A lot of heat is released from Earth's surface at Yellowstone. The evidence of this heat flow includes thermal features like hot springs, geysers, mud pots, and fumaroles. Tracking the temperatures and sizes of thermal areas is critical for monitoring Yellowstone's hydrothermal activity, and also for understanding and preserving these spectacular features. But how do scientists accomplish this task, given that there are more than 10,000 individual thermal features spread out over a large and mostly inaccessible area within Yellowstone National Park?

Nine years after pedestrian bridges along the Old Carriage Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio were closed for safety, a project to repair the bridges and restore the trail is underway.

The conundrum was as obvious in 1967 as it is today: "Of all the conservation and management problems facing the National Park System in 1967, balancing the claims of rapidly mounting public use and the requirements of preservation is probably the most pervasive and difficult."

Anyone who's been following the national parks in recent years -- OK, a decade or two if not longer -- knows that the National Park Service is chronically short of money to take care of these incredible places. That's where groups like Friends of Acadia come in, and why you should donate to them this week, regardless if you plan to claim a tax deduction.