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Former Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has been appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Parks Conservation Association, a somewhat curious, and likely controversial, move in light of his oversight of the national parks.

A vision for rebuilding the Flamingo area of Everglades National Park calls for an "eco-friendly" destination, one with a 30-unit lodge, two dozen cottages, "eco-tents," and a new marina.

National Park Service managers must do a better job "to advance natural resource stewardship and science" throughout the agency, according to an independent review of the Park Service's Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate.

There were great expectations when Mote Marine Laboratory launched an underwater robot nicknamed Waldo to look for oil and dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico just west of Dry Tortugas National Park.

A slurry of oil and tar balls roughly 2 miles long and a yard wide from the Deepwater Horizon disaster has been keeping cleanup crews busy at Gulf Islands National Seashore, while other parks in South Florida still have not been impacted.

Hoping to raise the nation's -- and politicians' -- awareness of the rich resources in the Gulf of Mexico, two environmental groups Wednesday released a list of 15 state and federal properties that could be fouled by oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

With work now proceeding on a mile-long bridge along the Tamiami Trail to help improve water flows through the Everglades, the National Park Service is calling for another 5.5 miles of bridges to be built.

With ocean currents, winds, and weather the powers behind the movements of the sprawling oil slick created by the Deepwater Horizon disaster, personnel at national parks along the Gulf Coast can only watch, wait, and prepare for the worst.

Among the pine forests and palmetto thickets of south Florida something of a miracle in wildlife biology has played out during the course of three decades. A creature once thought destined to endure a fate similar to that of the Passenger Pigeon has rebounded and seems poised to move towards a sustainable population.

There are crocodiles, including some genuinely huge ones, living in South Florida. Not everyone is happy about it, but these fascinating creatures have made a dramatic comeback from near extinction.

Loggerhead sea turtles, one of four turtle species that have come ashore to nest from Cape Hatteras National Seashore south to Gulf Islands National Seashore, are not doing well, population-wise. The species currently is being proposed for listed as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act.

Camping in the Everglades doesn't hold much appeal for many Americans today, especially if they're city dwellers. Throw in worries about bugs, alligators and giant pythons, and a campout in the 'Glades can be a hard sell. Everglades National Park is overcoming those hurdles with a new approach that started with a reality TV program and an approach called CAMP.