A much publicized conference, Science for Parks, Parks for Science: The Next Century, opens today at the University of California, Berkeley. Led by the National Park Service and National Geographic Society, conference sponsors propose “to launch a Second Century of stewardship for the parks, 100 years after the historic meetings at UC Berkeley that helped launch the National Park Service.” A specialist on those meetings, Dr. Alfred Runte reports on why the story does not end there.

Across the National Park System, the National Park Service has an estimated half-a-billion-dollars of obligations owed concessionaires who run lodges, restaurants, and even some activities. It's a sum that, while agency officials say it's manageable, has seemingly stifled concessions competition in some parks and diverted tens of millions of dollars from others to reduce debts.

"Is anybody alive out there?!?" If you’ve had the good fortune to attend a Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band concert, you know the feeling when you shout out your answer. Want to experience that for two to three weeks every day on the water? Join in on a Colorado River float trip through the Grand Canyon.

Genetic analysis has concluded that a wolf that had been seen on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon last fall, and was shot and killed in Utah late in December, had been fitted with a radio collar outside of Yellowstone National Park in January 2014.