Features

Bison in Yellowstone National Park, black bears in Everglades National Park, Joshua trees in Joshua Tree National Park, and moose at Isle Royale National Park. Those are just some of the roughly 150 species being petitioned for "threatened" or "endangered" listing under the Endangered Species Act and which stand to be affected by changes to the act the Trump administration is implementing.

It has been mentioned so often, that it seemingly has lost its impact: The National Park Service is roughly $12 billion behind in maintaining its infrastructure. And maybe numbness to that backlog is why Park Service planners are continue to work on capital projects.

The North Cascades Complex, comprised of Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and North Cascades National Park, is a vast landscape of cold, clear rivers, thick forests, and rugged mountains webbed with a network of trails having few access roads and mainly for backcountry backpackers. Photographer Rebecca Latson recently visited this area and returns with an Armchair Photography Guide to prove you can still get awesome photos of the North Cascades Complex without having to hike into the backcountry to do so.

Separate campgrounds, dining rooms, picnic grounds, and restrooms. Maps and signs that directed blacks to destinations away from whites. This was the landscape of segregation in some national parks during that divisive chapter of the country’s history. While the signs have been taken down and the separation erased, there remain remnants of that dark period in a number of parks today.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials, at the direction of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, are moving to open seven of their refuges to hunting and fishing, a move spurring concern that National Park System units could be ordered to move in the same direction.

Opposition to allowing eBikes on non-motorized trails in the federal lands system has been voiced by dozens of conservation groups, who fear permitting the motorized bikes on those trails will create a "slippery slope" that will lead to future problems with managing those trails.

Along the open air laboratory that is the Schoodic Peninsula at Acadia National Park, Hannah Webber roots through thick, slippery mats of rockweed to uncover sensors that, she hopes, will help her better understand the biome that thrives within, and below, the seaweed, and help industry understand how best to sustainably harvest the algae.

The health of the National Park System and the public’s enjoyment of that system depends on a strong and vibrant National Park Service workforce. Currently, though, the strains on the system seem to be reaching a breaking point, and action needs to be taken to reverse the downward slide.

First mention of Waco Mammoth National Monument might not pique your interest in this monument, but the prehistoric stories revealed there are worth your visit.

Having raised millions of dollars to help restore the backcountry trails around and above Jenny Lake, the Grand Teton National Park Foundation now is turning its efforts to improving access points to the Snake River in the national park.

How many of you think about spending time in a remote place, free of cell service and internet and filled with stunning mountain scenery and backcountry hiking trails? How much time do you think you'd need to really see everything in a place like this? Photographer Rebecca Latson spent 3 days in Stehekin, Washington, nestled within the North Cascades Complex, and returned with details of her visit.

During our 20s and early 30s, we carried a pack into the woods. But after one taste of the RV life, we were hooked. Sleeping on the ground became a thing of the past once my husband and I discovered the joys of camping in spectacular settings with the option to enjoy water, electric and sewer utilities. If you’ve ever considered doing the same, here’s what you need to know about plugging into America’s national parks with RV hookup campsites.

In June of 1894—125 years ago—Sequoia National Park superintendent James Parker journeyed northwards to inspect the Sierra Forest Reserve. This mountainous country (now called the Sierra National Forest) had been set aside sixteen months previously to protect its watersheds from overgrazing by sheep and over-cutting by timber interests. Parker entered a disaster zone.

The National Park Service went against its mission when it approved a multi-million-dollar bridge to be built across the Brooks River at Katmai National Park in Alaska, according to a ranger who witnessed the planning process.

Could a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling concerning Native American rights to hunt on federal lands open up Yellowstone National Park to hunting?

The two tempestries had arrived in the mail, one depicting 1975 at Voyageurs National Park, the other, 2016. Comprised of all the colors of the rainbow and knit neatly by Deb Ceci, each row of the crafted work represents one day of high temperature data over the course of a year.

Seemingly endless wilderness exists in the National Park System -- 44 million acres, officially -- but how secure are the other 26 million acres that are considered to hold wilderness qualities but haven't gained official designation?

When Robert Lee Cubbage went to town to record the title to 75 acres his brother, George, sold to him for $100 in 1919, he was carving out yet another family holding on at Cubbage Mountain, as it's known in today in Shenandoah National Park.

Wildlife trafficking long has been detrimental to Vietnam's national parks, but lately efforts have been mounted to raise awareness of the problem and work to better protect wildlife for which the parks often are their only sanctuaries.

When I took a post-college job as a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park 23 years ago, I noticed right away that my “Smokey Bear” hat carried some serious emotional baggage. As I later wrote in my book, “Reclaiming Nostalgia: Longing for Nature in American Literature,” park visitors saw the hat as an icon of tradition and romance, a symbol of a simpler era long gone.