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Park History: How the National Lakeshores Came to Be

Dec 5th - 06:40am | Linda O'Neal

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is gorgeous. We've visitied the Upper Penninsula a few times in past years, staying in Shelter Bay (a small area outside Au Train). The beaches are clean with sand dunes and sand soft under your toes. Chapel Falls area has a 7.5 mile round-trip trail through the forest that ends at Chapel Beach.

Grand Teton Puts Down Another Bear

Dec 5th - 05:56am | Merryland

With all due respect -- BS Frank. There are too many people looking to blame someone else. A journey of a million miles begins with one step. And another. And another. Everyone who works at the park and everyone who visits the park is to blame for not doing enough. Everyone.

Dec 4th - 18:40pm | haunted hiker

Wow, Melissa's comments make my heart ache. I wish I could, like the others, tell you to "stick with it" but instead I'll give you my advice; "pace yourself" while trying to change things from the inside or move on.

Dec 4th - 17:43pm | Anonymous

Yes Gerald, I realize that the lower subordinates dish out some of the fool hardy decisions of this present administration. Yes, fool hardy! But all this butt sniffing goes all the way to the top of the White House. Who do you think is guarding the hen house your fairy godmother? Damn right I blame the Bush administration for most of the crap that goes on within the national parks today.

Dec 4th - 17:06pm | Kath

Jen: Your comments are right on. Reminds me of an experience this summer in Yosemite. Checking into White Wolf tent cabins, I got the usual bear warnings. The man behind me look stupified. "You mean there are bears here!" "Real bears?" "Will they come into my tent?" Hard to believe that someone coming to Yosemite just had no clue.

Dec 4th - 15:55pm | Jen

Melissa, I too want to thank and congratulate you! Stick with it.

Dec 4th - 13:16pm | Gerald

That's it "anonymous"...it's all Bush's fault...nevermind that his wife is a huge fan of the parks (unlike Bill Clinton's wife). You have absoulutely NO credibility in what you say as long as your ilk want to blame everything on the President and his administration. Did it ever occur to you that these decisions are made at a MUCH lower level???

Dec 4th - 11:54am | Anonymous

My Dear Melissa, I hear you and do sympathizes with your anger which shows much utter disgust. This is a typical and normal reaction that any decent hard working ranger would have. Don't despair! I do commend you for your dedicated and devoted service to the national parks.

Dec 4th - 02:29am | Melissa

I worked in Grand Teton this summer as a seasonal ranger, and the bear situation was deplorable. The biggest problem was a lack of a ranger presence in the campgrounds. Some of you may recall that Grand Teton's campgrounds were "privatized" a few years ago. That was a terrible decision that has had a very direct impact on our wildlife.

FAQs for Yellowstone's Snowmobile Decision Revealing

Dec 4th - 11:22am | Lone Hiker

Must be tough on them during the summer months. Can't imagine many rental contracts are being written from May thru September. Hope they all managed to stash away enough booty from the winter bounty to survive during the economic drought that is the summer tourist season.(?)

Dec 4th - 01:46am | Melissa

The Park doesn't owe those people a living. No one told them to set up shop there to exploit the Park's tourists. If the park eliminated all snowmobiling in the park, they'd have to find some other way to make money. Just like horse breeders and carriage makers and farriers did after the automobile was invented. Just like typewriter manufacturers did when the word processor came about.

Why Is Interior Dragging Feet On Keeping Glacier National Park from Being Shelled?

Dec 4th - 09:30am | vink80

I AGREE WITH SCOTT ------ "are these not the same people that used are tax dollars to bail them out of bankruptcy not long ago ? " ------ AND THIS HAPPENS TOO OFTEN OUR NON CORRUPT COUNTRY ! ! ! ! !

Dec 4th - 08:50am | Bill Hosey

Sounds typical...the RR's are making the money, and always want the shareholders pocket books fat when pay day comes. Nevermind if it destroys Nature, and, I guess they think the park has to many animals. Grizzleys are off the endangered list right? Thats enough justifacation for them! The rich get richer and , well, you know the rest.

Dec 2nd - 19:39pm | Durand Cornish

Must be a buck in it for somebody, off the books.

Dec 2nd - 16:48pm | p.scott rattermann

as usuall there are those that have and won't let go, even if it is for the common good and there is those that have not. if it's to get done it will have to be our tax dollars that do it. so the haves can keep what they have. are these not the same people that used are tax dollars to bail them out of bankruptcy not long ago ?

Twenty-seven Years Ago, Eight National Parks Came to Be

Dec 4th - 06:58am | Eric Vercammen ...

Congratulation to all those amazingly beautiful parks. However, it's easier to create a national park than to keep and protect one !!! How is it in God's name possible that i.e. Katmai National Preserve today is a favourite grizzly slaughterhouse for all those so-called sports hunters.

Dec 2nd - 05:05am | MRC

It might be worth mentioning, that two National Monuments, Becharof National Monument and Yukon Flats National Monument, were downgraded to Wildlife Refuges in the same act of legislation. They are in the jurisdiction of the FWS.

Climate Change: What Implications Does it Carry for the Parks?

Dec 4th - 00:24am | Anonymous

RIGHT ON Re'bekah and Roger!!! Pretty arrogant to think that we have much impact on global climate...there have been MANY warming and cooling periods before we got here!! Too much Algore disease goin' around...hot air (lol).

Dec 3rd - 19:21pm | Re'bekah

Mr. Repanshek states that the rising temperatures in Yellowstone and Grand Teton are affecting the lifestyles and possibly the quality of life among the parks' wildlife. If the many scientists who say that the earth is millions of years older than humanity are to be believed however, thousands of species evolved and became extinct long before Homo Sapiens was ever thought of.

Park History: How the National Seashores Came to Be

Dec 3rd - 15:53pm | Anonymous

Rangers do now writer permits for the Wilderness. You do not need a permit to enter the wilderness. Only to camp in it. The NPS did not ask for the beach to be excluded from the wilderness. In fact, the NPS did not want the wilderness at all. Local people wanted it to stop the NPS from making more visitor facilities.

Dec 3rd - 06:32am | Bob Janiskee

This listing deals only with national seashores. Gateway National Recreation Area is an urban park geared to mass recreation as well as natural and cultural resources preservation. Its creation in 1972 was a product of the "parks to the people" movement in the 1970s that yielded a batch of NRAs oriented to urban centers like Atlanta, Cleveland, and Los Angeles.

Dec 2nd - 19:03pm | Joan Hallowell

What about Gateway National Park? It is beautiful! It is on the Atlantic Ocean. It is neglected monetarily and much of it is in NEW YORK CITY while the other side is in New Jersey's Highlands and Sandy Hook. It should be a fabulous resource for Metropolitan area people as well as accessible for visitors from everywhere.

Nov 27th - 20:49pm | Merryland

It should be noted that Mother Nature made the acquisition of Assateague Island possible. After the March 1962 nor'easter wiped out the development that had just recently started on Assateague Island, the Feds seized the opportunity to buy it up from the property owners who were pummeled in the storm. Opportunism? Sure. But stolen?

Nov 27th - 20:28pm | repanshek

Good question. That topic will be addressed in the coming weeks.

Nov 27th - 20:19pm | WEB

Where do the National Lakeshores fit into the history of the National Seashores? Such as "Pictured Rocks" and "Apostle Islands" on Lake Superior, "Indiana Dunes" and "Sleeping Bear" on Lake Michigan.

Nov 27th - 10:22am | Bob Janiskee

The sentence that reads “Private property development and related activities are a perennial thorn in the Park Service’s side.” refers to the Fire Island National Seashore in general, not the Otis Pike Wilderness in particular. Frank’s interpretation is understandable though, and we regret that we didn’t reverse the order of the two sentences he highlighted for comment.

Nov 27th - 06:20am | Lone Hiker

Interesting how the concentration of National Seashores is solely an eastern phenomenon, with th e notable exclusion of the Padre region. I personally I didn't see anything extraordinarily special in the south Texas coastline that would warrant inclusion into this group, but that's just one opinion.

National Parks Contribute Holiday Ornaments to White House Christmas Tree

Dec 3rd - 08:42am | Lone Hiker

Don't feel too badly Frank. I've tried in vain to educate some of the posters that our "democracy" is actually a fabrication, a media and politically driven term, and has absolutely nothing to do with the actual governmental practice in this country. I've been berated by the less than well informed for my ignorance of how our system works.

Dec 3rd - 06:51am | jsmacdonald

So what if it was a downer? If love of the national parks is so sensitive and tenuous that my own experience here with the White House Christmas tree so affects you, then there's really little hope (but of course there's hope). I deeply love the places that are our national parks with an intense passion, especially the places that have touched my experience.

Dec 2nd - 18:49pm | Joan Hallowell

As the mother of one of the designers of a Christmas tree ball, I would like to see the ball and would like to be able to buy a copy for the benefit of that National Park,

Dec 1st - 20:02pm | Merryland

I'm just amazed at all the STUFF that the WhiteHouse puts out and probably needs to be stored for posterity somewhere in Oxon Hill or College Park in the mother of all warehouses. But wait! Where's the White House menorah made from Klondike Gold Rush ore? And how about the White House's Kwanzaa Mkeka made from the Tallgrass Prarie Nat'l Preserve??

Dec 1st - 12:10pm | Matt McGrath

Wow, that anti-ornament rant sure was a downer! I'm not particularly interested in the tree or the ornaments but some people really dig it so why not let them have their fun? Happy holidays!

Dec 1st - 11:07am | jsmacdonald

What is the big hubbub about the ornaments on the tree? I keep reading stories all over the internet about this. First of all, for me personally as a District resident (albeit one about to move to Montana in a few weeks) the only reason I've been to the Yellowstone Christmas tree was to protest the war in Iraq.

Dec 1st - 10:04am | Linda O'Neal

I think it's a wonderful homage to our National Parks, and I, personally, would love to see the vistas portrayed on the ornaments. At least, our National Parks have been brought to the front of everyone's mind and maybe in so doing, people will become more interested in their preservation.

Former Park Service Director Mainella: Interior Department Called Yellowstone Snowmobile Decisions

Dec 2nd - 14:20pm | Lone Hiker

We should all aspire to a time when, as would make not only Frank but so many of the citizenry of our nation terrbily pleased, the NPS and other managers of national lands are turned back into the public stewardship organizations that they were meant to be, and not politically laden private interest groups who are subservient to no other than those signing their checks.

Dec 1st - 06:51am | MRC

Come on, the parks are funded by tax money. And decision and oversight on the use of tax money is the first and foremost task of politics. So unless you find a different form of finance for the park, they will always be and have to be a part of the political game. Stop whining over political influence and get your voice heard in a constructive way in the political debates.

Park Service's Top Investigator Pleads Guilty To Theft

Dec 1st - 11:56am | Roboranger

Pat was a peer, then - as the NPS attempted to create a 'line authority' special agent corps - she threw in (conspired) with a small group that had a plan to take control... (I and most others were excluded from the plan and dialogue). Not surprisingly, she and most of the group became the new power brokers/managers of the program. The culture of the NPS seems to breed this type of behaviour.

A Mammoth Cave National Park Christmas

Dec 1st - 00:22am | Merryland

I saw the White House.gov page with all the ornaments but I somehow missed this one. Isn't there an old Star Trek episode where the Enterprise gets trapped in something that looks a lot like this? :-)

Mammoth Cave National Park Adding Hiking, Biking Trail

Nov 29th - 11:46am | haunted hiker

This sounds wonderful. A great example of mountain biking as an appropriate activity in a National Park. Good job Mammoth Cave. And I love the photo Kurt. ;)

Alaska Regional Director Responds To Outrage Over Katmai Preserve Bear Hunt

Nov 28th - 10:04am | Anonymous

Alaska public radio ran a piece on the bear hunt on Katmai. There were a number of people giving their take including, bear biologists and even a trophy hunter who unanimously feel the bear hunt out on Katmai was very unethical and really was not hunting , but killing or harvesting.

Park Trips: Canyonlands National Park's Horseshoe Canyon

Nov 28th - 08:38am | Aron Ralston

And if you go, don't go alone and let people know your itinerary!

Trekking to Dick Proenneke's Cabin in Lake Clark National Park

Nov 27th - 15:13pm | Michael Bird

Hello friends, My name is Michael, and I'm going to the wilderness on May 1,2009,I will be leaving by my self to see Dick Proenneke cabin.Wish me luck on my new journey.Like to hear from you,please email me at [email protected]. I also have read his book and seen his film.

Conservation Groups Will Head to Court Over Yellowstone Snowmobile Decision

Nov 26th - 15:22pm | Lone Hiker

First, I ain't no "huggie". Second, I don't worry about perosnla contact with these chemicals due to my extensive education and training in the proper methodology of handling corrosive, toxic, and otherwise harmful subtance. You don't do my type of work if your a careless intellectual midget.

Nov 26th - 14:33pm | Jen

Anon - I hate to tell you this, but only one of my four grandparents lived that long. The one grandfather who smoked (none of the rest smoked or drank) died in his early 60's.

Nov 25th - 23:07pm | Anonymous

I wonder how our grandparents lived so long (into their 90s) without the EPA and FDA around to cry that the sky is falling? They smoked, drank, ate lotsa fatty food.... ...and were around a LOT of chemicals! I think Ziggy is right, you huggies WORRY yourselves to death.

Park Trips: Paddling Into Yellowstone National Park

Nov 26th - 14:38pm | repanshek

Richard, I mentioned the Shoshone Geyser Basin down in the 12th paragraph, although there are no hot springs there that you can bathe in. To find those, you have to head down to "Cascade Corner" in the southwestern corner of the park. There you'll find some stretches of river where hot springs discharge into the river waters, allowing for bathing.

Nov 26th - 14:28pm | Richard Smith

The 1st paragraph mentions hot springs, but never mentions them further. Are there hot springs you can bathe in? Why mention them and fail to describe them?

National Park Service Lacks the Funds to Purchase Critical Inholdings

Nov 26th - 11:25am | Gerry

I thought about "would retailers come to an area as remote as some of these very popular locations." If these areas were not under the purview of the National Park Service and under private hands, IMO I think these areas would have been well developed by now.

Nov 26th - 09:27am | Lone Hiker

An interesting notion would be viewing map coordinates of the private holdings in relationship to the placement of current park facilities.

Review: Wild Soundscapes, Discovering the Voice of the Natural World

Nov 26th - 09:40am | Steve Sergeant

The recording and processing end of the audio technology certainly has changed rapidly. But what hasn't changed nearly as fast are microphones, and those are the most important tools. Just as lenses didn't make much if any technological change between film and digital cameras, microphones have made little if any changes in the transition from analog tape to digital flash card.

The Essential RVing Guide

The Essential RVing Guide to the National Parks

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So whether you have an iPhone or an Android, download this app and start exploring the campgrounds in the National Park System where you can park your rig.