national parks

Popular recreation areas across the Mountain West are proposing price hikes for campsites, backcountry permits, parking spots and other amenities. Public land agencies say they’re responding to increased wear and tear on trails and facilities.

A new report shows that visitors to national parks spent a record amount in surrounding communities last year, providing a major economic boost to those areas.

Recent federal laws have provided hundreds of millions of dollars in extra funding for the National Park Service. Yet some members of Congress say the agency isn’t moving fast enough on construction projects and improvements for visitors.

Wyoming’s most famous waterfall, the lower falls of the Yellowstone River, is featured on the U.S. Postal Service’s newest stamp issue called Waterfalls. The Service chose to reveal the twelve Waterfalls Stamps in Yellowstone National Park.

Several environmental and scientific groups are petitioning the Department of the Interior to ban lead-based ammunition and tackle in national parks. They argue the move would be meaningful in slowing the spread of lead poisoning in wildlife.

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. It created the first national park that was meant to protect over two million acres of land for the benefit and enjoyment of people. In the last 150 years, there have been a lot of successes and mistakes. Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska asked the park’s Superintendent Cam Sholly about the park’s earlier days.

Yellowstone National Park enlisted Indigenous artists and scholars to celebrate the park’s 150th anniversary. Some say it's the start of a journey of healing from some of the park's dark history.

National Park Service locations report how many people visit, how much tourists spend and how many jobs that creates every year. In 2021, those visitors spent more than $20 billion.

National Park Service rangers are being stretched dangerously thin, according to a new report.The advocacy group Public Employees for Environmental Policy found that the number of permanent law enforcement officers has dropped 15% since 2005. Seasonal officers are down 30% in the same time period.

Glacier National Park has re-instituted a mask mandate inside federal buildings, like visitor centers. Officials there say they’re following National Park Service and Interior Department guidance. That is, when the CDC reports a high level of COVID-19 community spread around a park, officials re-institute an indoor mask mandate. Other national parks could bring back mask requirements, too, if rates increase around the West.