Most of us head to national parks to walk across the landscape, but for those skilled at diving, some treasures otherwise lost to history can be found. In the waters surrounding Isle Royale National Park, for instance, are a number of wrecks that date back to the late 1800s.
Landscapes can heal themselves if given the tools, which sometimes involve no more than removing litter and pollution. At Point Reyes National Seashore, a wetlands that once had been impacted by levees and dairy operations is luring river otters and even bald eagles just one year after it was restored.
A lengthy investigation into allegations that Gettsysburg National Military Park Superintendent John Latschar acted unethically in running the park found no wrongdoing, but it reportedly turned up thousands of instances in which the superintendent's computer was used to access pornographic images.
It was almost a mantra of the Bush Administration's Interior Department: Best science will guide on-the-ground decisions in the national parks. Some will argue that former Interior Secretary Kempthorne and National Park Service Director Bomar never closely hewed to that pledge. But new Park Service Director Jon Jarvis hopes to put some teeth into that statement, and has hired a science advisor to help him accomplish the task.
Yellowstone. Canyonlands. Voyageurs. Grand Canyon. Great Smoky Mountains. Glacier. Surprising as it is, none of those parks has so much as a single acre of officially designated wilderness.
Most of us face some challenging tasks from time to time at work, but you can be thankful you weren't put in charge of the Yorktown Sesquicentennial celebration. It gets my vote for the most ambitious special event ever held in a National Park System area.
I was touring Oregon Caves National Monument recently when I witnessed an interesting scene between a ranger and a guest – one which makes me wonder about the parameters of ranger authority.
"Jurassic" isn't just a name from a movie, it's also a term for geologic formations known to contain evidence of dinosaurs. The discovery of a new site with dinosaur tracks at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is being described by scientists as "remarkable," and "an important discovery."