With hurricane season upon us, what are the odds that your favorite national seashore might be impacted by a Category I storm? How might sea-level rise in the years ahead affect your favorite beach? The U.S. Geological Survey has developed a tool that can give you some insights to those questions.

Impacts of climate change on the National Park System are such that it is "no longer ecologically viable to manage resources solely within park boundaries," according to a study that found parks "are overwhelmingly at the extreme warm end of historical temperature distributions..."

Sun, salt spray, and sand are the main ingredients for a traditional Outer Banks vacation. Here on the North Carolina coast, where barrier islands bare the brunt of the Atlantic Ocean, families have been coming for decades to enjoy not only those aspects of summer but some of the best fishing along the Atlantic coast.

In a conclusion that has been reached in many other court cases across the country, a federal court has found that resource protection trumps recreational interests in a case from Cape Hatteras National Seashore. U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle also found that the National Park Service did not rely on shoddy science when it developed an off-road management plan.