National Park Service
Watch the river flow
In Colorado, a national park wins a water claim
Don’t be afraid of the big bad bears
Ah, spring: The bloom of flowers, the song of birds, the paranoia of the National Park Service. I have come to expect it just as I expect muddy boots at the door and crowded pews at Easter: If you live in the same part of the world as Glacier or Yellowstone national parks, you will […]
No way to run a national park
Who has the most clout in Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana? Thousands of citizens who took part in an environmental impact study, or a railroad that wants to control avalanches as cheaply as possible? If you guessed the railroad, it seems you’re right. Four years ago, avalanches halted train service for 30 hours, twice […]
Unnatural Preservation
In the age of global warming, public-land managers face a stark choice: They can let national parks and other wildlands lose their most cherished wildlife. Or they can become gardeners and zookeepers.
Jim Detterline to the rescue
NAME Jim Detterline OCCUPATION Rocky Mountain National Park ranger NUMBER OF TIMES STRUCK BY LIGHTNING Three MOST TURTLES EVER OWNED AT ONE TIME 80 (When Detterline was a kid) DEGREES Master’s in vertebrate zoology, Ph.D. in invertebrate zoology HOBBIES Plays the trumpet Jim Detterline is a man of average size, lean, but not small. Still, […]
The deer departed
And the ones that will remain while the National Park Service conducts a controversial mammal birth-control experiment at Point Reyes National Seashore
Voluntary excess
As budgets shrink, national parks increasingly rely on volunteers instead of paid staff
So what if park fees go up?
A day at Disneyland costs a family of four at least $232, not counting Mickey Mouse ears. At Six Flags Magic Mountain, the admission price would be at least $180. A seven-day pass to enter Yellowstone National Park costs $25 per car, which means that the same family spending a week among bison, elk, geysers […]
Don’t part out our national parks
When I worked as a seasonal ranger at Yellowstone National Park some years ago, I came to believe that magnificent places like this should remain free from commercial exploitation. Yellowstone and our other national parks belong to all of us as a public commons to be protected for future generations. Park rangers tell visitors to […]
Old but Faithful
How a feisty group of government retirees faced down the Bush administration and changed the future of America’s national parks
A director from central casting
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Old but Faithful.” She calls herself a “city gal” who emigrated as a child to the U.S. from Leicester, England, where her family owned a large manufacturing company. After a 16-year career working her way up the National Park Service bureaucracy, Mary Bomar is […]
A little flash flooding can be a wonderful thing
I took a sentimental trip to Arches National Park a few weeks ago. I haven’t worked as a ranger at Arches outside Moab, Utah, for 20 years, but I still remember it fondly and sometimes visit my favorite places. Perhaps the most dramatic change is the Delicate Arch road. It was always something of a […]
Two weeks in the West
“No one will look upon her tenure as the golden age of the Park Service.” — Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, on the recent resignation of Park Service Chief Fran Mainella. Mainella’s tenure was contentious — the agency was widely criticized for a 2005 management policy that emphasized recreation over conservation, and […]
The Latest Bounce
New Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne won some friends in the environmental movement in June, when he junked a National Park Service proposal drafted under his predecessor, Gale Norton (HCN, 9/19/05: Revealed — secret changes to park rules). That proposal came under fire from greens, park employees and even some Republican lawmakers for relaxing rules regarding […]
The hazy days of summer … and winter, spring and fall
Air pollution settles over the West’s national parks
Ego climbing at Delicate Arch
In mid-May, the print and electronic media in Salt Lake City, Utah, reported the first ascent of Delicate Arch in Arches National Park. Delicate Arch is one of the most revered and recognized features in Utah, and if any natural feature deserves to be called an icon, it’s Delicate Arch. But on a recent Sunday […]
The bottom-line truth: We are protecting our parks
Open your paper in the next few weeks, and you might see this headline: “Bush budget cuts end 911 coverage for Yosemite.” The story underneath says an official review of the National Park Service by a government agency found that budget cuts and staff vacancies at Yosemite National Park mean that visitors in life-threatening emergencies […]
National Parks are truly under the gun
The words “heavy artillery” and “national park” aren’t usually uttered in the same sentence. Get used to it. National parks are under fire — both literally and metaphorically. First, let’s talk about the literal blasting. It’s proposed in one of America’s grand old parks, Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana. The Burlington Northern-Santa Fe Railroad […]
National Parks and the Woman’s Voice
National Parks and the Woman’s Voice Polly Welts Kaufman 344 pages, softcover: $22.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2006. This updated edition of a decade-old book examines the role of women in the National Park Service, from Yellowstone explorers of the late 1800s to present-day park founders and advocates. Women now fill one-quarter of park […]