Each spring, certain areas in Acadia National Park in Maine are closed to visitors as peregrine falcons return to their ancestral nesting sites on seaside cliffs. With great anticipation, park visitors gather below the cliffs with binoculars, spotting scopes, and zoom lenses to watch the peregrines — — a species that in the mid-1960s was on the brink of extinction.

Roads in two NPS areas that were closed recently due to rockslides have reopened in time for the coming weekend. The routes are an eight-mile section of Little River Road in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Hurricane Ridge Road in Olympic National Park.

If ever there was an enduring symbol of the wildness of the Rocky Mountains, it would be the wolverine. While wolves and grizzly bears usually come to mind when talk turns to the Rockies’ animals that conjure images of the wild, the diminutive wolverine possesses a legendary reputation for toughness, resilience, and, some would say, cantankerousness.

If you've some thoughts on whether Wal-Mart should be allowed to develop a super center on hallowed ground next to the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park, you have two last opportunities: tonight and Monday night.