Ever wondered what your favorite national parks look like from way, way, way above? Well, wonder no more. Read more…More about Mashable Video, Yellowstone, National Parks, Grand Canyon, and Yosemite
View More 20 incredible views of U.S. national parks from space – Space Is WeirdCategory: National Parks
Furloughed ranger starts making videos of national parks for the public
It’s been over a month since the government shutdown first started and some federal employees have been, well, available.
Zack Frank, a 35-year-old National Park ranger is one of them. Parks have been largely unstaffed for over a month, jeopardizing worker’s incomes, threatening park security, and ruining vacations — among other completely avoidable consequences.
The mood is grim. So Frank decided to do something good with his free time: make educational videos of the 418 national parks he loves.
Frank was a photographer before he joined the National Park Service. He always dreamed of creating a project like this, he just never had to time to do it. Now he does, for better or worse. Read more…
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View More Furloughed ranger starts making videos of national parks for the publicAmerica’s most stunning jerks are flocking to your national parks. Who are they?
Like an unlocked museum, national parks have been left largely defenseless during the most recent government shutdown, allowing scoundrels and cheats to tramp over unstaffed lands.
While much of the federal government is funded during the longest-ever shutdown, the national parks aren’t. Yet in late 2018, the Trump administration made the unusual — and possibly illegal — decision to keep many of the nation’s crown jewels operating with skeleton crews.
Destruction, mounds of litter, and vandalism have ensued. This unsavory form of recreation has been especially stark in Joshua Tree National Park, where people cut through locked gates, created roads on protected wild land, and may have committed a bona fide desert sin: chopping down a Joshua Tree. Read more…
More about Science, National Park Service, National Parks, Human Behavior, and Jerks
The toilets are overflowing in national parks. But that’s not the worst problem.
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The toilets at Joshua Tree National Park — a world of palm oases, lizard-dominated wilderness, and desert tortoises — are overflowing.
Due to the ongoing government shutdown that started Dec. 22, there is zero funding for most Park Service employees. Hence, Joshua Tree announced that it is now forced to close its popular campgrounds, beginning on Jan. 2.
“The park is being forced to take this action for health and safety concerns as vault toilets reach capacity,” the park wrote on its website.
In a dozen past government shutdowns, like that in 2013, national parks closed completely — which gave some inherent protection to the nation’s hundreds of parks, memorials, and historic sites. But beginning in January 2018, the Trump administration instructed parks to stay open during a shutdown, however long. Now, with an extended shutdown, the parks are finding themselves littered, ill-managed, or not managed at all. Read more…
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View More The toilets are overflowing in national parks. But that’s not the worst problem.Trust us: Play this national parks audio on loop and close your eyes
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Honking horns and catcalls getting you down? Not to worry, city dwellers — the National Park Foundation is here to help.
The National Park Foundation (NPF) has launched PARKTRACKS, an audio portal that lets visitors play a 12-minute-long track of sounds captured at national parks across the country. In honor of the National Parks Service’s 102nd birthday, it’s also hosting a pop-up listening event in Seattle on Friday and Saturday. But anyone can turn on, tune in, drop out — with nature — on the website.
“We hope people will take a moment to pause, listen, and let their imaginations be captivated by the natural and cultural sounds of our national parks,” Alanna Sobel, a National Park Foundation representative, told Mashable over email. Read more…
More about Nature, National Parks, Audio, National Parks Service, and Tech
Apple to launch a National Parks donation program via Apple Pay
Apple today announced a pair of initiatives that will allow its customers to support America’s National Parks. Starting tomorrow, August 24, and continuing through the 31st, Apple says it will donate $1 to the National Park Foundation for every purchase made using Apple Pay online at apple.com, or through the Apple Store app in the […]
View More Apple to launch a National Parks donation program via Apple PayA dominant brown bear has returned to the Alaska bear cam, seeking fish and females
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Bear 747, one of the largest and most dominant Brooks River bears, has returned to his fishing grounds.
The brown bear is one of the first spotted this year on the five webcams positioned along the salmon-rich river in Katmai National Park, Alaska.
Former Katmai ranger Mike Fitz, who has returned to the park to report on the bears for explore.org — the philanthropic organization that sets up and supports bear cam — said he spied 747 recently, and has seen other dominant bears beginning to roam the verdant area.
More about Science, Bears, National Parks, Alaska, and Webcams
View More A dominant brown bear has returned to the Alaska bear cam, seeking fish and femalesThis bear refusing to wake up from hibernation is all of us
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It’s rare to watch a bear trying to awaken from a six-month slumber. But it’s happening right now at Glacier National Park, in northwestern Montana.
From over 350 feet away, rangers have positioned a live webcam upon a lofty black bear den — a sizeable hole some 50 feet up in a cottonwood tree. The bear was first spotted poking its head out of the winter den on March 23, and has been seen there every day since.
According to the park, vigilant cam watchers have seen the bear scampering around the tree’s branches or even traversing down the trunk. But the bear, whose sex is still unknown, returns back to the confines of its winter den. Although it’s early spring, the time that black bears begin awakening from hibernation, the live feed shows that it’s still snowing quite a bit, so perhaps the bear has little incentive to go searching for vegetation. Read more…
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View More This bear refusing to wake up from hibernation is all of usFirst look at ‘The Ranger’ brings ’80s-style horror to a national park
The Ranger teaser trailer is here with an important PSA: National Parks aren’t always relaxing.
The horror film about a group of teens terrorized in Blackwood Point National Park was an official selection for the SXSW 2018 Film Festival. It’s set to …
Coming soon to US national parks: Oil and gas pipelines, thanks to Trump’s new plan
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The Trump administration’s big infrastructure plan, unveiled Monday, amounts to the largest rewrite of one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws in decades. It would dramatically speed up the permitting of all sorts of structures — not just roads and bridges, and even lead to the bizarre possibility that oil and gas pipelines could be swiftly approved for National Park Service lands.
Yes, that’s right, the infrastructure plan would allow for faster approval of constructing oil pipelines to go through our national parks. The plan, if enacted, would accomplish this by giving the Interior secretary the authority to approve a pipeline project on Park Service-administered land, as is currently done with electrical transmission lines and water infrastructure. Read more…
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View More Coming soon to US national parks: Oil and gas pipelines, thanks to Trump’s new planCrumbling national parks mired in $11 billion backlog, but experts scoff at jacking up fees
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Three years ago, the National Park Service banned trucks and buses heavier than 10 tons from crossing over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a major transportation artery connecting Virginia to Washington D.C. And there’s speculation that the U.S. Secret Service now refuses to cross the 82-year-old concrete span, though the agency would not confirm whether this was the case.
From afar, the bridge’s neoclassical design — finished with sculptures of eagles and bas relief of bison — looks glorious. But inside, it’s rotting.
“Most people would be horrified to look behind the curtains of parks,” said Robert Manning, professor emeritus at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Read more…
More about Science, National Park Service, National Parks, Maintenance, and Science
View More Crumbling national parks mired in $11 billion backlog, but experts scoff at jacking up feesThe new Park Service head once allowed a billionaire to chop down 130 protected trees
The new acting head of the National Park Service, Paul Daniel Smith, once let the billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins football team chop down 130 trees on protected park land.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder, whose riverfront mansion abutted…