You can add pools of oil to the oily residues turning up at Gulf Islands National Seashore from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

There are so many ways to get enjoyment from the national parks on a daily basis. You can work for the National Park Service, a park concessionaire, or one of the organizations that strives to support the parks. And if you're good at raising funds, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation could use you.

If you don't mind hard work in the out-of-doors, risk of sunburn or a few mosquito bites, you're needed at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where officials are recruiting for their Adopt-a-Trail program.

If all goes as planned, in about a year you'll be able to walk into the new visitor center at Dinosaur National Monument and once again inspect a cliffside studded with fossils.