The $27 million Old Faithful Visitor Center opened in Yellowstone National Park last week. If you’ve been to Yellowstone, you know that Old Faithful already suffers from the overly-decorated concrete, signs, boardwalks and chains. The geyser has an eerie feeling of being man made, but when, according to the NPS, 4 out 5 of the 3.3 million visitors that came to Yellowstone last year came to see Old Faithful, I guess the old boy’s show brings in the dough. The new visitor center boasts a bookstore, a gift shop, a theater for introductory films, a research area and a 4,500-square-foot exhibition space. It has touch screen televisions that provide an interactive (!) way to learn about that good ol’ geyser that’s right outside.

One of the reasons I get off on talking about national parks and the NPS is because of its primitive aesthetic. In a world of interactive museums and the Internet, it’s fitting that our public lands consist of park Rangers, old maps, dusty visitor centers with 30 year old wildlife pamphlets and WELCOME! signs from the 70s. I guess it’s rather inevitable that they’re going to “freshen up” the parks, but $27 million on a visitor center, specifically one dedicated to Old Faithful with exhibits that look like this, seems a little excessive. But what do I know, eh?

Read more at the NYT.

Posted: August 31st, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: 8

If you like a good patch, hiking book, sticker or privy magnet (?), then head on over to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s store, load up on goods and know that your money is going to a damn good place.

MP3: Beach Boys – Hold On, Dear Brother (From Rising Storm’s Beach Bros 2)

Posted: August 10th, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: 1

The term “Ranger” was first applied to a reorganization of the Fire Warden force in the Adirondack Park, after 1899 when fires burned 80,000 acres in the park. The name was taken from Rogers’ Rangers, a small force famous for their woodcraft that fought in the area during the French and Indian War in 1755. The term was then adopted by the National Park Service.

The first Director of the National Park Service, Stephen T. Mather, summed up the early park rangers as follows:

They are a fine, earnest, intelligent, and public-spirited body of men, these rangers. Though small in number, their influence is large. Many and long are the duties heaped upon their shoulders. If a trail is to be blazed, it is “send a ranger.” If an animal is floundering in the snow, a ranger is sent to pull him out; if a bear is in the hotel, if a fire threatens a forest, if someone is to be saved, it is “send a ranger.” If a Dude wants to know the why, if a Sagebrusher is puzzled about a road, it is “ask the ranger.” Everything the ranger knows, he will tell you, except about himself.****

****Lots more photos after the jump.

Read more »

Posted: July 12th, 2010 under Long Hairs, Public Lands.
Comments: 7

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is the largest hot spring in the United States, and the third largest in the world. It is approximately 70 feet in diameter and over 121 feet deep. The spring discharges an estimated 560 US gallons of 160 °F (70 °C) water per minute.

The vivid colors in Grand Prismatic are the result of pigmented bacteria in the microbial mats that grow around the edges of the mineral-rich water. The bacteria produce colors ranging from green to red; the amount of color in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids and on the temperature of the water that favors one bacterium over another. In the summer, the mats tend to be orange and red, whereas in the winter the mats are usually dark green. The center of the pool is sterile due to extreme heat.

Posted: July 8th, 2010 under Public Lands, Science.
Comments: 3

Presidents Obama and Calderon are trying to create an international park at the U.S./Mexico border modeled after the Waterton-Glacier Peace Park that we share with our northern neighbors. The new park would be an extension of BEAUTIFUL Big Bend National Park in Texas and would mean securing an extremely rugged area in Mexico that’s the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The Mexico side boasts douglas firs and ponderosa pines at 10,000 feet, crystal mountain streams, black bears and bighorn sheep. It’s far from paved roads, mostly untouched and is visited by the occasional sheepherder and biologist. And drug smugglers. Lots of them.

When Big Bend National Park was established in 1944 in far West Texas, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to President Manuel Avila Camacho of Mexico, “I do not believe this undertaking in the Big Bend will be complete until the entire park area … on both sides of the Rio Grande, forms one great international park.”

More info at NPR.

Posted: June 21st, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: 4

The 17,371-acre Dolly Sods Wilderness in Monongahela National Forest, WV is named after the Dalhe family, who in the mid-1800s, used open grassy fields called “sods” for grazing sheep in the area. Located high on the Allegheny Plateau, Dolly Sods is known for its rocky plains and upland bogs. It is the highest plateau of its type east of the Mississippi River with altitude ranging from around 4,000 feet to about 2,700 feet. The lower elevations consist of a forest of northern hardwoods and laurel thickets. Higher up, groves of wind-stunted red spruce stand near heath barrens where azaleas, mountain laurels, rhododendron, and blueberries grow.

David Hunter Strother (“Porte Crayon”) wrote an early description of the area, published in Harper’s Monthly magazine in 1852:

“In Randolph County, Virginia, is a tract of country containing from seven to nine hundred square miles, entirely uninhabited, and so savage and inaccessible that it has rarely been penetrated even by the most adventurous. The settlers on its borders speak of it with a sort of dread, and regard it as an ill-omened region, filled with bears, panthers, impassable laurel-brakes, and dangerous precipices. Stories are told of hunters having ventured too far, becoming entangled, and perishing in its intricate labyrinths. The desire of daring the unknown dangers of this mysterious region, stimulated a party of gentlemen . . . to undertake it in June, 1851. They did actually penetrate the country as far as the Falls of the Blackwater, and returned with marvelous accounts of its savage grandeur, and the quantities of game and fish to be found there.”

Posted: May 17th, 2010 under Camping, Public Lands.
Comments: none

I had the joy of running beside the beautiful Lamprey River this last weekend while visiting my folks in New Hampshire. The Lamprey originates in the Saddleback Mountains, Northwood, New Hampshires and flows 47.3 miles to the Great Bay. It has the largest quantity of anadromous fish (fish born in fresh water, spending most of their lives in the sea and returning to fresh water to spawn. Salmon, smelt, shad, striped bass, and sturgeon are common examples.) in the Great Bay watershed and hosts substantial numbers of freshwater mussels. The segment of the Lamprey from the Bunker Pond Dam in the town of Epping to the confluence with the Piscassic River in the vicinity of the Durham-Newmarket town line is part of the Wild and Scenic River system. 11.5 miles were designated on November 12, 1996 and another 12 miles were designated May 2, 2000. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 states: 

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Congress declares that the established national policy of dams and other construction at appropriate sections of the rivers of the United States needs to be complemented by a policy that would preserve other selected rivers or sections thereof in their free-flowing condition to protect the water quality of such rivers and to fulfill other vital national conservation purposes.

Posted: May 10th, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: none

If you live in New England and have done any hiking along the Appalachian Trail, there’s a good chance that the Appalachian Mountain Club and their volunteers are to thank.  According to the AMC, “In a typical year, people like you volunteer approximately 18,000 hours building approximately 1,200 feet of bog bridging, completing about 1,000 feet of screewall, installing more than 300 feet of drainage, and building about 100 cairns. Local volunteers help maintain 1,500 miles of trails each year.” Sign up now for 2010 Trail Crew Opportunities at Acadia National Park (Maine), the Berkshires (Massachusetts), the White Mountains (New Hampshire and Maine), Connecticut, the Delaware Water Gap (New Jersey & Pennsylvania), Baxter State Park (Maine), Cardigan Mountain (New Hampshire), and more. And if you volunteer, you’ll get one of these fancy shirts.

See the full 2010 Volunteer Vacations schedule or the full 2010 Work Party schedule.

Posted: March 29th, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: none

Fort Union Trading Post was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri. Built in 1828 by the American Fur Company, the post was set up not as a government or military post, but as a business, established for the specific purpose of doing business with the northern plains tribes. This trade business continued until 1867 making it the longest lasting American fur trading post.

At this post, the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and furs for trade goods including items such as beads, clay pipes, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and alcohol. Lots of alcohol. Historic visitors to the fort included John James Audubon, George Catlin, Pierre DeSmet, Sitting Bull, Karl Bodmer, and Jim Bridger.

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

Posted: March 15th, 2010 under Public Lands.
Comments: 1

Obama’s administration is considering 14 potential national monuments in 9 states, according to a leaked Department Of The Interior document. And whenever there’s talk of turning a place into a federally protected national monument, there’s going to be debate. Some are happy with the idea of federal protection, thus helping to save these beautiful places for our kids, but with national monument status comes more regulation as to what types of activities are allowed in the area.

In addition, government officials in Utah are angry because they claim that no state or local officials were contacted about the proposal. Utah Governor Gary Herbert claims, “I will challenge federal officials to explain to me how they could possibly be in a better position to know what’s best for our rural lands than those of us here on the ground in this state.” Below are the areas being considered for national monument status.

San Rafael Swell, UT
Montana’s Northern Prairie, MT
Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, NM
Berryessa Snow Mountains, CA
Heart of the Great Basin, NV
Otero Mesa, NM
Northwest Sonoran Desert, AZ
Owyhee Desert, OR/NV
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, CA (expansion)
Vermillion Basin, CO (pictured above)
Bodie Hills, CA
The Modoc Plateau, CA
Cedar Mesa region, UT
San Juan Islands, WA

More info at The Adventure Life.

Posted: February 22nd, 2010 under Politics, Public Lands.
Comments: 1