A group of rafters heading down the Colorado River through Grand Canyon National Park received an unexpected helicopter lift when their boat became stranded on a rock garden in the river near Crystal Rapid. This was no quick and easy rescue, though, as it took 14 rangers, with air support, more than a day to get the rafters heading back downstream.

The National Mall is often described as the nation's front yard, and the lawn has bare spots, the walks are cracking, the porch is sagging. It's time for a serious facelift, the NPS is working on a plan to restore the Mall, and your comments are welcome.

Barring weather problems, Hurricane Ridge Road in [url=http://www.nps.gov/olym]Olympic National Park[/url] should be back in business on Saturday, a week earlier than was predicted when a contractor was hired to repair road damage caused by a landslide.

It was more than a year ago when the Natural Resources Defense Council asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to see if the whitebark pine, a "stone" pine that grows in the very highest reaches of Yellowstone, Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, was eligible for Endangered Species Act protection. Inaction by the agency has prompted the conservation group to sue it to act on the request.