Though the national park movement is more than a century old, efforts are ongoing to support that movement and enhance the protection of national park lands globally. Recently the National Park Service bolstered those efforts by agreeing to work with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature on the support of parks and other protected areas world-wide.

A more expansive, and inclusive, National Park System, stronger educational outreach, and a revised approach for managing today's natural and cultural resource challenges are among goals laid out in a blueprint for leading the National Park Service into its second century.

Volunteer Citizen Scientists are being recruited for the Cascades Butterfly Project, a long-term effort in six locations in the Cascades Mountains to help biologists identify and count subalpine butterflies. North Cascades National Park and Mount Rainier National Park are among the participating locations.