An example of National Forest stewardship in action. As with many mountain communities in Colorado, visitation to the Gunnison Valley is at an all-time high. Land managers observe that they have never seen our public lands as busy as they have been in recent years. The area is surrounded by 1.7 million acres of National Forest, and the Bureau of Land Management and...
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Have you been paying attention to social media in the Southern Appalachians region in recent days? No doubt you have seen the disturbing photographs from Max Patch, one of the iconic hiking locations along the Appalachian Trail, and in all of the South. Max Patch, and so many others of our favorite destinations, is being overcrowded to a slow, painful death. After any...
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As climate change alters habitats and disrupts ecosystems, where will animals move to survive? And will human development prevent them from getting there? Now you can see those migrations in motion. New research from The Nature Conservancy and university scientists revealed that only 41 percent of the natural land area in the United States retains enough connectivity to...
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NEEF’s National Public Lands Day is the nation’s largest, single-day volunteer event for public lands. Established in 1994 and held annually on the fourth Saturday in September, the event brings out thousands of volunteers to help restore and improve public lands around the country. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has upended many aspects of daily life in...
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Most people would agree: River otters are adorable. But beyond their playfulness, the otters have an important role in determining the health of a river system. At N.C. State University, scientists this year released studies on river otters that they plan to use as baselines for future research. The first study examined the toxicological effects that metals, such as...
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It’s still 2020 and the pandemic-/-climate change apocalypse just got even worse. The West Coast is burning. Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area awoke to dark orange skies, as a thick layer of smoke settled over Northern California. (Smoke scatters blue light, allowing only red and yellow to reach the ground.) It’s hard to overstate how really, terribly bad this fire...
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Conservation Trust for North Carolina recently donated three properties totaling 123 acres to the National Park Service for addition to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The land, made up of three tracts, contains a significant section of Woodfin Creek upstream of the Woodfin Cascades, between Parkway mileposts 446 and 450 in Jackson County. Each of the tracts adjoin other...
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When you stand on a ridge or mountaintop in Western North Carolina, maybe from Wayah Bald in the Nantahala National Forest or Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway, it might look like miles of rippling green and blue mountains. But what you’re really looking at is a checkerboard, said Carl Silverstein, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Highlands...
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Trish Jennings watched customers dining 6 feet apart outside her Bit & Spur Restaurant and Saloon on an evening in mid-August, missing the usual gregarious chatter of outdoor adventures. Springdale, a small southwest Utah town sits just outside the gates of Zion National Park, and most of the restaurant’s customers arrived after a day exploring the...
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Subaru of America, Inc., the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and National Park Foundation (NPF) announced that through an innovative partnership three of America’s most iconic national parks are at the forefront to reduce the amount of waste that parks send to landfills. As part of the multi-year Don’t Feed the Landfills Initiative led by...
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The U.S. Forest Service released a proposal that would fast-track fracking and drilling across the country’s 192 million acres of national forests and grasslands. The proposed rule would reduce requirements that the Forest Service approve oil and gas leasing plans, sidestep National Environmental Policy Act review, and prevent public involvement before the public lands...
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At age 4, Virginia Ward could identify every tree in the woods near her home. By age 12, Ward was rappelling off the highest cliffs in Western North Carolina, helping Blue Ridge Parkway plant ecologist Dr. Chris Ulrey in his important work to study rare plants. Now 15, Ward, a sophomore at Nesbitt Discovery Academy who lives in Fairview, has won the prestigious 2019...
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Cairns are rock stacks that can serve as critical trail markers, and some carry cultural significance, as well. Others are purely decorative, built by visitors who enjoy designing these towers in nature, often for the sake of sharing images of delicately balanced stones on social media. Besides the fact that it violates the Leave No Trace program’s ethos that should be...
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A Conservation Corps North Carolina (CCNC) crew of young adults worked with volunteers from the North Carolina High Peaks Trail Association to complete high priority trail work on the Black Mountain Crest Trail in the Nantahala National Forest. The CCNC crew consisted of five 18 to 24 year-old AmeriCorps Members led by a trained Crew Leader. The crew worked...
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Years of unchecked logging laid waste to two-thirds of Costa Rica’s tree canopy, leaving its tropical rainforests facing an uncertain future. But the trees have returned and the resurrected forests support a thriving eco-tourism industry. Towards the middle of the 20th century, indigenous woodland – predominantly tropical rainforest – covered all but a quarter of the...
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As a way to celebrate the 104th birthday of America’s National Parks System, parks will be open to the public free of charge on August 25, 2020. On Aug. 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Organic Act, establishing the National Park Service as a bureau in the Department of the Interior responsible for maintaining national parks and monuments. Today, the NPS...
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Picture this: Riding your bike to work from Henderson County to Asheville, safely, on a paved path protected from the roar and cars of highways I-26 and U.S. 25. Or walking on a wide, safe, tree-shaded greenway from Enka to Waynesville instead of driving on U.S. 19/23. Or actually mountain biking from downtown Asheville to the trails of Bent Creek Experimental Forest...
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The Trump administration finalized a plan to allow oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, putting it on track to issue decades-long leases in the pristine wilderness area before a potential change in U.S. leadership. Presidential hopeful Joe Biden and green groups criticized the move as a giveaway to Big Oil that would harm the Arctic’s unique...
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Over the weekend, the Grizzly Creek Fire became the largest in the history of Colorado’s White River National Forest as far as acres burned. As of Sunday morning, the fire had burned 20,665 acres of national forest out of a total burn area of 25,690 acres in just six days, according to U.S. Forest Service data. The additional acres are on Bureau of Land Management...
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In less than two months Interior Department officials intend to have a plan for attacking the maintenance backlog across the public lands in the nation. Via a secretarial order a task force was created to look out across the National Park System, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands to determine a priority for...
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During the fall of 2019, the Department of Homeland Security began pumping large amounts of water from a southern Arizona aquifer to mix concrete for the Trump administration’s border wall. The aquifer is an essential water source for the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, so when the pumping escalated, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials watched helplessly as the...
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Outer Banks Forever, the local nonprofit partner of the three national parks of the Outer Banks – Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Wright Brothers National Memorial – has announced its new slate of projects and programs to protect and enhance these special places. Each project aims to enhance the park experience for locals and...
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On New Year’s Day in 2018, Paul Kehmeier and his father drove up Grand Mesa until they got to the county line, 10,000 feet above sea level. Instead of the three to five feet of snow that should have been on the ground, there wasn’t enough of a dusting to even cover the grass. The men marveled at the sight, and Kehmeier snapped a photo of his dad, “standing on the bare...
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Homes have been evacuated in Courmayeur in Italy’s Aosta valley, after a renewed warning that a huge portion of a Mont Blanc glacier is at risk of collapse. The measures were introduced after experts from the Fondazione Montagne Sicura (Safe Mountains Foundation) said 500,000 cubic metres of ice was in danger of sliding off the Planpincieux glacier on the Grandes...
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The coronavirus pandemic has drawn increasing crowds to the great outdoors, including many popular hiking trails, swimming holes and recreation areas in the White Mountains. But the burst in popularity has created new problems for the folks who manage New Hampshire’s national forest. The problem is the same throughout national forests in the United States. Tiffany...
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After spending his presidency denying climate change, placing coal and oil industry officials in top environmental jobs, and weakening dozens of public health and wildlife rules, President Donald Trump reversed course and signed a historic law to pump billions of dollars into long-neglected repairs and upgrades at America’s national parks. The measure, known as the...
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When you head outside to enjoy nature, there are often biting insects waiting to delight in your company. Even if you are a mosquito magnet, you may not like the idea of spraying synthetic chemicals on yourself or your kids to repel pests. Natural bug sprays are safe and can be an effective way to repel bugs instead. DEET is the active chemical ingredient used in many...
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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic shook up the oil industry, America was full of defunct oil wells. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, or perhaps millions of holes in the ground — no one knows how many there really are — abandoned by their former overseers when oil stopped gushing to the surface or when those overseers went broke. The holes leak methane, a...
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I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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