Craftsmanship flowed through the main building and surrounding cabins the Civilian Conservation Corps built above the Current River in the hill country of southeastern Missouri. But the passage of nearly nine decades has taken a toll on the Big Springs Lodge and Cabins at today's Ozark National Scenic Riverways, where the National Park Service shuttered the buildings four years ago until they could be rehabilitated.

The operators of a gold mine located just outside Death Valley National Park’s western border have proposed modifications to their plan of operations. Most of the proposed changes relate to mining activities on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, but the plan also includes modifications to the mine’s piping of water from Sourdough Spring within the park.

Illegal cultivation of marijuana has cropped up in at least two units of the National Park System, with more than 4,000 plants found in Death Valley National Park and an undisclosed number at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina.

Burros set free by long-ago prospectors who failed to strike it rich in the landscape now known as Death Valley National Park have steadily increased in number. Today there are an estimated 2,000 of these non-native animals in the park. Within five years, that number could be virtually wiped out under an agreement the park has reached with a Texas organization.