Features

Meteorology is being factored into the future of visitation at Big Bend National Park, at least when it comes to finding a room in the rugged and sprawling swath of Chihuahuan ecosystem protected by the park in West Texas.

Jon Jarvis took a detour from the typical retirement path after his National Park Service career, which he wrapped up with eight years as director of that agency. Instead of traveling for enjoyment and relaxation, he's working to help guide the Park Service's approach to climate change from outside the agency.

That headline packs a wallop. There are those who either disagree the climate is changing due to human behavior, or that there's nothing that can be done regardless of the driver, as well as those who would love to see more national park lands and those who believe such a move would tie up federal lands from multiple resource activities, such as logging or mining.

With its diminutive frame and legendary skittishness, the Sonoran pronghorn is emblematic of the delicate efforts required to save an endangered species. Relegated to the desert of southwest Arizona and northern Mexico, the pronghorn fights for survival from predators and the ever-constant threat of drought that comes with living in the desert.

The past year brought many newsmaking events to the National Park System and, unfortunately, not all were positive. It started, of course, with the partial government shutdown that created more than a few problems for the park system, the lack of a Senate-confirmed director of the National Park Service continued throughout the year, hurricanes inflicted damage on coastal parks, and construction of a border wall in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument very possibly destroyed some archaeological sites there.

Can firearms protect you from a bear attack in the backcountry of a national park? How are Yellowstone National Park's wolves and grizzlies doing these days? Did you hear what Hurricane Dorian did to Cape Lookout National Seashore? Those audio stories were among the most downloaded podcasts from National Parks Traveler in 2019.

While growing up, nerve-racking, spine-tingling, heart-pumping stories of hunting man-eating tigers and leopards in India by such legends as Jim Corbett and Kenneth Anderson ensured that my passion for the wild and the wilderness was set on a never-ending, all-consuming fire, while stories by forest guides and jungle guards about their encounters with tigers, leopards, elephants, sloth bears, wolves, jackals, and hyenas went a long way in painting a magical and mysterious picture of the jungle in my heart and mind. In August 2007, I made my way into the Jim Corbett National Park armed with a fine but borrowed point-and-shoot camera. Since then I have progressed to be a professional natural history photographer.

Across the country, many national parks are in trouble. They face myriad threats, from climate change impacts to overcrowding, energy exploration, and air quality issues. In this, National Parks Traveler’s first annual Threatened and Endangered Parks list, we take a look at those landscapes that are struggling to retain the qualities that led to their inclusion in the National Park System in the first place.

Barataria Preserve is one of six sites managed as part of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve, an umbrella park of natural and cultural sites named for the early 19th-century French pirate and smuggler who helped Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans during the War of 1812. Taken together, the sites paint a rich portrait of coastal Louisiana: The Barataria unit protects some 26,000 acres of wetlands, while the Chalmette National Battlefield unit honors the resounding American victory in January 1815.

After years of planning and fundraising—and thousands of hours of labor—the Jenny Lake Renewal Project is completed. The outcomes that were accomplished are well beyond what anyone anticipated when Grand Teton National Park Foundation launched the Inspiring Journeys campaign in 2012.

There has been, for a disturbing amount of time, a slow, creeping invasion of the national parks, one in the form of an ecosystem-upsetting menagerie that poses a significant threat to both native species and the very integrity of the parks.

Hawk watching in Acadia National Park formally came of age a quarter of a century ago.

Construction of a towering border wall along the US-Mexico border in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona threatens to "destroy an area with a diverse, multicultural history that challenges today’s border debates."

It's a spectacle of the animal kingdom, one most of us don't see in person, but are amazed when it is shown on television. "It" is the crossing of the Noatak River far north in Alaska by hundreds of caribou.

Thanksgiving week brought a lot of snow to much of the country. I returned home to find 8-9 inches of the white stuff in the yard, and a decided chill (low teens) in the air. All of which naturally got me thinking about how to enjoy the winter months in the cold weather side of the National Park System. If you’re looking to enjoy parks chilled and blanketed by winter, here are some destinations to consider.

The Blue Ridge Parkway makes access to nature easy, providing so many opportunities to enjoy spectacular trails, mountain views, campouts, and outdoor adventures. For decades, the iconic national park, known as America’s Favorite Journey, has served as a source of pride for those lucky enough to call the Blue Ridge Mountains home. Sadly, that is changing.

What do you hear when you visit a national park? Spend some time with Jacob Job, a natural sounds recording specialist, and you'll likely learn to hear much, much more.

A sobering report was issued the other week. The headline alone told the story: LOSING THE NEWS: The Decimation of Local Journalism and the Search for Solutions.

A collaborative effort between state, federal, and nonprofit organizations such as Washington's National Park Fund has returned a small furry carnivore to the forests of Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic national parks in Washington state.

Cumberland Island National Seashore embraces a bucolic coastal setting on Georgia's longest barrier island. It's a place with rich human history, settings attractive to both birdlife and loggerhead sea turtles, dense maritime forests and ecologically vital salt marshes, and nearly 10,000 acres of officially designated wilderness. It also soon could find itself directly beneath the launch trajectory of a commercial spaceport.