Heading off on a bushwalk in a national park over the summer break? Don’t be tempted to bushwhack it. Research shows many walkers don’t realise the danger of straying off the beaten track.
Imagine this with a sound track – sunset near Turtle Rock, Joshua Tree National Park.
NPS / Hannah Schwalbe
From bird songs to wind patterns, sound is a key but often underappreciated element of natural places. Learning how to listen to nature can alert us to changes in the environment before we see them.
Edéhzhíe is located in the Dehcho region of the Northwest Territories. It is the first Indigenous protected area designated in Canada.
Government of Northwest Territories
National parks and nature reserves are vital for conservation, but are also great places for recreation. Balancing the two is tricky, but it can be done if we realise parks are not just playgrounds.
Releasing a female wolf on Isle Royale, Oct. 2, 2018.
NPS/Jim Peaco
The National Park Service is moving wolves to Isle Royale in Lake Superior to replenish a small pack on the island. Wolves prey on moose, which are overgrazing the island. It doesn’t hurt that they are charismatic.
Trees have died in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colo., as climate change has intensified bark beetle infestations and drought.
Patrick Gonzalez
As climate change alters temperature and precipitation patterns across the US, it is having especially severe impacts on national parks. These changes could happen faster than many plants and animals can adapt.
The 2016 Maple fire (photographed in July 2017) reburned young forests that had regenerated after the 1988 Yellowstone fires. More frequent high-severity fires are expected in the future as climate warms, which may change patterns of forest recovery.
Monica Turner
Huge fires roared through Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988, scorching one-third of the park. Since then the park has been a valuable lab for studying how forests recover from fires.
Conservation groups are organizing soccer games to help bridge the gaps between park rangers and communities.
(Shutterstock)
US national parks protect some of America’s most spectacular outdoor settings. But new research shows that ozone pollution levels in the parks are roughly as bad as in major cities.
The wilderness in Canada’s parks is shrinking due to encroaching business. Pictured here: the Glacier Skywalk in Jasper National Park is cantilevered 280 metres over the Sunwapta Valley floor.
(Jack Borno/Wikimedia)
The world’s national parks cover an area bigger than South America. But a new survey finds that one-third of this area is subject to pressure from human developments, potentially putting wildlife at risk.
Ullswater in The Lake District National Park.
Andrew Locking
On April 5, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps, a massive relief program that paid young men to plant trees and build parks across the nation. It was money well spent.
Instead of building a wall on the US-Mexico border, a landscape architect calls for restoring the Rio Grande and turning its course into an international park – an idea first proposed in the 1930s.
Browns Canyon National Monument, Colorado.
Bob Wick, BLM
Within the next month, the Trump administration may move to abolish or shrink up to two dozen national monuments. Our experts explain why these sites matter and whether presidents can undo them.
A red fox listening for prey under the snow in Yellowstone National Park. Noise can affect foxes and other animals that rely on their hearing when they hunt.
Neal Herbert/NPS
A recent study finds that noise from human activities is intruding into many parks and other protected areas. Creating quiet zones and noise corridors can help reduce impacts from noise pollution.
The Trump administration will review the status of The Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, one of the country’s most significant cultural sites.
Bureau of Land Management
Trump wants to scale back national monuments on federal lands in the name of boosting the economy. But this would undo decades of investments to manage our cultural and ecological resources.
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University