National Parks Traveler

Katmai National Park rangers at Brooks Camp routinely issue pins to arriving visitors upon their completion of “bear school,” a required safety orientation. This year, members of the local community are invited to enter their designs in a public competition for the 2017 pin—a first in the history of the 20+ year old Brooks Bear Etiquette Program.

Ground and air resources were being used Wednesday to battle a wildfire in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida that has spread to cover more than 11,000 acres.

How will Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke spread a 12 percent budget cut, if directed so by Congress, across his department and its agencies, including the National Park Service? That's a question U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva wants an answer to "as soon as possible," and he's made that point in a letter asking House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop to call the secretary before the full committee.

David Rockefeller, who continued his family's long-running love affair with national parks, died the other day at 101. The last surviving grandchild of oil baron John D. Rockefeller, Mr. Rockefeller had a particular keenness for Acadia National Park, which his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., helped established in 1916.

In one of the year's feel good stories, two ailing loggerhead sea turtles have been nursed back to health by the Florida Aquarium's Center for Conservation and released back into the Atlantic at Canaveral National Seashore.

Improved visitor services at Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park have been approved by the National Park Service.

A wildfire burning on the west side of Big Cypress National Preserve covered more than 6,000 acres Tuesday and forced additional closures in the park.

Twenty years ago, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation started as a simple idea: Give the people who care deeply for the Blue Ridge Parkway the power to protect and guide its future. Whether they cherished the trails, overlooks, ties to mountain history and culture, wildlife, or just the drive itself, they were invited to support the historic scenic route.

Climbing routes on the northeast face of Devils Tower at Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming have been temporarily closed to protect nesting peregrine and prairie falcons. The closure is implemented to provide the falcons with an undisturbed nesting location during this critical courtship and nest-selection period, and is an annual occurrence at Devils Tower.