The calendar says January, but if you're planning to head to Acadia National Park this coming summer it's not too early to begin laying the groundwork for that trip.

A conservation group is petitioning the federal government with a request that it close all caves and mines inhabited by bats on public lands in a bid to stop the spread of white-nosed syndrome among bats. At the same time, the Center for Biological Diversity wants the Eastern small-footed bat and the Northern long-eared bat to be listed as endangered species.

Affiliated Areas are not owned or administered by the federal government, but they do preserve important elements of our country’s heritage and they do get some assistance from the National Park Service. Here are some of the vital stats.

From time to time there are cases of folks digging in remote areas of national parks, either for fossils, archaeological artifacts, or whatever. It's seldom that you hear of instances in which treasures were buried at a park site, but that's exactly what seems to have occurred nearly 18 years ago after a theft at San Juan National Historic Site.