national parks

Yellowstone’s Grizzlies are More Dangerous Than Glacier’s

by michael frank on May 14, 2012 · 5 comments

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Yellowstone has seen a nearly 50 percent increase in conflict between bears and humans in the past five years: A new report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service comparing Yellowstone with Glacier shows that in 2011 there were 17 people charged by grizzlies in Glacier, while in Yellowstone 62 were charged — nearly four [...]

Park Ranger Pays the Price for Whistleblowing

by andrea lankford high country news on May 7, 2012 · 9 comments

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Rob Danno blew the whistle on illegal tree cutting. Now he’s paying.

Proposed New Drilling Is Threat to Western National Parks

by michael frank on May 2, 2012 · 1 comment

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A federal proposal to allow oil shale and oil sands development in parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah would be a major threat to the national parks in those states, says a report by the National Parks Conservation Association. The Bureau of Land Management is considering opening 2.3 million acres to development — the size [...]

Congress to Let Horses Back Into Sequoia National Park

by michael frank on April 27, 2012 · 3 comments

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Rare bipartisan agreement will let horse packers operate this summer.

Ruling Against Pack Animals in Wilderness Hurts Outfitters

by michael frank on April 13, 2012 · 6 comments

6 responses

Back in January a U.S. District Court Judge in San Francisco said that the National Park Service’s plan for allowing horses into Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks violated the 1964 Wilderness Act. The ruling by judge Richard Seeborg came in a three-year-old lawsuit brought by the High Sierra Hikers Association, which held that the [...]

Utah Governor Wants to Take Over Federal Land

by michael frank on March 29, 2012 · 1 comment

one response

More than half of all the land in the state of Utah belongs to every American. That’s right, it’s federal, which means everyone’s taxes go to support it. But in a challenge to more than 100 years of legal precedent, state leaders, including Governor Gary Herbert, have passed legislation saying that the federal government has [...]

Saguaro National Park Bans Sale of Bottled Water and Soda

by kurt repanshek national parks traveler on March 28, 2012 · 0 comments

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If you’re planning to visit Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, bring a reusable water bottle, as the park has banned the sale of disposable bottles of water and soda. The ban took effect last week. Similar bans have been put in effect at Grand Canyon National Park, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and Zion National [...]

National Parks Create 10 Times the Dollars They Cost

In 2010 the federal government gave the National Park Service $2.7 billion and the return on investment was $31 billion and 258,400 jobs. According to a just-out study on the economic value of the NPS conducted by Michigan State University, most of the revenue was generated by lodging and food bought by visitors, who totalled [...]

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Park Service Restricts Cape Hatteras Beach Driving, Motorists Sue

The battle over motorized use of public lands extends far beyond the mountains and forests of Colorado and the deserts of the Southwest. On the East Coast, motorized users recently went to court to try and overturn a new set of rules governing motorized use at Cape Hatteras National Seashore — despite the fact that the Cape Hatteras [...]

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Crater Lake National Park Given Power to Ban Sightseeing Flights

Sightseeing flights over national parks long have been contentious. Officials at Grand Canyon National Park have grappled with buzzing helicopters and droning planes, they’ve been an issue at Denali National Park and Preserve, Mount Rainier National Park, and many other park units. One of the big issues is who should have the final say on [...]

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EPA Says It’s Okay for More People to Get Sick from Water

The EPA has set new standards for allowable sickness caused from swimming, boating, or surfing at the nation’s oceans and Great Lakes —it’s now one in 28 people. The old standard, which dates all the way to 1986, said that eight cases of illness per 1,000 was a reasonable benchmark. The new math works out [...]

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Q&A: Why Bike Races in National Parks Are a Bad Idea

In 1976, fresh from the University of Maryland with degrees in French and Spanish, Joan Anzelmo began her National Park Service career greeting international tourists at the agency’s new Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. But it wasn’t long before the former “city girl” came out West, where she spent most of her 35-year tenure, including [...]

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At Long Last, Grand Canyon Bans Bottled Water

It was ugly. It was public. And it involved controversy over whose park it is anyway, Coca-Cola’s or ours, but in a plan just approved by John Wessels, National Park Service Intermountain Regional director, Grand Canyon National Park will end the sale of water sold in disposable bottles within 30 days. The park has free [...]

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Links We Like, January 31, 2012

ALMOST ALL MID-SIZED MAMMALS ARE GONE FROM THE EVERGLADES. The culprit? Giant Burmese pythons that became popular “pets” among collectors in Florida in the 1990s and, along with other creatures that don’t belong in the Sunshine State, have managed to get loose of their owners. How bad is it? Raccoon populations have fallen 99.3%, possum [...]

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Yosemite Wants to Cut Half Dome Permits by 25%

With an eye on improving the safety of hikers heading to the top of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park officials are proposing to reduce the number of daily permits from 400 to 300, according to a proposed management plan. The Half Dome Trail Stewardship Plan, now open for public review through March 15, says limiting [...]

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