Like a slowly toppling row of dominoes, areas around the National Park System are closing to the public during the ongoing government shutdown because of the absence of maintenance crews to deal with garbage and human waste. At Joshua Tree National Park, officials also said resources were being damaged "by driving off road and other infractions."

Higher fees are coming your way for touring the Delta-O1 launch facility at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, the Mariposa Grove at Yosemite National Park is open for winter, and friends of Cuyahoga Valley National Park have raised millions for a new visitor center. Those are just some of the stories from around the National Park System.

A measure of optimism has arisen in the Yosemite National Park trademarks battle between DNC Parks & Resorts and the federal government, with the parties gaining judicial approval to more time to negotiate a settlement.

Early in the 20th century there was a fight over the fate of the Hetch Hetchy Valley at Yosemite National Park. Would it remain an amazing, waterfall-rimmed valley that so very well complemented the Yosemite Valley, or would it be given over to a reservoir to meet San Francisco's utilitarian needs? The battle for wildness, of course, was lost at Hetch Hetchy. Today the battle is being repeated in Utah, where wildness and sacredness at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments are being tossed aside not so much for utilitarianism as for profiteering.