Grand Teton National Park Superintendent David Vela was nominated Friday by President Trump to take the helm of the National Park Service, which has been without a permanent director since Jon Jarvis retired in January 2017.

An Oregon man who brazenly taunted a bison in Yellowstone National Park pleaded guilty to four charges related to his behavior there and in Grand Teton National Park and was ordered to spend 130 days in jail, banned from drinking alcohol or visiting bars, and told to stay out of Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier national parks for five years.

Grand Teton National Park managers are learning from research and field staff observations to improve visitor use management and provide high quality visitor experiences in the popular String and Leigh lakes area. Social scientists from Oregon State, Penn State, and Utah State universities are nearing completion of a two-year study to better understand visitor use, experience, and behaviors in this scenic area as well as the related resource impacts.

Photographer Rebecca Latson recently completed a 3-week road trip and move from southeast Texas up to central Washington State. During that time, she visited five national parks. In those parks, she saw some pretty stupid stuff such as litter, people driving faster than the posted speed limit, and poor choices in hiking footwear, to name a few things. Rebecca wrote an article of her observations, which are a good reminder for us all to do some planning and be a little more thoughtful of how we treat our national parks as guests.