Badlands National Park

Officials have confirmed the presence of sylvatic plague and tularemia in Badlands National Park. That’s bad news for the park’s prairie dogs and black-footed ferrets, but visitors should be OK if they use common sense safety precautions.

Americans overwhelmingly love bison as an iconic image of the West, but are largely clueless over the ecological plight these animals face, according to a national survey.

Scientists fear that sylvatic plague may decimate the black-footed ferret population of Badlands National Park. The deadly disease began killing prairie dogs and ferrets in the Conata Basin area of nearby Buffalo Gap National Grasslands last spring. Now an aggressive spray-and-vaccinate campaign is the last line of defense for the remaining ferrets.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe might regain exclusive control of 133,000 acres of tribal land that was incorporated into Badlands National Park and is being jointly managed with the National Park Service. If the tribe gets its land back it will establish a major precedent.

On a clear day, you often can see for miles and miles. But as a report from the National Parks Conservation Association points out, clear days are harder and harder to find in our national parks under the Bush administration's relatively laissez-faire approach to coal-fired power plants.

Dozens of movies have depicted actors and actresses cavorting, romancing, running, hiding, fighting, and yes, even dying in national parks or places destined to become national parks. Here are ten of Traveler's favorite movies with a national park connection of some sort. Note that we don’t restrict the field to films shot on location in parks.

Given birth as a national monument in 1939 and then transformed into a national park in 1978, Badlands National Park marks its 29th birthday today. Across its 244,000 acres you'll find vestiges of prehistoric life, the largest expanse of protected prairie in the park system, and a rebounding mammal once thought bound for extinction.