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Best Places to Work in the Federal Govt. 2007 This is an interesting list. Want to take a guess where the National Park Service ranks among 222 other federal offices as a place to work? Would you guess top 10? Nope, think lower. Top 50? Lower. Top 100?? Keep going lower. Top 150???? Lower. If you guessed 160th, you were ...
Park Podcasts, So Easy A Caveman Can Do It (Or At Least A Bunch of 4th Graders) I've been wanting to use that caveman line for a long time. No offense intended for either cavemen or 4th graders! I was forwarded an email last week written by the teacher of a 4th grade class in Westford, Massachusetts. Their class had ...
I've received my advance copy of Jim Burnett's latest book called "Hey Ranger 2: More True Tales of Humor & Misadventure from the Great Outdoors". I had read the book's predecessor, which was only published a few years ago, and loved it. I'm really glad that he's found more material for a second book. Part of the reason I enjoyed ...
If it feels a little quiet around here, it is because I'm working on some changes to the website behind the scenes. I hope to make an announcement within the next couple weeks or so about the changes. In the meantime I may add a short article or two, but for now, most of my efforts are going into the ...
By now if you've been following the pricing game played by the National Park Service, you will have heard the comparison made to Disneyland multiple times. I referred to one such comparison made by the NPS in yesterday's article. As you may know, this comparison has been going on for years. I've been told by Scott Silver that the earliest ...
It would be possible to post an article about park entrance fees almost everyday in recent weeks. The stories of proposed entrance fee increases are coming fast and furious from around the nation concerning Park Service managed areas. Add that to the 60% increase in an annual pass (the America The Beautiful pass), then throw in price increases for additional ...
Cool shot of the Death Valley Racetrack Playa, huh? Click the photo for a closer look. This shot comes from Dan Duriscoe of Night Sky Team in the National Park Service. It was published earlier this week on the Astronomy Photo of the Day website. Be sure to catch the explanation under the photo, it describes how the shot was ...
It's not a lie, but it's close. National Park Service spokesperson Kathy Kupper, when asked about a proposed entrance fee hike to Yosemite, is quoted as saying "the $25 would enable an entire family to go into [the park] for a week." The statement is made in a San Jose Mercury News story called "National park entry fees heading for ...
If you love the national parks, please take a few minutes to read the following essay. It is written by John F. Byrne who is Chair of the National Parks Committee within the Sierra Club. His essay touches on so many important topics, and instead dwelling on the problems of the present, he builds a vision for the future that ...
I happened to catch a story on the program called "Weekend America" on NPR today called "The Mount Denali Business Boom". Apparently, this weekend marks the unofficial start to the climbing season on Mt. McKinley (Denali), North America's tallest mountain at 20,320 feet. The story on the NPR webpage includes a couple of audio clips from some rangers in the ...
The Washington Post had an article this last weekend that is worth reading, "Audit Finds Exclusive Clubs 'Monopolize' Public Parkland". In a nutshell, an Interior Department audit found that the Park Service has allowed members-only clubs to inappropriately operate on the public's property. These clubs, says the audit, "have enjoyed exclusive rights to public lands through restrictive and costly memberships ...
I've had a recent email correspondence with a fellow who is quite concerned with the welfare of a program which teaches students how to become law enforcement officers for the National Park Service. This concerned person is a retired Park Police Captain and former instructor in the program. He has sent me the following article which he has written with ...
Happy Earthday. Kind-of a strange thing to celebrate, specifically because every Earthday message I see ends with a phrase along the lines of "if only everyday were Earthday", implying that we could save the world if only we'd pay attention more often. Maybe that's true. And at least in the last year it seems that there has been more attention ...
One of the Seattle National Public Radio affiliates sent a reporter to check out how the reconstruction was going inside Mt. Rainier National Park as they get ready to reopen to the public. As you've probably seen a few times on this website, Rainier suffered extensive damage from a storm back in November that wiped out roads, campgrounds, and more. ...
I'm still here! I know it has been a few days since my last post. The extra time I typically reserve for Park Remark has been tied up this week preparing taxes for the National Park Service ... and every other government program that wants my federal tax dollars. The check is now in the mail, and it's time to ...
I know that a lot of people that read my blog are also readers of the National Parks Traveler, a blog written by Kurt Repanshek. And so, what I have to say here is something that you may already know; for those of us who are concerned about the happenings within the National Park Service, we are pretty lucky to ...
I know I probably cover the news from Mt Rainier National Park more than a lot of other parks, but this has been some year for the mountain. The storms of November caused havoc with the man-made infrastructure including roads, campgrounds, bridges, trails, and buildings. The park has been mostly closed while repairs are going on, but as summer is ...
My professional career as an interpreter began as a dream to work in the parks, and continued with my coursework in college. But none of that meant anything until I met Gary Hathaway. Technically, Gary was my boss while I worked as an interpreter at Lava Beds National Monument, but really his role was much more important in my life. ...
Today is officially the last day of the National Park Service Listening Sessions. In just a few short weeks, the government listeners have toured the country coast to coast, north to south, and even on the web. A few things I've learned about the process: 1) As well as having public meetings, it turns out the Park Service have also ...
I spend a lot of time on the web, and for Park Remark, I spend a lot of time digging around websites that focus on the parks and park issues. To that end, I have hit the npca.org website a lot. The organization has their hands in many issues involved with the Park Service. And so to learn about any ...
This post really has nothing specifically to do with the National Parks. But, if you ever find yourself camping, climbing, hanging food in trees, or even called in for some help with search and rescue, the information on the following website may be of interest to you. The site is called "Animated Knots". It's got all the knots you'll ever ...
Last night was the first of many listening sessions to be held across the country given by the DOI and the National Park Service. I've got a couple articles today describing session #1. Welcome, Mr. Secretary: Park projects urged to mark 100th birthday Kempthorne issued a call for special projects tied to the centennial during an overflow meeting of nearly ...
I've received information in email today which may be of interest to any of you who are planning on attending the many listening sessions set up by the National Park Service and the Department of Interior. The agenda of the San Fransisco meeting has been set, and apparently it will be the same format as used in all other meetings: ...
Mark your calendars. The National Park Service wants to know your thoughts and opinions about the forthcoming centennial. They have set up these listening sessions for us to participate and give our thoughts. Looks like Kempthorne, Bomar, and Scarlett will be picking up crazy rewards points on their frequent flyer plans over the next few weeks. UPDATE #1: The National ...
The Manzanar National Historic Site was a recent selection for an Electronic Field Trip conducted by the Ball State University. According to this piece in the NPS Digest, as many as 20 million kids participated in the web event last month on Feb 13th. The field trip may be over, but the multimedia can still be accessed. Archived program of ...
As it turns out, I was nowhere near a computer yesterday morning to listen to the live webcast of the Congressional Subcommittee meeting that took place in D.C. The meeting was supposed to cover the newly proposed National Park Service budget, but as I understand it, there were some other debates going on as well. They did talk about the ...
Park Remark is happy to announce links to more multimedia for you to enjoy. Tomorrow morning (March 1st), the Subcommittee on National Parks will hold an oversight hearing on the proposed FY08 National Park Service budget. The hearing will be webcast live on the Committee's website. Tune in tomorrow morning at 10 am EST to have a listen. Subject: House ...
One of my goals for Park Remark in 2007 is to bring more multimedia to the site. And so, as part of that effort, I invite you to have a listen to this 8 minute audio program created by an NPR affiliate in California. The article introduces us to Santa Rosa Island within the Channel Islands National Park, and to ...
Within the Park Service, speaking of the "gray and green" is to make reference to the official NPS uniform. I was recently alerted about a lady out there in the blogosphere who has been on a year long quest to apply those colors to her husband, and to top him off with the famous flat hat. The saga is really ...
Some quick history - 28 years ago, President Jimmy Carter using the authority granted him through the Antiquities Act, protected 56M acres of Alaska as National Monuments. Two years later, Congress refined these federal protections under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, or ANILCA for short. Among other things, Carter's original designation doubled the size in acreage of the ...
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