That’s exactly what students will be doing in architecture colleges across the country. The NPS has partnered with the Van Alen Institute to promote a unique design competition that will bring the parks’ visitor centers into the twenty-first century. Visitor centers are the hub of much activity within our national parks, and can be traced…
Eleven years ago, the National Parks Conservation Association created the State of the Parks program to assess and bring attention to the natural and cultural resources in our country’s National Parks. Since the program began, 80 parks in the system have been studied, and the focus of the program has grown to include the NPS…
The National Park Service’s ever-popular fee free days are back for 2011. The full list of dates was announced recently; this year there will be 17 days that visitors will not be required to pay visitor’s fees. The first days on the schedule are coming up soon!
The National Park Service announced last week that they have officially extended the Jackson Hole Airport lease until 2053. This extension will allow the airport to continue to receive funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Jackson Hole Airport’s unique location requires constant scrutiny of operations and management.
If you’re planning on climbing Mt. Rainier or Mt. McKinley next year, be prepared to shell out a more cash for your required climbing permit. The National Park Service will be increasing both permits considerably; Mt. Rainier permits are expected to increase from $30 to $50 and Mt. McKinley permits will go from $200 to $500.
This summer, Yellowstone National Park saw people coming to the park in record numbers. Between the months of June and August, 2.5 million people visited the park. Compared to last year’s numbers, visitors increased by 200,000. Not only did Yellowstone break their summer visitor record, but these numbers also put them on target to beat their overall visitor numbers for the year.
A recent proposal from the National Park Service would return thousands of acres of lands to the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. The land is currently part of South Unit in Badlands National Park but has an unfortunate past; in 1942 the US War Department took the land from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to use it as bombing range until the 1960s.
Recent studies of our National Parks have exposed a wide range of threats that can (and most likely will) have a serious impact on the conditions of the land. Climate change, increased visitors (and the foot traffic that comes along with them), air pollution from vehicles, and litter are all threatening to destroy the beauty that many are trying to preserve for generations to come.
After decades of discussion about removing two of the dams on the Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, the National Park Service has finally signed a contract to do just that. The firm that won the contract, and signed the deal this week is Barnard Construction out of Bozeman, Montana.
Many of us have seen the video of park-goers throwing a stick at a buffalo, only to be surprised when it charges the camera. Instances of idiots in the outdoors are only increasing as the use of gadgets in our parks increases. Unfortunately the idiots with the buffalo aren’t alone. Park rangers recount stories of…