A new water-filling station at the main visitor center for Lake Mead National Recreation Area has been in service for six months, and in addition to reducing the use of disposable plastic water bottles, the filtered water is catching on with visitors. Since its installation, the station has been used to fill 13,600 water bottles.

On Sunday the National Park Service will turn 97, and for park visitors that means a day without entrance fees.

Kayakers at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore have gained more tools to gauge water conditions before they leave shore and head to the park's sea caves.

Bighorn sheep were once common in Southern California and Nevada, but by the 1960s their numbers had been sharply reduced by disease, unregulated hunting, and habitat loss. Forty years of cooperative efforts to rebuild the herds were paying off, but now a major disease outbreak poses a major threat to the majestic animals.