Search results for “Enhancing the Visitor Experience”
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Blog Post The Spike That Connected the Country In 1869, engineers connected two railway lines in northwestern Utah, completing the world’s first transcontinental railroad.
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Blog Post A New Resource in the Fight to Defend the Boundary Waters: Kids Teen advocate launches a new initiative to motivate youth to protect wild places, including the watershed that includes Voyageurs National Park.
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Magazine Article The Octogenarian and the Monolith At 87, Robert Kelman is the oldest person to climb Devils Tower.
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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 Hi-Def Yosemite Webcam the Latest Online Glimpse into the National Parks Webcams give viewers live glimpses into of some of America's most spectacular places. Check out these scenes from national parks around the country.
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Blog Post The Art of Resistance It was a typical San Francisco winter day—in other words, we couldn’t see farther than a car’s length ahead of us—as my family and I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. The fog horns were blowing, reminding my mom of how, as a child, she’d look out across the San Francisco Bay shrouded in mist and get a chill down her spine thinking of the criminals living out on Alcatraz. We were on our way to that former federal prison—now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—an eerie place to match the eerie day.
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Blog Post The Other Side of the Clouds A behind-the-scenes look at an extraordinary couple who volunteers full-time at Yosemite National Park.
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Blog Post Summer Home of the ‘Denim King’ What’s one of the most popular stops along the Blue Ridge Parkway? Moses H. Cone Memorial Park and its Flat Top Manor — a 23-room mansion built as a country gentleman’s estate in 1901 by the world’s leading manufacturer of denim.
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Blog Post NPCA-Sponsored Events Focus Attention on the "Ritchie Boys" and Their Legacy of Heroism from WWII In June, NPCA sponsored a two-day commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of Camp Ritchie Military Intelligence Training Camp (MITC) in Cascade, Maryland, during WWII, the legacy of the “Ritchie Boys” who trained there, and the role of the National Park Service (NPS) in protecting and interpreting sites in America's military history.
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Blog Post The Elwha River, Undammed After years of work, the Elwha River at Olympic is undammed and flowing again. The salmon—and the white-water rafters—are loving it!
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Magazine Article Weeding the Grand Canyon The search for an invasive plant, ghosts of the past and belonging on a journey downriver.
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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 Love Is in the Parks 5 NPCA staff members share their national park love stories.
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Blog Post NPCA Urges Congress to Avoid Across-the-Board Budget Cuts to National Parks NPCA and other public interest groups concerned about the impact of looming budget cuts to federal programs delivered a letter to Congress and the Obama administration last week urging decision-makers to avert sequestration—the steep mandatory budget cuts that will go into effect this January if lawmakers do not act to prevent them.
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Blog Post Hunting in the National Park System? Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill known as the Sportsmen’s Heritage Act which, if passed in the Senate in its current form, could allow hunting in units of the National Park System that currently do not permit it. NPCA strongly opposes this provision of the bill.
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Blog Post The Final Frontier? Every U.S. state is home to a national park site, but this was not the case for most of the history of the National Park System. In 2013, President Obama used the Antiquities Act to create a national park site in the very last state to have one.
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Blog Post The World’s First National Park Cave National parks protect the country’s most treasured landscapes, including a wealth of natural resources under the Earth’s crust. The United States was the first place in the world to designate a cave as a national park.
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Magazine Article Through the Looking Glass Photographer Michael Falco captures dreamy Civil War landscapes using a device even older than the battles themselves: the pinhole camera.
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Blog Post Check Out The National Parks Band That Supports National Park Lands If you're like me, you love the peaceful sounds of national parks. Here's a chance to check out the inventive sounds of The National Parks—indie-folk artists Brady Parks, Sydney Carling, and Paige Wagner who make up the up-and-coming band one musician described as "the Lumineers meets Of Monsters and Men."
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Blog Post 5 Inspirational Stories from the Parks Through their spectacular landscapes, magnificent wildlife and rich history, national parks have inspired generations of visitors. But often, it is the people within those parks who move us most. Here are five personal stories of determination, selflessness and healing that show how parks can bring out the best in people.
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Magazine Article The Price of a Feather More than a century ago, the discovery of a hidden bird refuge in the Everglades led down a path of greed, vanity, and murder. And that’s just the beginning of the story.
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Blog Post It's the Best Year to Enjoy National Parks: 10 Reasons Why It's the 100th birthday of the National Park Service, with opportunities to celebrate the parks throughout 2016. From planting a “Centennial Forest” in Texas to counting species of plants and animals on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., here are 10 ways to take your appreciation for national parks to historic levels in 2016.
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Blog Post Preserving the Stories of Atomic City: A Q&A with Denise Kiernan A new book shares some of the fascinating history behind the young women who unknowingly helped build the first atomic bomb at what could soon become the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
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Blog Post What the Park System Needs for Its Birthday: Repairs This Sunday is the 103rd birthday of the National Park Service, yet so many of the 400-plus national park sites in the agency’s care need critical maintenance and repairs. Legislation exists that would help fix this problem — Congress just needs to vote on it.
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Blog Post César E. Chávez National Monument an Excellent First Step Toward Honoring the Influential Labor Leader NPCA commends President Barack Obama for announcing on Monday that he will designate a César E. Chávez National Monument in Keene, California, as the 398th site in the National Park System—the first national park unit to recognize the work of a contemporary Latino American. This designation is an excellent first step toward honoring Chávez and a fitting way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
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Magazine Article The Voice of Glacier Ranger Doug Follett reflects on 50 Years at Glacier National Park.
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Press Release New Colorado River Study Finds Water Uses Impair the Health of National Parks in the Southwest NPCA report finds alterations to natural water flows damage national parks
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Magazine Article In The Footsteps of a Dream Relive the history of the civil-rights movement in Alabama and Georgia.
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Magazine Article The Retirement Cure Making the most of retirement with a 40-foot RV, a patch of dirt and full-time seasonal volunteer work in the national parks.
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Blog Post The Man Who Tackled El Capitan with His Bare Hands World-renowned athlete Alex Honnold, star of the new National Geographic film "Free Solo," talks with NPCA about his historic rope-free climb, his passion for Yosemite, his leave-no-trace ethic and his connection with the natural world.
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Video Protecting the Rim of the Valley In Los Angeles’ backyard, just beyond the hustle and bustle of the city, a nature escape awaits. Watch this video by National Parks Conservation Association and Nature Valley.
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Fact Sheet On the Ground Solutions: Saving Pronghorn Our national parks are integral parts of a larger landscape and are deeply connected and vital to the health of surrounding wild lands and gateway communities. In Greater Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park’s 2.2 million acres serve as the core for a diversity of wildlife species that spend part of the year inside the park but must access vital seasonal habitat outside the park to survive.
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Report Center for State of the Parks: Denali National Park and Preserve In this report, the National Parks Conservation Association incorporates findings from its State of the Parks assessment to describe the current condition of Denali’s natural and cultural resources and many of the stewardship challenges ahead.
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Report Center for State of the Parks: Great Smoky Mountains National Park In this report, the National Parks Conservation Association summarizes findings from an assessment by its State of the Parks program to describe the current condition of Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s resources and the stewardship challenges ahead.
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Report Center for State of the Parks: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park In this report, the National Parks Conservation Association describes many threats that face Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park through an assessment conducted by the State of the Parks program.
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Report The Alaska Citizen's Guide to Natural Gas Permitting This Guide highlights opportunities where citizens can influence agency decisions that affect the impacts and conditions of natural gas development. It encourages Alaskans to take an active role in preserving our public lands and to better ensure a well-informed, site-specific and historically-aware use of natural resources.
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National Park Service Photos from the Stonewall Uprising See 1960s photos of Stonewall and the early days of the gay rights movement through a virtual exhibit by the National Park Service.
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Podcast Episode The Beauty of Loss Pete McBride spent 20 years photographing the Colorado River. His new book showcases the depths of its crisis — and reasons for hope.
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Podcast Stamped in the Soil The Selma to Montgomery Trail is a national park site, but the rural camps where marchers found shelter are not — and they’re in disrepair. Can this history be saved?
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Podcast Episode The Skeleton Crew A new fossil discovery at Glen Canyon could deepen our understanding of ancient mammal-like reptiles that lived among some of the earliest dinosaurs. The scientists share their findings.
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Kari Tobaygo Kari has over 20 years experience in the prospect research field and has led the NPCA Prospect Research team since July, 2012.
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NPCA at Work Fragile Treasures Threatened in Chaco Culture National Historical Park The growing demand for oil and gas in northwestern New Mexico has the potential to impact the cultural and natural resources of Chaco Culture National Historical Park--including the quality of its world-renowned night skies. Flaring of natural gas and an increase in intensive artificial lighting from construction activities, vehicle traffic and operation of support facilities can all affect the quality of the night skies both at the park’s higher elevations and inside the historic canyon.
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NPCA at Work Victory for 20 Million Acres of National Park Lands The Biden administration protected America's largest national park landscape by stopping a 211-mile industrial mining road that would have sliced through Gates of the Arctic National Preserve, disrupted caribou migration and threatened the subsistence lifestyles of rural Alaskans
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Park Minute Man National Historical Park No one really knows who fired the first shot at the battle of Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, but the result is not disputed—America was at war for her independence from the British Crown.
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Park Flight 93 National Memorial This site preserves the crash site of Flight 93 commemorates the passengers and crew who, on September 11, 2001, gave their lives to thwart a planned attack on the nation's capital. Visitors can learn about the lives of these brave men and women, see a marble wall inscribed with their names, and walk through a grove of 40 memorial trees planted in their honor.
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Park Fort Monroe National Monument Nestled at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, Fort Monroe played a pivotal role in ending slavery in America, when it became known as "Freedom's Fortress" during the Civil War.
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Staff Dominique LaForge Dom, the Northern Rockies Region Western Indigenous Fellow joined the team summer of 2024. He is from the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation and Dine (Navajo) Nation.
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Staff Allison Michalski Allison joined the National Park Conservation Association’s team in 2024 to serve as the Northern Rockies Regional Office’s Northern Rockies Connectivity Program Manager.
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NPCA at Work Maglev Train Is More Harm than Good A proposed high-speed train from Baltimore to Washington would harm a national park, a national wildlife refuge, the Chesapeake Bay and numerous nearby communities — and charge expensive ticket prices to save commuters 14 minutes of travel time.
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Park Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial includes a statue of the president in an outdoor Memorial Plaza set amid an 88-acre forest with nature trails.
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Park Gauley River National Recreation Area The Gauley River National Recreation Area hosts world-class whitewater opportunities. More than 60,000 visitors come here each year for whitewater rafting.
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Casey Barber Casey Barber is an East Coast storyteller and artist who never hits the road without her cast-iron skillet. See her 2022 Artist-in-Residency project, “Maine Ingredients,” and more of her work at caseybarber.com.
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Peter Friederici Peter Friederici writes about science, people, and the environment from Flagstaff, Arizona.
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NPCA at Work Air Pollution in Colorado: Our Lives and Parks at Risk Colorado suffers from a serious and growing air quality problem, failing year after year to meet federal standards for air that’s healthy and safe to breathe. That needs to change.
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NPCA at Work Don’t Risk Wild Land and Fish for a Massive Mine Near Lake Clark Plans for a massive open-pit mine threaten wild salmon and bears at two of Alaska's wildest national parks.
Pagination