Glacier National Park

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has gone on record opposing the Cline Mine proposed to burrow into an area of pristine wilderness of British Columbia just to the north of Glacier National Park.

The American Marten is a rare North Woods animal that you'll probably never see, save for paw prints in the snow. This brown, bushy-tailed little critter, which looks something like a cross between a mink and a house-cat, was prized for its luxurious fur and darn near trapped to extinction in the United States during the 19th century. Today, despite habitat losses and related problems, the American Marten still inhabits much of its historical range.

As summer slowly approaches, more and more of Glacier National Park's landscape is becoming snow-free and accessible. Still, not all of the park's campgrounds will be open for the coming Memorial Day weekend.

I am in a small gaggle of tourists busily training our armament of camera lenses on goateed mountain goats as they grazed contentedly on wildflower-strewn emerald slopes that rise above Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. The goats are so close and nonchalant they could be models strutting a runway.

We love our cars, we love our parks, and we love to drive our cars in the parks. Well, at least when the traffic isn’t too bad, and we really don’t mind just going along for the ride. The windshield touring season is nearly here, so it’s time to start thinking about park trips. All of the national parkways are recommended. Here are a dozen other traverses, loops, and shuttles that belong on your short list.

Long after the public comment period closed on Glacier National Park's draft environmental impact statement regarding a railroad's request to bomb avalanche chutes on the park's southern boundary, the railroad apparently has succeeded in tweaking that document.

The good news from Glacier National Park is that there will be more seasonal employees on the ground this year. The bad news is that cyclic maintenance projects will continue to suffer.

How do you like your fish seasoned? A little mercury, perhaps some DDT? That's what you might get if you eat fish caught in national parks in the American West.

A plan to develop coalbed methane reserves in British Columbia just north of Glacier National Park have been dropped. However, there still are plans to develop coal reserves in the region.

Skyrocketing construction costs are threatening the ambitious rebuild of Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road, with latest estimates for the job at least $100 million more than initially thought.

It's only January, the Super Bowl has yet to be played, and the Rocky Mountain states are up to their necks in snow. Sooooooo, it must be time to book your summer national park vacation.

It's been months since Glacier National Park officials concluded after lengthy environmental studies that snowsheds, not 105mm howitzer shells, should be used to protect freight trains from avalanches sliding off the park's southern flanks. And yet Interior Department officials have yet to sign off on that decision.

While there's much concern across the country about kids losing touch with nature, that doesn't seem to be the case in Montana, where schoolchildren have created new postcards for the Glacier Natural History Association.

Drive the Going-to-the-Sun Road through Glacier National Park and you're immediately struck by the alpine beauty of this national park. Shimming lakes, waterfalls that seem to dangle from cliffs hundreds of feet in the air, glaciers off which the sun glints. But appearances can be deceiving.

Montana's two U.S. senators are seeking to have the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park declared a World Heritage Site in Danger because of proposed energy development near the headwaters of the Flathead River. This is just the latest flare-up over how British Columbia officials are managing energy development near the two national parks.

Earlier this summer we ran a list of the Top 10 Lodges in the park system. Admittedly it's a "soft" list, one that definitely is not objective. But what some might find objectionable are the nightly costs for staying in some of these places.

There's plenty of news around the national park system, if you take a look. Newspapers are questioning Yellowstone planners on their snowmobile decision, politicians are making hey with the Everglades, Glacier is celebrating its Peace Park status, and Valley Forge is facing development on its doorstep.

Three-quarters of a century ago, the peace and friendship between the United States and Canada led to creation of the world's first "Peace Park," Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. To commemorate that event, and to explore how best to manage transboundary protected areas, particularly Peace Parks, a conference will be held in September at Waterton Lakes National Park.

Riding a bus in the city is part of the daily grind; kids take them to school, adults take them to work. Should we settle for having to ride a bus on a vacation to a national park too? My feeling is now 'yes, we should'.

Computer animations can bring 18th-century cannon fire to life, but can they bring Gen-Yers to the national parks? Can an audiocast leading teens across a battlefield entice them enough to set foot in Saratoga National Historical Park? Can tracing a hike in Glacier National Park from the comforts of their homes convince this generation to beg their parents to visit Glacier on their next vacation? Those are questions that have more and more park managers searching for answers.