Free Republic

The Biden administration must end its resettlement of migrants on National Park Service land, says House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR). Westerman used a Wednesday oversight hearing to highlight the Biden administration’s construction plan for migrant camps on “some of America’s most treasured lands.”

People have been disappearing inside US National Parks at an alarming rate, with at least 10 vanishing never to be seen again since 2016, data examined by The Post shows. One was a hiker whose last message was to his son, telling him he was on his way to Yosemite National Park. Another got separated from his group during a nine-day excursion through the stifling Grand Canyon heat. A young river tour guide, with his whole life ahead of him, also vanished during a group trip. “No trace of man missing on Colorado River in Grand Canyon,” reads a local...

Biden’s war on fossil fuels may reduce funding for America’s national parks, according to the Western Energy Alliance, a nonprofit energy industry association for the U.S. West. The Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), which was passed in August 2020, provides $1.9 billion for public lands and national park restoration, primarily from onshore oil and gas development on federal lands. The act combined the restoration and Land and Water Conservation funds, which supplies $900 million in matching grant money for state and local parks. No Federal Oil Biden campaigned on a promise that he was going to eliminate the oil industry,...

Wisconsin Senate Democrat candidate Mandela Barnes claimed last July that national parks “weren’t made for the enjoyment of people who weren’t white.” Speaking on the “Black Oxygen” podcast, Barnes suggested national parks are a part of the systemically racist fabric of America because the “parks are on land that was indigenous.” “It’s important to create more welcoming spaces because things haven’t always felt welcome,” he said. “And that’s historical, just that perspective, given the fact that national parks weren’t made for the enjoyment of people who weren’t white. National parks are on land that was indigenous.”

asks are returning to the Skyline Drive. Citing high community transition rates of COVID-19 in and around the Shenandoah National Park, officials say they will follow National Park Service policy and CDC guidance by requiring face masks be worn in all Shenandoah National Park buildings. The ruling takes effect Monday, August 22, 2022. “We monitor local community levels and respond when transmission levels are high,” Park Superintendent Pat Kenney said. “The trigger to require masking is when the majority of the counties that the park resides in move into high transmission status.” The CDC community levels are released weekly and...

More than a dozen House Republicans on Wednesday voted against legislation to promote public education about the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The bipartisan bill was authored by Republican Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and passed handily by a vote of 406-16. All of the no votes came from Republicans, including several members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus...... The bill would specifically create a Japanese American World War II history network administered by the National Park Service to connect historical sites associated with the mass internment of Japanese Americans after the attack on Pearl Harbor launched by...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah national park famed for its otherworldly sandstone arches will require visitors to get timed entry tickets during its high season next year, the second Utah park to implement such a system as visitation swells. Arches National Park officials said Friday they’re not trying to decrease the number of visitors during the six-month period, but rather spread them out over the course of the day. The announcement came a week after nearby Zion National Park said it would require reservations ...

Summer months are here and national parks across the country are getting an influx of visitors. In some cases, it's been so many that some parks have been forced to close their gates. For example, Arches National Park in Grand County, Utah, welcomed about 194,000 people in April — up 15% from April 2019, The Wall Street Journal reports. Since the beginning of this year, the park has closed its gates over 80 times. If the rate continues, this will be the park's busiest year ever, according to The Associated Press. ...With the crowds comes a mixed reaction from locals,...

A passenger captured the moment a Yellowstone National Park ranger shot at a grizzly bear as it charged him The incident went down Friday afternoon just south of Roaring Mountain and north of the Norris Geyser Basin Footage shows the park ranger directing traffic before being taken by surprise

KNOXVILLE Tenn. – On December 7, 2020, Dusty William Oliver, 41, and Richard Graham, 49, both from Blaine, were sentenced by the Honorable Judge Thomas A. Varlan, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville, for raping two men in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP).Oliver and Graham pleaded guilty to an indictment charging them with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2241(a) and 2. Oliver was sentenced to 300 months in prison, followed by 15 years’ supervised release. Graham was sentenced to 230 months in prison,...

As coronavirus cases again surge across the country, the outdoors remains a rare and safe refuge for Americans, particularly for those struggling with anxiety or depression due to the pandemic. On Wednesday, those hoping to reap the benefits of fresh air and the unseasonably warm weather in much of the country can explore national parks and forests for free in honor of Veterans Day. And, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced U.S. military veterans and Gold Star families will be granted a lifetime of free access to national parks, wildlife refuges and other federal lands managed by the Department...

I am in Iowa visiting family. We will be going to Wyoming next weekend for the wedding of one of my granddaughters. After the wedding, one of my granddaughters (sister of the Bride) and her husband want to go to mount Rushmore, I've been invited to go!! I've always wanted to visit it so I'm very excited. My granddaughter and her husband have heard that Biden wants to tear down that monument id he becomes president so Mrs. R. (GD) wants to see it just in case. It's been quite a long time since I've had a fun vacation..years..so I'll...

Since the start of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, Democrats have wanted the National Park Service to shut down parks or slowly open facilities across the nation. Despite his party's push to limit how Americans spend their time, particularly outdoors, Congressman TJ Cox (D-CA) pulled strings to get into Yosemite National Park on the 4th of July. Cox, whose district falls close to Yosemite, had his staff request two parking passes for a personal visit to the park. At the time, people could request one of 340 tickets available. Tickets were given on a lottery basis. Because Cox was wanting to...

Digging up comments by Sierra Club founder John Muir set off Black Lives Matter-inspired outrage intended to depict national treasures as intrinsically racist. Want to get away from the civil strife that has torn the country apart as both the coronavirus pandemic and violent riots have turned America’s cities and cable news into a battlefield? If so, perhaps you think the ideal getaway might be a national park. There you can commune with nature and admire some of the most beautiful places in the world free from politics. Nope.The idea that national parks could be a refuge from cancel culture’s...

The fake stream news is worried that too many white people go to National Parks. https://youtu.be/VD16eTrhPmo   

Elements of the left are claiming now that America’s national parks are built on systemic racism. “The outdoors and public lands suffer from the same systemic racism that the rest of our society does,” Joel Pannell, associate director of the Sierra Club, said in an ABC report, titled “America’s Great White Outdoors.” The report called the parks “stubborn bastions of self-segregation.”

Elements of the left are claiming now that America’s national parks are built on systemic racism.

CARLSBAD, N.M. - Recently released videos from a body-camera worn by a National Park Ranger at Carlsbad Caverns National Park reveals the park visitor who he tased, then shot and killed did not provoke the use of force and was unarmed. Charles “Gage” Lorentz was traveling from his work site in Pecos, Texas on March 21. 2020 intending to head to his family’s home in Southwest Colorado. A report from the Eddy County Sheriff’s Department noted that he detoured at Carlsbad Caverns National Park to meet a friend. The report states National Park Ranger Robert Mitchell stopped him for speeding...

Remote wilderness areas and national parks in the western United States are getting a dusting of plastic every year, perhaps 1000 tons or more, according to a new study. Up to one-quarter of the microscopic pieces of plastic—which come from carpets, clothing, and even spray paint—may originate in storms passing over nearby cities, whereas the rest likely comes from farther flung locations. The findings, the first to tease apart geographic origins, add to mounting evidence that such microplastic pollution is common worldwide. “We created something that won’t go away,” says Janice Brahney, a biogeochemist at Utah State University and lead...

The great Wallace Stegner once called America’s national parks “the best idea we ever had,” and we couldn’t agree more. Equal parts meditative and mind-blowing, these magnificent wildlands somehow make us feel our most humbly—and gratefully—human. They’re our gift to ourselves and our truest escape, whether for a solitary hike or an eight-person family vacation. And though, for now, we may not be able to visit them in person, we can remember past trips and look forward to future visits with these breathtaking virtual tours, some led by rangers—others self-guided. So set aside your puzzle-making and your Netflix queue and...