As the country endeavors to become more and more energy independent, new techniques for extracting oil and gas from beneath the landscape are greatly expanding the footprint of energy exploration in the country. These efforts have greatly increased the production of oil and natural gas in the United States, and they also are creating problems when the drilling operations turn up on the doorsteps of national parks.

Letters from 2005 show that the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin opposed an extension beyond 2012 of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. lease at Point Reyes National Seashore, contrary to claims made by the company's owner.

The term “national park” has a kneejerk meaning to many—only the clued-in know how diverse “units” of the park system really are. Towering Half Dome in Yosemite National Park isn’t the only grand granite monument protected by the National Park Service—and you don’t even need to look beyond the borders of Washington, D.C., to prove it.

Miami’s number one boating destination has an identity crisis. While it has won over Washington D.C. politicians, residents look right past it. Even thousand of volunteers who care enough to clean up the city’s main body of water, Biscayne Bay, don’t know that they are touching holy waters of the federal kind.