If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Long before a single Zuccotti protestor waving a cardboard sign decorated with protest art was ever arrested, Robert Lederman had been there, done that.
After reading The Jungle Book and discovering the quiet sense of dread, accompanied by a slight tingle up my spine that Sher Khan could induce, I vowed to one day meet this beast
As the days turn warmer and stretch longer, and we feel like escaping our day-to-day routine and heading out into the sun, these summer travel tips and tricks will help make this summer's vacation a memory of a lifetime (and an affordable one at that).
Last Tuesday the Department of Interior (DOI) announced that all active duty service members and their families could use public lands for free. I know this doesn't fix other problems, but it's a significant gesture of thanks in a very public, meaningful way.
National parks are special places; they should serve as safe refuges for native species and especially for those that have just now recovered enough to be taken off the Endangered Species List.
President Obama, through the Joining Forces Initiative, will be giving free annual passes to all of our National Parks and public lands to all active-duty military and their families. It might seem just like a nice gesture to offer the free pass, but it really is more.
Local merchants have protested that these moves damage business by closing off areas popular with fishermen, even though a depressed economy and high gas prices might well explain any recent visitor decline.
Smart travelers know to explore the Caribbean coastline and the rainforests of the Colombian Sierra Nevada.
This is a case of Republicans yearning to separate Obama from previous White House occupants in a pejorative way as part of their political vendetta against him. It is true there is nothing new about Congress' periodic push back against unilateral presidential authority to create national monuments.
The national parks in southern Utah preserve this natural landscape for you and millions of visitors, as they have been doing for about 100 years.
Whether you are interested in preserving parklands, maintaining areas that depict geological changes or saving monuments and lands that tell our American story, the National Park Service provides an enormous service to the American people by safeguarding these lands as part of our national heritage.
Working together we can keep our wild lands wild, and our air and water clean. By accomplishing this, we will ensure our children too can enjoy the opportunity provided by the geography of hope -- the great gift of the American West.
You don't have to plan a trip months in advance to secure a campsite under the stars, have a hiking trail and a summit peak all to yourself or find out where the wild things are this summer.
This week we celebrate our national parks and the great stories they tell. But the question is -- are the right people listening?
What better way to spend Earth Day 2012 than by taking a trip to one of the world's relatively undiscovered national parks?
