Part I - Acadia through Death Valley
Acadia NP
New law helps Maine national park
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/05/08/new_law_helps_maine_national_park/
AUGUSTA, Maine—President Bush has signed legislation that will benefit Acadia National Park through more land purchases and efforts to reduce traffic.
Acadia Plans Cleanup, Beech Mountain Hike
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1406433/acadia_plans_cleanup_beech_mountain_hike/
ACADIA NATIONAL PARK - To celebrate the 40th annual National Trail Day, the public is invited to participate in events planned for Saturday, June 7.
Mount Desert Island Power to Improve
http://www.mainecoastnow.com/articles/20...dd553320416.txt
LAMOINE — Electrical service on Mount Desert Island is expected to be more reliable with Bangor Hancock County Reliability Project.
Eco-resort Proponents to Make Their Case at Winter Harbor Meeting
http://ellsworthmaine.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14469&Itemid=1
WINTER HARBOR — Who are these guys?
That's among the questions swirling around a proposed “conservation community” that calls for development of 3,200 acres in Winter Harbor and Gouldsboro that abut Schoodic Point.
Banff National Park
Banff switches to hybrid buses
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=a854f44d-8b89-473b-953b-25b9bae8a747
Officials hope tourists will leave vehicles at hotels
National Bison Range turns 100
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20080518-1149-wst-bisonrange.html
MOIESE, Mont. – The National Bison Range at Moiese is widely known as a hot spot for wildlife watching, and less known for its role in saving a species from
extinction 100 years ago.
Big Bend NP
Renovations completed at Big Bend NP's main visitors' center
http://www.mywesttexas.com/articles/2008/05/06/news/top_stories/doc4820a9c831e7e673595977.txt
PANTHER JUNCTION -- Expansion and renovation work has been completed at the Panther Junction Visitors' Center, the central headquarters for Big Bend National Park. The expansion features a larger display area and book store at the visitor's center, which had been very small andd not conducive to handling tourist traffic throughout heavier operating days at the park.
Death Valley National Park
Dig at Manson ranch ends; no bodies found
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-manson22-2008may22,0,5249712.story
PANAMINT SPRINGS -- Inyo County sheriff's
investigators ended their search Wednesday for human remains at a remote Death Valley National Park ranch used in 1969 as a hide-out by Charles Manson and his
followers.
Playing in the Parks
In Death Valley, only a true duffer finds water in the desert. Twice.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/05/23/ST2008052301898.html
At sea level, a golf ball struck squarely by an average player could travel about 220 yards by air and 25 more on the roll. In the thin air a mile above sea level, that same ball might fly 230 yards and roll 30. Bring the scenario 200 feet below sea level and, well, all sorts of things happen.
Furnace Creek solar grid soaks up Death Valley sun
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2008/May-21-Wed-2008/news/21536310.html
DEATH VALLEY -- A golfer playing the 17th hole at the Furnace Creek course with a horrendous slice could almost hit one of the photovoltaic panels that will soon be producing solar power.
Everglades National Park
Smoky Conditions Linger as Wildfires Rip Through Everglades in South Florida
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356872,00.html
MIAMI — There's a slight chance for rain in central and South Florida, areas where firefighters have been battling dozens of wildfires for days.
Everglades on Fire: Why One of the Wettest Areas in the Country Went Up in Flames
http://www.alternet.org/water/86770/
It's hard to believe, now that it's been overrun by 7 million residents and 7 jillion strip malls, but southern Florida was once America's last frontier. As late as 1880, the census recorded just 257 residents in a county covering most of the region because most of the region was a watery wilderness called the Everglades. Mapmakers weren't sure whether to draw it as land or water. Politicians dismissed it as uninhabitable swampland. Explorers described it as a "godforsaken" and "hideous" and "abominable" morass, "suitable only for the haunt of noxious vermin, or the resort of pestilential reptiles."
