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Park History: The Appalachian Trail

Zigzagging 2,175 miles between Mount Katahdin in northern Maine and Springer Mountain in Georgia, the Appalachian National Scenic Trail gained life through an article Benton MacKaye wrote for the Journal of the American Institute of Architects in 1921. In it the forester ruminated on the need for Americans to spend more time at leisure, preferably in the outdoors.

Updated: Groups Claim Yellowstone National Park Officials Abdicating Responsibility Over Snowmobile Access Issue

Officials for Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks announced Wednesday that they would prepare yet another environmental study to clear the way for recreational snowmobiling and snowcoach traffic in the parks this winter.

Fall Is A Great Season in Glacier National Park

Fall is a great time to visit many parks, and Glacier National Park in Montana is no exception. Summer crowds are gone, the weather is often great, and although it's not New England, there's also some fine fall color to enjoy from aspen, cottonwood, and birch. Larch also provides magnificent shades of yellow, and this conifer is unusual because it loses its needles after they change color.

Pruning the Parks: Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area Was a National Park for Just Five Years

Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in Utah-Wyoming had been in the National Park System for only five years when, on October 1, 1968, Congress transferred it to the U.S. Forest Service. There was little sense of loss. Congress hadn’t mandated NPS administration and the NPS wasn’t deeply committed to reservoir recreation management.

National Park Quiz 22: Angels and Saints

Quiz 10 on July 9 was “Speak of the Devil.” Fair is fair, so this week we’ll turn the focus in the heavenly direction and deal with angels, saints, and such. Answers are at the end. If we catch you peeking, we’ll make you write “The cognitive complexities of the term ‘saint’ render lexical disambiguation extraordinarily challenging” 100 times on the whiteboard.
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Uranium Exploratory Drilling Near Grand Canyon National Park is Halted Pending a Full Environmental Review

The Forest Service illegally approved 39 uranium exploration drilling holes in the Kaibab National Forest near Grand Canyon National Park. Now a court challenge has produced a settlement that stops the drilling and calls for full environmental and public reviews. Many fear that uranium development may contaminate water in the park and the Colorado River.