat to the native fisheries in the lakes. At Isle Royale National Park, officials are implementing regulations with hopes they'll reduce the numbers of non-natives that infiltrate Lake Superior.

Is the National Park Service's Centennial Initiative as "audacious" as Director Mary Bomar claims it to be? Will it truly prepare the agency for its second century, or is it lacking in its current form some critical aspects that are necessary for the Park Service to attain greatness as protector of arguably the world's best park system?