Lush deep shade and a gently curving scenic road are two landscape features that make the Natchez Trace Parkway a pleasant recreational route for both motorists and bicyclists. Those features that make traveling the Parkway enjoyable can sometimes reduce visibility for both drivers and bicyclists. New signs, funded through the Natchez Trace Parkway Association Gary Holdiness Cycling Fund, will raise motorist awareness and remind drivers that bicycles, as well as other motor vehicles, use the Parkway.

Taking a page out of Yosemite National Park's crowd-management manual, Acadia National Park officials will put "visitor service assistants" to work this summer to help manage parking at the busiest locations in the park on the coast of Maine.

In less than a week a wildfire burning in Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida has ballooned to more than 24,300 acres, though park staff say it's roughly a third contained.

National Park Service researchers surveying a stream in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area last week spotted signs of California red-legged frog reproduction. The nine egg masses found are the first known evidence in recent times of the species sustaining a population in the Santa Monica Mountains without the help of humans.