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New Beginnings: Cherry Blossoms And Helen Taft's Landscape Diplomacy

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of tourists descend upon the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., during the Cherry Blossom Festival in order to capture images of the monuments framed by delicate blossoms of pink and white. What few of these tourists realize is that this fairy tale setting is the result of the vision First Lady Helen “Nellie” Herron Taft and an action of “landscape diplomacy.”

National Park Service Concerned Over BLM Oil And Gas Leases Near Utah Parks

National Park Service officials had urged the Bureau of Land Management to put some miles between oil and gas leases they auctioned Tuesday and parks in southeastern Utah, voicing concerns over impacts to groundwater, air quality, night skies and soundscapes. Native American groups, meanwhile, gathered at the BLM offices in Salt Lake City to protest the auction, saying the Trump administration was determined to erase their history "for financial gain."

Friends Of Saguaro, NextGen Rangers, And The National Park Service

In 2015, Friends of Saguaro created the Next Generation Ranger Corps Internship Program at Saguaro National Park, in response to the “Call to Action” by the National Park Service. The program is designed to enable young people to discover Saguaro and its different operational divisions through a supportive, engaging, and educational working opportunity at the park.

Questions Remain Unanswered Over Caneel Bay Resort At Virgin Islands National Park

U.S. Rep. Stacey Plaskett has written her constituents to defend her support of extending the lease of Virgin Islands National Park's Caneel Bay Resort for 60 years, long after Laurance S. Rockefeller had intended for it to be turned over to the National Park Service, but questions into why a concessions lease hasn't been hashed out the past eight years remain unanswered. Park Service personnel spent years trying to reach agreement, according to the agency's former concessions chief.

Time Travel In The North Of Portugal

The dogs were large, with pointy ears, and they appeared suddenly along the cobbled path, barking furiously. My husband Paul and I paused, then slowly crept past them as we murmured pet-friendly reassurances at their bared teeth. They jumped around a bit but did not draw nearer; all bark, no bite. A cheerful man hobbled down the path on his cane, reaffirming this in Portuguese and gestures and tone that conveyed his meaning to our linguistically challenged ears. Chuckling, he waved us on our way from the tiny stone village into a sparse forest in Portugal’s sole national park—Peneda-Gerês.