Promising developments percolate in two North American parks.
National Park Service
Posted inArticles
California state parks’ blueprint for a more diverse future
Plans to overhaul park system, appeal to communities of color.
Posted inArticles
An international street artist goes tagging in Joshua Tree
The latest in a string of graffiti incidents in national parks.
Posted inArticles
A murky bill for national park waterways
A Yellowstone paddling bill raises hopes, suspicions.
Posted inArticles
The technique that’s revolutionizing aquatic science
Looking for brook trout? Try environmental DNA.
Posted inArticles
For public lands, massive protections in defense bill
But not all conservation groups think the gains are worth the losses.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Related High Country News coverage
Nevada’s ugly tug-of-war (1995) County commissioner courts bloodshed (1995) Utah counties bulldoze the BLM, Park Service (1996) Nevadans drive out forest supervisor (1999) Shoveling vs. sniveling (2000) Showdown on the Nevada range (2001) Change comes slowly to Escalante country (2003) Road warriors back on the offensive (2003) Rebels with a lost cause (2007 Sagebrush Rebel […]
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Reports from the front lines
Excerpts from official accounts of threats against U.S. Forest Service and BLM employees.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Defuse the West
Public-land employees are easy targets for a violent, government-hating fringe.
Posted inOctober 27, 2014: Defuse the West
Roots of rebellion: A forum
Four experts discuss threats to federal public-lands employees and where we go from here.
Posted inArticles
After 11 years, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument reopens
Increased border security means that all 517 square miles are again open to the public.
Posted inGoat
Closure of federal sheep facility would be a victory for grizzlies
On the last day of August, 2012, a collared grizzly bear dubbed 726 by federal wildlife biologists vanished into the rugged Centennial Mountains on the Idaho-Montana border. A few weeks later, they recovered his collar near an established campsite. It appeared to have been cut, stoking suspicions that hunters may have shot the bear, a […]
Posted inGoat
Recreational deaths soar this summer
Grand Canyon and Colorado rivers have record year for deaths.
Posted inArticles
The privatization of public campground management
All the info you need to decide whether you love or hate that the Forest Service uses concessionaires.
Posted inArticles
Concessionaire Campgrounds: An Explainer
The Privatization of public campgrounds | Create Infographics
Posted inMay 12, 2014: Parks for All?
‘Which parks aren’t relevant to black history?’
A black former park ranger talks about diversity on public lands.
Posted inMay 12, 2014: Parks for All?
Parks for all?
The National Park Service struggles to connect with a changing America.
Posted inMay 12, 2014: Parks for All?
A path to the parks
Veronica Verdin is a 21-year-old junior at Maine’s Bowdoin College, majoring in anthropology and minoring in history. Of Mexican and Japanese-American heritage, she grew up in El Sereno, in Southern California. She hopes to work for the National Park Service as an archaeologist or interpretive ranger and has already participated in two of the agency’s […]