National park photography classes will take a big step forward in late August when Ian Shive, an award-winning photographer and author of The National Parks: Our American Landscape, conducts a live class over the Internet from Olympic and Mount Rainier national parks.

Mountain goats are spectacular animals, even iconic in places such as Glacier National Park, but they can cause problems in parks where they don't belong. At Olympic National Park, where a 1920s era introduction project brought non-native goats into the landscape, officials are embarking on a management plan for how to deal with the animals. Adding weight to the need for such a plan was the fatal goring of a hiker in the park four years ago.

Stylish collars and perhaps a splash of paint will mark some mountain goats this summer at Glacier National Park in Montana, where an ongoing study of the animals is moving into its second year.

Reaching into his daypack, the ranger pulled out a banana slug. Not a real one, but a stuffed animal version, a perfect prop to explain just exactly what banana slugs were to the youngsters in his audience here in the Hoh Rain Forest of Olympic National Park.