Are Yellowstone National Park's elk as charismatic as the park's bison? That's a good question in light of an outcry over brucellosis-infected Yellowstone elk that could lead to a culling of the park's elk herds.
A 51-year-old Illinois climber who reached the summit of Mount McKinley has become the first mountaineer ever to die on the summit of the 20,320-foot mountain. Due to the danger involved in retrieving the body, Denali National Park and Preserve officials have opted to leave the deceased climber on the mountain at this time.
What does the future hold for the National Park Service and its wonderful system? It's a question worth asking as the Bush administration nears the end of its eight years in office, one that is particularly timely to ponder considering the Superintendents' Summit '08 that will be held at a Utah ski resort later this month.
Public access to the observation deck in the Statue of Liberty’s crown has been banned since September 11, 2001, for safety and security reasons. In response to loud protests, Congress has ordered a study to determine if crown access can be made safe.
Walter Gropius, founder of the influential German Bauhaus school of design, implored the managers of the brand new Cape Cod National Seashore to design facilities, such as visitor centers and bathhouses, with an innovative approach. Rustic cabin design found in Western national parks wouldn’t work here, but Modern design featuring modest scale and a light footprint on the land would.
As energy prices creep steadily higher, there's a growing segment of America that believes short-term relief can literally be tapped from fossil-fuel resources in the Western states. But many of those resources are found on public lands that buffer national parks, national wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas, and their development could have dire consequences for those landscapes.
The Battle of Gettysburg, a famously important Union victory, ended 145 years ago on July 3rd. We can more clearly appreciate what happened at Gettysburg by visiting Gettysburg National Military Park and trying to understand the battle as a human experience, not just a mammoth clash of arms.
If you went to Yellowstone National Park in June, you weren't alone. The park saw record visitation last month as more than 610,000 folks made their way to Yellowstone.