Take a few minutes from your busy day to get a dose of nature. No, don’t bother going for a walk in the park, just go to this website. Every year the National Park Service runs a photo contest called the National Natural Landmarks Photo Contest (previous winners). During this contest people send in nature shots from the 591 national natural landmarks around the U.S. and its territories. Once they’re compiled, the NPS turns them into a nature-centerfold calendar and sells them online. What does the contest winner get? A shiny blue ribbon.

Many national park employees are woefully underpaid. A lot of them have masters degrees or even PhDs in their fields of study, and they have to work seasonally for decades sometimes before a permanent job will open in a particular park. So one woman did something about it, she embezzled $750,000 from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado over the course of four years. It’s good to be assertive at work when you ask for pay increases, but I’ve found it’s also good to try and avoid going to jail.

Photo by IvoShandor

A U.S. court has ruled that the National Forest in western Pennsylvania can be mined for oil and gas. Why? Because the National Forest Service only has rights to the land’s surface, not what’s below it. Ahh, they got the oil and gas on technicality. So, I wonder, how will the companies mine these resources that are below the national park without putting mining equipment on the national park’s surface? Well, maybe they’ll just rent a campsite for the season and drill in the middle of a campground.

via Adventure Journal

Photo by Nic McPhee

A 34-year-old marathoner became the first man to complete a run of the entire 92-mile road through Denali National Park. It took him 25 hours while a friend pedaled alongside on a bicycle. Besides a sore hip the biggest danger on the way was nearly running head on into a caribou that crossed his path. Hopefully his friend’s bike was a tandem so he could get a lift home.

I have to say, the first time I heard about this I was shocked no one’s done it before. While it’s an impressive accomplishment, there are plenty of ultra marathoners who would love add something like this to their resumes, and we all know there’s no shortage of adventurers heading to Denali. I guess most of the people who go all the way there are doing things other than running on the road.

Thanks Adventure Journal

Rocky Mountain National Park is weighing the implementation of a new firefighting plan. Basically, it would weigh response to fires based on the potential risk they pose to humans instead of where the fires are located, which is what they do now. They’ve opened a public commenting period on the topic. My public comment is that I don’t know the first thing about firefighting, and I’ll defer to their judgment. They’re firefighters; I am not. Do we really need the public to provide input on fighting fires, or is this just one of those weird government things where they have to open every change to the public to weigh the sentiment before they can make any decisions?

This weekend Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will make a trip west to the headwaters of the Olympic National Park where he’ll knock out a chunk of the Elwha Dam. It’s kind of the opposite of a groundbreaking ceremony. The Elwha and Glines Canyon dams are nearly 100 years old and are responsible for destroying one of the country’s largest salmon runs and decimating ecosystems at the mouth of the rivers. Controversy still surrounds a hatchery planned for the river that fishermen and conservationists say is a terrible idea. The dam removal should be complete within three years, so in government work-time that’s about six years.

The fantastic production work of the government-produced Yosemite Nature Notes has done more to restore my faith in the federal government than anything else in recent years. Their latest is Sky Islands, a look at the rare plant colonies that live in isolation atop high, flat plateaus of the Sierra Nevada.

Nick Kristof of The New York Times has a handy Op-Ed piece that seeks to remind Americans that getting outside isn’t a bad idea. If you can get past his Humblebrags about taking his family on a forced Pacific Crest Trail march you’ll hear all about Rich Louv’s books that nature can provide a balancing force in our lives. Of course this is something all of you have known for ages - it’s the “I have to get out this weekend” phrase that many of us who work in desk jobs find ourselves uttering aloud by Tuesday afternoon. Kristof does make another good point: The more people we get outdoors, the more advocates we’ll have for nature and the planet’s wild places, which is why the park service needs to shift from merely conserving nature to convincing people to get out and use it. I’m going to apply to be the first Park Service Advertising Ranger. I hope they don’t make we wear the ranger outfit while I work on my Mac all day.

At an early morning gathering at the Grand Teton National Park visitor center auditorium a man grabbed a seat in the front row and plopped down onto a can of bear spray. The stuff discharged into the room and the local ranger evacuated the auditorium and called for backup. The center’s ventilation system carried the spray into the lobby and gift shop, and when backup arrived they found about 20 people in the building dealing with side effects. The gift shop goods were bagged to deal with the contaminants at a later date, and the park is airing out their lobby and trying to get the pepper spray out of the furniture. The man who sat on the spray jumped up and ran out of the auditorium at top speed the moment it happened, and the rangers have been unsuccessful in location him.