Tucked far north in Montana, hard against the Canadian border, Glacier National Park is a rumpled and craggy masterpiece. Within the park’s 1 million acres rise rustling aspen glades, stands of an unusual evergreen—larch—that loses its needles in winter, even a temperate rainforest of Pacific red cedars, hemlocks and Pacific yew. This is the kingdom of grizzlies and wolves, wolverines and lynx, species that for many exist only in books, magazines, and nature documentaries.

From introducing school children to nature and underwriting wildlife research, the Glacier Fund is at work daily on helping the National Park Service meet the needs of Glacier National Park.

If you could visit only one state to tour its national parks, which state would it be? Would you head to Utah with its five "national parks," to California with its eight "national parks" and handful of other designated park units, or choose Maine with its one national park (Acadia), a stretch of Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and lone international historic site?

A package of legislation that sponsors call the Conservation and Economic Growth Act and which critics maintain would severely cripple the nation's environmental laws and pose a threat to the National Park System is expected to come up for a vote in the House of Representatives this week.