On January 22, 2013, National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis announced the award of more than $1.8 million in grants to help with 310.79 acres of land acquisition at six Civil War battlefields. Those sites are Mansfield, Louisiana; Appomattox Court House, Virginia; Cedar Mountain, Virginia; Chancellorsville, Virginia; Sailor’s Creek, Virginia and Buckland Mills, Virginia.

While white-nose syndrome continues to plague bats in the country's cave systems, there nevertheless are quite a few underground tours you can take in the National Park System, tours that not only will show off these unique resources but also provide education on the disease.

While engineers have completed their initial assessment on the blown-out section of the Newfound Gap Road across Great Smoky Mountains National Park, they have no timetable yet for when the road will be rebuilt and open for traffic.

National Park Service officials are striving to see the agency is justly compensated for any commercial technologies that arise from natural resources found in the park system, but could their approach lead to "exploitation" of the parks?