National parks represent a spectacular legacy handed down to today’s generations, but it is one that also carries a hefty responsibility of stewardship. That becomes quickly obvious in Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea. This notion of responsible stewardship is not new at all. In many ways it’s trite.

Canine distemper, not parvovirus, apparently was behind the high wolf pup mortality rates in Yellowstone National Park in 1999, 2005 and 2008, according to new research.

What role should the National Park Service play in promoting businesses that make a living off national parks? That's a potentially thorny question. On one hand, visitors coming from far off might want such information to help plan their trips. On the other, is the Park Service giving away free advertising and adding an appropriate commercial bent to its websites and press releases?

The annual summer census of bison in Yellowstone National Park shows there are roughly 3,300 bison in the park's two bison herds, a number that is up a bit from a year earlier but far below the nearly 5,000 bison counted four summers ago.