Two brothers spent more than three weeks in Zion National Park to put together a 4-minute video that shows some of the park’s many vistas. Filmmakers Jim and Will Pattiz, who are from outside Atlanta, spent 24 days in the park and shot footage at 16 different sites. The stunning video is part of a project they started called More Than Just Parks, an attempt to draw...
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Celebrate Earth Day, April 23, 2016 with these two “feel-good” Springtime Fundraising Events at Tryon Estates that will help Pacolet Area Conservancy preserve more of our mountains, farms, forests, waterways & greenspaces! 5K PACRun begins at 8:00 a.m., 7 – 7:45 a.m. Onsite Registration, or pre-register online at: strictlyrunning.com PACWalk, suitable for everyone...
Learn MorePresident Obama has set aside more of America’s lands and waters for conservation protection than any of his predecessors, and he is preparing to do even more before he leaves office next year. The result may be one of the most expansive environmental and historic-preservation legacies in presidential history. On Friday, February 12, 2016 Obama designated more than 1.8...
Learn MoreNearly four months of environmental contamination and civic disruption in Porter Ranch, California came close to an end February 11, 2016 when work crews pierced the underground casing of the damaged Aliso Canyon gas well and started injecting it with a mud-like compound. “The well is no longer leaking,” said Jimmie Cho, senior vice president of gas...
Learn MoreThe political network of the conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch signaled last week that it is expanding its financial and organizational support for a coalition of anti-government activists and militants who are working to seize and sell America’s national forests, monuments, and other public lands. The disclosure, made through emails sent by the American...
Learn MoreOn an average morning thousands of North Carolinians wake up to the sight of a dusting of snow on area mountaintops. And while individuals can own much of the land, the state’s 25 land conservancies are working to protect the views for everyone to enjoy. They’re guided by the principle advocated by Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote “None of us owns the...
Learn MoreThe U.S. Forest Service plans to conduct a 120-acre prescribed burn in the Grandfather Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest, on Thursday, February 11, 2016. The agency will conduct the one-day burn near the Woodlawn Township, north of Marion, NC along the Clinchfield Railroad. The objective of the burn is fuel reduction. The Forest Service is conducting the burn as...
Learn MoreNorth Carolina environmental regulators fined Duke Energy $6.6 million this week for the company’s role in a 2014 coal ash spill that sent millions of gallons of contaminated water into the state’s Dan River. If you ask me, that isn’t nearly enough when you consider one study from 2015 estimated the ecological, recreational, aesthetic, and human health damages from...
Learn MoreArtists have long had an impact on our perceptions of national parks. Dramatic photographs, paintings, and essays helped stimulate the establishment of many park sites and continue to foster an appreciation of them today. Artists interpret the American landscape using traditional and contemporary approaches. They share the national park experience in ways that bring...
Learn MoreI needn’t tell you North Dakota is not the first place people consider when asked about national parks. Far from it. Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon—these are the places most people picture when questioned by friends and coworkers about memorable places and bucket list destinations. Who could fault them? Americans and people worldwide are flooded with photographs...
Learn MoreNear Seattle, WA, one of the North Sound’s most popular and scenic hiking trails is in danger of being logged. Unless the state can allocate $7.5 million, the 100-year-old trees that cover Oyster Dome — between Mount Vernon and Bellingham – will be cut down by the Department of Natural Resources. Craig Romano tackles the popular hike off Highway 11 on a...
Learn MoreOver 50 years ago, a visionary Congress established an innovative program to bring communities together to invest in open spaces and recreational opportunities that are an essential part of our nation’s heritage and economy. Since then, the highly successful Land and Water Conservation Fund has helped to protect working forests and ranches, preserve our public lands...
Learn MoreThe news out of Flint, Michigan brought the issue of contaminated drinking water into sharp focus, as it was revealed that officials at every level—local, state and federal—knew about lead-poisoned water for months but did nothing to address the problem. Under state-run systems like utilities and roads, poorer communities are the last to receive attention from government...
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The Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy recently acquired 48 acres in the Roan Highlands near the Carter County border in North Carolina that was slated for development. The Broad Branch Tract is less than 2 miles from the Appalachian Trail and the Cloudland Rhododendron Gardens. The tract adjoins Pisgah National Forest and contains a broad mix of habitat. The...
Learn MoreIn 2008, on a dig on the First Nation’s Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, archaeologists made a small but stunning discovery: a tiny clay pot. Though it might not have seemed very impressive at first glimpse, this little piece of pottery was determined to be about 800 years old. And inside that pot? Something that changes how we’re looking at extinction, preservation,...
Learn MoreThe standoff with militant extremists at an Oregon wildlife refuge, which erupted into violence and arrests this week, stands in stark contrast to the new sense of collaboration between local residents and public land managers in the West. The militants claimed that the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge symbolized federal tyranny over public lands. But for many locals the...
Learn MoreFor decades, the oil and gas industry has squatted on large tracts of public lands without paying royalties or allowing Americans access, but now is the time for reforms, according to a new report. The report from The Wilderness Society explains how the oil and gas industry routinely exploits leasing loopholes known as “suspensions,” to stockpile leases that would...
Learn MoreThis week, the National Park Service (NPS) announced nearly $48 million of Centennial Challenge projects to help parks across the country improve visitor services and support outreach to new audiences. The projects, many of which tackle deferred maintenance, come as the NPS kicks off its second century of service. Congress provided $15 million for the projects which will...
Learn MoreLaurel wilt is a devastating non-native disease of redbay trees and other plants in the laurel family in the southeastern U.S. Native to Southeast Asia, it was first detected near Savannah, Ga., in the early 2000s and has since spread to eight additional Southern states. It has already killed an estimated half a billion trees since its introduction to the U.S. Laurel...
Learn MoreThirty-some years ago, before mining companies turned Wyoming’s Powder River Basin into the nation’s most productive coal region, they made a promise: When they finished extracting coal, they would restore the land. Under federal law, companies must reclaim the land they’ve mined. To ensure that cleanup is completed, they must provide financial guarantees — bonds, cash...
Learn MoreWhen household budgets are tight, people tend to put off expensive maintenance projects. So a leaky roof gets patched instead of replaced, or paint is left to peel for a season or two or three longer than a homeowner (not to mention the neighbors) would like. Government agencies do the same thing. And now, after years of putting off less-crucial repairs because of...
Learn MoreFrom pole to pole the ice is melting. Winter is retreating. And much of life and even the seasons themselves appear to have been thrown off-kilter. In the Southern Ocean near the Antarctic Peninsula, krill populations have dropped by more than 50 percent due to a shortening of the season in which sea ice forms. The North Pole now experiences near or above freezing...
Learn MoreSequoia groves are found throughout the Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus, Eldorado and Tahoe National Forests in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Multiple agencies, businesses and non-profits are collaborating to improve management and share scientific results regarding Giant Sequoia. Led by the National Forest Foundation, the Sequoia Work Group members believe better exchange of...
Learn MoreIn what environmentalists hailed as a victory for efforts to curb climate change, an appeals panel in Washington on Jan. 21, 2016 rebuffed efforts to delay enforcement of President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions until legal challenges are resolved. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued an order denying...
Learn MoreAs part of the Interior Department’s reform agenda for a cleaner, more secure energy future, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has proposed to update 30 year-old regulations in order to reduce the wasteful release of natural gas into the atmosphere from oil and gas operations on public and American Indian lands. The proposed rule on venting, flaring and leaking...
Learn MoreAfter one of the many attempts to plug the methane-leaking well at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility in the Los Angeles suburbs, the thing erupted like a geyser, spewing not only natural gas, but also the muddy slurry that company technicians had pumped into the well. Aliso Canyon is a bit like a gigantic, catastrophic version of the geyser gas well of yore....
Learn MoreHuman beings have replaced nature as the dominant force shaping Earth. We’ve cleared away forests, dammed up mighty rivers, paved vast roads, and transported thousands of species around the world. “To a large extent,” two scientists wrote in 2015, “the future of the only place where life is known to exist is being determined by the actions of...
Learn MoreA day long awaited, since that first opportunity for the public to witness bison at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie (Midewin) in Illinois, the herd is doing well and adjusting to their new home. Several of the bison appear to enjoy wallowing in select pasture areas. This shows how the bison can create areas where prairie grass seeds can become established and help...
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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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