National Parks | featured news

How much development is too much for Yosemite Valley? National parks officials call for sweeping changes that include eliminating bicycle and horse rentals and remove an ice rink, swimming pools and art center in an attempt to balance nature and recreation.

National parks, forests and wildlife refuges are to receive $12.5 million in grants to improve access to them while supporting greener travel.

People traveling to the nation's parks this spring will find fewer rangers on the job and reduced hours at visitors' centers if the government enacts sweeping budget cuts. Camping and hiking areas might also be closed when the National Park Service cuts $130 million from its $2.6 billion budget under sequestration measures set to start at the end of March.

Yosemite National Park officials this week vowed they have strived for transparency in dealing with a hantavirus outbreak at the park, which has sickened four people and killed two others. But, reporting by The Union Democrat has found, the process has been far more opaque.

"The irony here is that the argument for setting these areas aside as national forests and parks was, to a large extent, to protect them from fire," Pyne says. "Instead, over time they became the major habitat for free-burning fire."

California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in three Northern California counties on Wednesday after a wildfire that has already destroyed 64 homes advanced with 75-foot flames on a tiny community at the doorstep of a national park.

A national park ranger fell about 3700 feet to his death on Mount Rainier in Washington state Thursday during an operation to rescue four climbers. The National Park Service identified the ranger as Nick Hall, 34.

To ensure they have future stewards, national parks are changing attitudes and programs to attract and keep younger people.

Since the beginning of the year, 18 people have died at Yosemite National Park, an unfortunate increase from recent years and a cause for alarm for the park’s rangers.

After reports of the Washington Monument possibly leaning due to a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Virginia Tuesday, the National Park Services has revealed an inspection found cracks in the stones at the top of the Monument.