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Blog Post Park Advocates in Chicago See Future Possibilities in the Past at Lowell, Massachusetts Chicago’s south side is home to some of America’s most fascinating and important stories. The Pullman Historic District is where, in 1880, George M. Pullman built the country’s first planned model industrial town. It was also home to the nation’s first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the pivotal “Pullman Strike” of 1894. These important “firsts” speak to Pullman's national significance and why so many Chicago leaders have come together to work to establish it as the city’s first national park.
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Blog Post National Parks Deserve to Be Protected from Oil and Gas Development Theodore Roosevelt was our greatest conservation president. President Roosevelt’s boundless vision and determination resulted in a system of national parks that is the envy of the world, and has been called “America’s Best Idea.” Ironically, his namesake national park, which includes his North Dakota homestead, is currently facing a threat that could permanently degrade a patch of land that was supposed to be protected in perpetuity.
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Blog Post The Best of America, Free: It’s National Park Week “This land was made for you and me,” Woody Guthrie famously sang, and this is the week to prove him right. Acadia, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Gettysburg, Olympic, Rocky Mountain—all of these iconic places and hundreds more are all FREE to enter, now through April 28 as part of National Park Week.
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Blog Post 'How Did They Let This Happen?' On the three-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill, I hope my students remember the advice I gave them.
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Blog Post Three Years Later: Gulf Coast Still Recovering from BP Oil Spill This Saturday, April 20, marks the third anniversary of the oil rig explosion that devastated coastal communities, waters, and lands in the Gulf of Mexico and imposed tragic loss among 11 families.
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Blog Post Years of Abuse and Overuse Make the Colorado River the Most Endangered River of 2013 This year’s Most Endangered Rivers report from American Rivers makes one thing clear: It is not sustainable for a single river to support 36 million people.
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Blog Post Unsportsmanlike Conduct The state of Alaska should not allow objectionable bear-hunting methods like baiting, snaring, and spotlighting in our northernmost national parks.
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Blog Post Sally Jewell: An Ideal Choice to Lead Our National Parks into Their Next Century To witness our new Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in her element, it helps to find her outdoors, whether she’s hiking a trail, paddling a kayak, or climbing a mountain. I know because I’ve gotten to share a number of excursions with her over the eight years she has served on NPCA’s board of trustees, and it’s given me insight into her character.
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Blog Post Blue and Gray Make Green Earlier this week, the Civil War Trust released a ten-page report packed with photos, statistics, and testimonials on the benefits Civil War battlefields have on the economy.
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Blog Post Take Action to Protect Yosemite Valley’s Wild and Scenic Merced River There are few places better known or more loved than Yosemite National Park. As a transplanted Californian originally from Iowa, it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I first emerged from the park’s famous Tunnel View to the jaw-dropping, iconic sight of El Capitan and Bridalveil Falls rising from the Valley floor and Half Dome shining in the background.
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Blog Post Park Service Releases Most-Visited National Park Data for 2012 Today, the National Park Service released its annual numbers on the most-visited sites throughout the park system in 2012. Though there aren't many surprises in this year's lists, it's always interesting to see some of the most popular parks in the country and how these numbers compare to previous years.
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Blog Post Charles Young Monument Preserves Enduring Legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers At the turn of the last century, a great American hero set an enduring standard of excellence that forged the basis of the modern National Park System.
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Blog Post Think Pink Early spring in Washington, D.C., is the time that thousands of locals and tourists come together to celebrate the city's famous cherry blossoms.
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Blog Post President Obama Preserves Three Important Sites in America’s History, Honors Civil War Hero Harriet Tubman The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad, First State, and Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monuments will enhance and diversify our National Park System to more adequately reflect our cultural heritage.
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Blog Post Celebrating World Water Day with Major Everglades Milestone It’s World Water Day and a great week for the Everglades. A new bridge will soon bring much-needed water to the park.
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Blog Post Budget Cuts Hit Home—Harry Truman’s Home Somewhere in the visitor center of the Harry S Truman National Historic Site in Independence, Missouri, I worry that the park rangers pass around my photograph, my name, and a note saying: “Warning! He asks too many questions.”
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Blog Post Funding Discussion Shares Creative Solutions for National Park Funding Woes Make no doubt about it, the National Park Service is strapped for cash. Before grappling with the new federal mandate to cut 5 percent of its entire operating budget, the agency was already suffering from a funding shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars, had already taken a 15 percent cut in the last decade, and already has a staggering $12 billion maintenance backlog.
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Blog Post Protecting a Home for Wildlife on the Range Volunteers have worked for months to help the country's fastest mammal avoid a fatal problem: miles of fencing blocking their migration routes.
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Blog Post The Top 5 Myths about the Sequester and National Parks NPCA has been warning the public for well over a year that the deep federal budget cuts known as the sequester would harm national parks. We’ve seen a groundswell of support to restore critically needed funding to the Park Service, but we’ve also heard a great deal of misunderstanding about these funding cuts. Here are five of the biggest myths we’ve encountered.
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Blog Post VIDEO: Native Birds and Wildlife Make a Comeback at Channel Islands National Park Yesterday, the Park Service released more good news from Channel Islands National Park. Just a few weeks after biodiversity advocates celebrated the recovery of the night lizard on these protected islands, park officials and their partners are now sharing dramatic findings on improvements to bird populations and other native wildlife at Anacapa Island, one decade after removing invasive rats from the ecosystem.
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Blog Post New Report: Air Quality in the Smokies Is Headed in the Right Direction A new report from Colorado State University confirms that air quality in our most-visited national park is measurably better, thanks to the Clean Air Act.
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Blog Post Hope in the Wake of Tragedy When Sandy crashed ashore just a few months ago, it ravaged the cities, towns, and shorelines of New York and New Jersey and caused unprecedented damage to the region’s national parks.
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Blog Post Vacation Planning? These Park Movies Will Help These 10 films can help inspire travel ideas from the comfort of your armchair with visions of national parks around the country.
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Blog Post Veterans to Volunteer in Cleanup Efforts at Gateway National Recreation Area When Superstorm Sandy made landfall in the Northeast late last October, many of New York's beaches were inundated with damage and debris. As the area recovers and rebuilds, a group of veterans will help with cleanup and beach restoration efforts at Gateway National Recreation Area, which has remained closed since the storm.
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Blog Post Today’s Cuts Mean Wide-Ranging Impacts for Parks—and People—around the Country Severe budget cuts could affect jobs, visitor services, gateway communities, and more.
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Blog Post Death Valley: This Land of Extremes Now Recognized for Its World-Class Night Skies Death Valley isn’t just the hottest place on Earth. It was also just recognized as one of the darkest.
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Blog Post “A Gift of the Whole People” NPCA recently forged a new partnership with the organization I helped found, ioby, as a way to provide a platform for local groups to crowdfund projects in our country’s beloved national parks. It sounds like a cutting-edge idea, and it is—though another cause beat us to the punch by more than a hundred years.
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Blog Post A Strong Recovery for the Island Night Lizard What's three inches long, lives on a remote island, and was just removed from the Endangered Species List? Meet the island night lizard, a species unique to the Channel Islands, whose population has rebounded so significantly since 1977, as of this month, it no longer needs federal protection.
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Blog Post Saving Beauty, One Ranch at a Time More than four thousand acres of mineral-rich private land will now become part of Petrified Forest National Park thanks to a generous donor
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Blog Post A Valentine’s Day Q&A with Audrey Peterman Long-time environmental advocate Audrey Peterman shares inspiration, thoughts on diversity, and information on her new book, which she describes as a “love letter to the parks.”
Pagination