What do you think about when you hear the words “national park”? For most, it’s likely visions of park rangers sporting knee-length khaki shorts and wide-brimmed Smokey Bear style hats. Or maybe it’s the verdant, rugged majesty of Yellowstone National Park with its geothermal wonders and grizzly bears.

Akers Ferry, located at Akers on the upper Current River in Ozark National Scenic Riverways in Missouri, is expected to be closed until mid-June due to flooding and fish spawning.

Australia is known for protecting its sea life in a 3.3-million-square-kilometer (1.3 million-square-mile) system of marine parks that covers 36 percent of the country’s oceans. The protection of those parks is now at stake, as the government last week approved five long-awaited management plans covering 44 parks. The new plans open 17 percent of the parks’ area to commercial fishing and 16 percent of their area to recreational fishing compared to the original plans formed by the previous government when the parks were proclaimed in 2012.

What started out as a small prescribed burn on The Nature Conservancy ranch at Channel Islands National Park ballooned to roughly 250 acres on Santa Cruz Island, prompting the summoning of firefighters from national forests in California to help fight the flames.