Energy Development on Public Lands: The Next Four Years
By Bart Melton, Senior Manager, Landscape Conservation On the eastern side of Glacier National Park, rugged peaks give way to high plains where the Glacier border meets Blackfeet tribal lands. On these lands next door to Glacier, oil and gas companies are in the early stages of exploration. There is little doubt that development on Blackfeet lands would be hugely [...]
From Montana to Qinghai: The Importance of National Parks
By Patricia Dowd, Program Manager, Yellowstone Field Office In July 2011, I received an unexpected email from someone named Lisong Ni. I’m glad I did. Lisong is part of a small group of people working to create a new national park in China’s Qinghai Province. He contacted me because of my experience in Wyoming and Montana, including Yellowstone National Park, [...]
Wolves under Fire in Wyoming
By Sharon Mader, Senior Program Manager, Grand Teton This month has been a sad one for Wyoming’s wolves. On October 1, the federal government removed wolves from the protection of the Endangered Species Act, allowing the state to permit hunting of these animals, despite glaring deficiencies in Wyoming’s wolf management plan. Even worse, the state included national park lands (namely, [...]
Blitzed with Butterflies: Citizen Scientists Document Species at Rocky Mountain National Park
By Dr. Gail Dethloff, Director, Center for Park Research Clouded sulfur? Mormon fritillary? Hoary comma? I had never heard of such intriguing creatures before last month, but the Rocky Mountain BioBlitz put me in close proximity to all three. No fear factor or injuries sustained. Just a stroll in a sub-alpine meadow in an effort to inventory butterflies. The BioBlitz [...]
Precaution, Funding, and Science-Based Policy: Revisiting Leopold Could Move NPS in the Right Direction
By Dr. James D. Nations, Vice President of NPCA’s Center for Park Research When a team of scientists and conservationists led by A. Starker Leopold wrote the Leopold Report in 1963, national park visitors were still feeding bears through their car windows, nocturnal wildlife still feasted on park garbage dumps, and park rangers still shot cougars and wolves to maximize [...]






















