national park

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America's Best National Parks
 America's Best National Parks 
TRAVEL

America's Best National Parks

(Newser) - In the recession, international air travel is down and national park attendance is way up. Forbes runs down the crème de la crème of America’s national treasures, but be warned: “It's been incredibly hard to get camping space at most national parks,” one travel agent...

Michelle, Our National Parks Need You
Michelle, Our National Parks Need You
OPINION

Michelle, Our National Parks Need You

Only first lady can stem wilting interest in US' 'attics of history'

(Newser) - Last year, more people visited areas run by the National Parks Service than attended NFL, NBA, MLB, and NASCAR games combined. Still, Timothy Egan writes in the New York Times, the 274 million visits amount to a national crisis. “Our shared outdoor spaces, our attics of history and graveyards...

Ben Stein to Wal-Mart: Hands Off Civil War Battlefield

(Newser) - Ben Stein loves Wal-Mart—just don’t put one smack-dab in the middle of a historic Civil War battlefield in Orange, Va. The 1864 Battle of the Wilderness was a turning point in the conflict, Stein writes in the American Spectator, and the “battlefield is incredibly important environmentally and...

National Parks Plan 3 Free Summer Weekends

(Newser) - The National Park Service is looking to stimulate summer vacations, with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announcing today that entrance fees at 147 national parks and monuments—including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite—will be waived on three weekends this summer: June 20-21, July 18-19, and Aug. 15-16. “During these...

Pot Farms Sprout in National Parks

Rangers warn that illicit, cartel-run plantations are on the rise

(Newser) - America's park rangers are battling a growing number of marijuana plantations taking root in national parks, NPR reports. Marijuana farms have been found in at least six national parks on the West Coast, where rangers say growers camp in the woods all summer, tending hidden plantations that can't be spotted...

Bush Policies Will Blow Through Nat'l Parks for Years

Putting commerce over conservation, White House stifled scientists' protests

(Newser) - Views of spacious skies and purple mountain majesties in US national parks may soon be interrupted by industrial roads and power lines, after years of Bush policies that pushed commerce over conservation, reports the Los Angeles Times. And unlike the many decisions that President Obama can quickly reverse, the changes...

Student May Face Fed Charges for Fake Drilling Bids

Activist infiltrated auction, won 22,000 acres of federal land at auction in protest

(Newser) - A Utah college activist may face federal charges and jail for making bids he can't afford on scenic tracts in a federal drilling auction last month, the Washington Post reports. Economics student Tim DeChristopher wielded his red auction paddle 13 times to snag $1.8 million in property before federal...

Suicides Up in National Parks
 Suicides Up in National Parks 

Suicides Up in National Parks

'08 a big year for people offing themselves in pretty places

(Newser) - A newly unemployed businessman shot himself in the chest in Glacier National Park. A 46-year-old carpenter with cancer climbed into a canoe in the Everglades and never returned. A 49-year-old builder left a note blaming the economy before killing himself in Georgia’s Kennesaw Mountains. They were just some of...

Guns OK'd in National Parks
 Guns OK'd in National Parks 

Guns OK'd in National Parks

Campers will be allowed to pack heat in all but 3 of America's national parks

(Newser) - Visitors will be allowed to carry concealed and loaded weapons in all but three of America's 391 national parks under a new Bush administration policy, the Washington Times reports. The move, widely seen as a parting gift to the NRA from the president, reverses a 25-year-old Interior Department policy and...

EPA to Loosen Clean-Air Rules in National Parks

Bush moves to allow coal-fired plants nearer US land preserves

(Newser) - Polluting facilities like coal-fired power plants could soon be allowed to operate closer to national parks, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post. Rules being finalized by the EPA—against strong objections from several officials—will weaken Clean Air Act protections by averaging out emission counts over a year,...

Treats Banned, Komodo Dragons Get Nasty

Ban on food offerings 'angers' hungry lizards

(Newser) - Komodo dragons in an Indonesian park are increasingly attacking humans, and villagers who share their habitat say environmentalist policies are to blame, reports the Wall Street Journal. Inhabitants of Komodo National Park have traditionally left deer and sheep for the carnivorous lizards, the largest in the world. But new laws...

Wild Pot Found in Indiana National Park

Park officials, police plan search-and-destroy mission

(Newser) - The National Park Service has found wild marijuana growing in a northern Indiana federal park, the Chicago Tribune reports. Officials don't know how many plants are spread throughout the 15,000-acre Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, on Lake Michigan about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, but said they will work with...

Iconic Arch in Utah Park Collapses

First to fall since 1991

(Newser) - A popular stone arch collapsed early last week in Utah's Arches National Park, the AP reports. First discovered in 1948, the Wall Arch fell victim to gravity and the very same force that formed the sandstone structure—erosion. "They all let go after a while," said a park...

Turtle Assists in Pot Bust
 Turtle Assists in Pot Bust 

Turtle Assists in Pot Bust

Radio monitoring leads officials to marijuana patch

(Newser) - Agent 99, watch out: A 6-inch-long box turtle known as "No. 72” may want your job. Washington, DC, police recently got an assist from No. 72 in making a drug bust, the Washington Post reports. One of several turtles fitted with transmitters that allow National Park Service researchers to...

Grand Canyon Is No Disneyland
 Grand Canyon Is No Disneyland 

Grand Canyon Is No Disneyland

It takes 6,000 workers to keep park visitors safe

(Newser) - Every day from before dawn until around midnight, a staff of thousands unites to keep the Grand Canyon in good condition and its 4.4 million annual visitors safe. NPR travels to the iconic destination to see how it works. "I hope that you are not imagining a pony...

Feds May Return Badlands to Sioux

Tribe ousted from Badlands in 1942

(Newser) - The National Park Service might return half of South Dakota's Badlands National Park to the Oglala Sioux, reports the LA Times, some 6 decades after the US military ousted 800 members from the territory during World War II. The measure still needs Congressional approval, and tribal members remain unsure whether...

National Park, Meet Coal Smog
 National Park, Meet Coal Smog 

National Park, Meet Coal Smog

Over own experts' objections, EPA moves to allow power plants closer to rec areas

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency is set to change its rules to allow the construction of coal power plants in previously off-limits areas near national parks, the Christian Science Monitor reports. A draft revision to the Clean Air Act would soften standards of pollution in “Class 1” areas (ie, national...

Aussie Pokes Croc's Eyes, Rescues Wife

Heroic hubby jumped on 8-foot beast's back and poked it in the eyes

(Newser) - When an 8-foot-long croc grabbed his wife and pulled her into the water, an Australian man says he did what anyone would—jump on the beast's back and poke it in the eyes until it let go. The pair made it to shore safely, reports the AP, although the woman...

Hawaiian Volcano Acting Feisty
 Hawaiian Volcano Acting Feisty 

Hawaiian Volcano Acting Feisty

Halemaumau's eruption mild for now, but officials well aware of dangers

(Newser) - Halemaumau Crater on Hawaii's Big Island is acting up—venting gas and the occasional gobbet of lava. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory is classifying the activity as the crater's first eruption since 1982, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reports; scientists are unsure whether the trickle could turn into a larger, more dangerous convulsion....

Grand Canyon Flood Creates New Landscape

Management debate continues

(Newser) - The manmade flood that washed out part of the Grand Canyon last week has already produced sandbars, which indicate the project was a success, National Park officials tell the AP. The flood was designed to make up for the loss of natural distribution of sediment that accompanied the erection of...

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