Wind Cave National Park

A reward fund has been established for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the poaching of two bull elk at Wind Cave National Park.

A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for shooting two elk in Wind Cave National Park.

If you find yourself in South Dakota during the long Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday weekend, swing by Wind Cave National Park to take one of the free cave tours being offered then.

Winter is no reason to ignore the national parks, and at Wind Cave National Park this winter and into the spring months they're offering special programs to help you and your kids enjoy the backcountry.

Do you live in South Dakota, or are you planning a trip there in mid-December? If so, stop by Wind Cave National Park, either to take part in the park's Christmas Bird Count or to enjoy the holiday open house.

Winter, with its lack of crowds in most parks, can be a great season for a visit ... with a caveat. While the need to use caution on snowy and icy highways should be obvious, another potential hazard may not be on your mental radar during a winter drive: wildlife on the roadway.

Nearly 50 years after it was completed, the Leopold Report on wildlife management in the national parks is perhaps overdue for revisions to take into account the realities of climate change, sprawl, and greater visitation to the parks.

Rolling landscape and some history have been added to Wind Cave National Park through the acquisition of a 5,555-acre ranch made available to the National Park Service by The Conservation Fund.

When emergencies occur, Americans take it for granted that trained help will arrived promptly. That doesn't happen by chance, however, and a recent training session will help prepare emergency responders in case things go wrong in some of the most challenging locations on earth: caves.

Earlier this year we ran a story by former Park Service historian Richard West Sellars that examined how fully the National Park Service at Fort Laramie National Historic Site recounts the history of the 19th Century Indian Wars. The following article from Robert Pahre takes a broader look at how the National Park Service interprets Native American history.

Rainy weather, and problems at nearby Jewel Cave National Monument, are being pointed to as the reason for the largest visitor turnout at Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota since August 10, 1975.

Earlier this week we had a spirited discussion of whether the National Park Service needs to add a site to honor Cesar Chavez, who orchestrated the farm labor movement in the 1960s. That discussion nips at a larger question: Has Congress led the Park Service astray and turned it into a catchall agency?

As long as the weather allows, crews will head into Wind Cave National Park on Thursday and Friday if necessary to round up 35 elk and fit them with radio collars so their movements can be monitored.

Youngsters -- ages 3 to 10 -- are the target audience for a series of nature programs being offered this winter at Wind Cave National Park.

It looks somewhat like a dusting of confectioner's sugar, but the white coating that is showing up on more and more noses and wings of bats is the signature of a dire fungal disease that threatens to decimate bat colonies across the country.

Another dozen black-footed ferrets now call Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota home, the result of plague preventing their release elsewhere in the West.

While state and federal authorities are developing a plan of attack for dealing with white-nose syndrome in bat populations, a non-profit organization is criticizing the federal government for moving too slowly on this growing problem.

In a race to contain, if not outright halt, the spread of white-nose syndrome in bats the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has awarded roughly $1.6 million for research into the cause of the disease.

Elk won't have Wind Cave National Park as a sanctuary from hunters for much longer, as crews are making progress on installing a fence to keep the ungulates out of the park during the fall hunt.

After much debate, discussion, and consideration, elk culling operations are scheduled to get under way in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in November, when the first of 240 volunteers will be guided into the park's South Unit with instructions to kill as many cow elk as they can.

Facing too little habitat and too few predators, elk in Theodore Roosevelt National Park this fall will be targeted by a three-month-long culling operation that could bring 240 volunteers into the park's South Unit to shoot elk located by radio collar.

A new IUCN publication reports on the status of wild and conservation-herd bison, makes bison conservation recommendations, and stirs controversy over emotion-charged issues such as the possible "rebisoning" of large areas of former bison range.

There was a paper that zoomed around cyberspace a couple weeks ago, one that roamed far and wide, not unlike a young wolf seeking a territory of its own. It gathered speed as it was flicked around the Twittersphere because it focused on two subjects that captivate more than a few people -- national parks, and wolves.

How far should national park managers go when it comes to wildlife management issues? That's a controversial issue in some circles, as evidenced by the concern being raised over a proposal at Cape Cod National Seashore to poison some crows that have developed a knack for preying on piping plovers, a threatened species along the Atlantic Seaboard under the Endangered Species Act, whose nests are seemingly protected by enclosures.

There's been plenty of discussion lately about the need to help kids "connect" with nature, and Wind Cave National Park is doing something about it. The park is offering programs for exploring nature with children and discovering the park’s backcountry.

Barring bad weather, the folks at Wind Cave National Park will be counting birds on Sunday when their annual Christmas Bird Count is scheduled to be tallied.

A mixed bag of tools -- hunting outside the park, roundups and sharpshooters inside the park -- will be available to Wind Cave National Park officials as they work to reduce their 750-head elk herd to possibly as few as 232 animals, according to a management plan recently approved.

They're not particularly glamorous, but the renovations under way to the visitor center at Wind Cave National Park will provide utility efficiencies, enhance fire protection, and protect the park's museum collections with better climate control.

Twenty-three bison rounded up at Wind Cave National Park have been translocated to a Nature Conservancy-managed preserve in Mexico. The project will establish a satellite herd on grasslands in Chihuahua that were part of the species’ historic range.

Thirteen bison fresh from Wind Cave National Park will soon be released in Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Destined to become one of the preserve's main attractions, the charismatic animals restore an important element of biodiversity and historical character to a national park that was established to protect one of America’s last remaining large tracts of tallgrass prairie.