Big Thicket Gets Even Bigger

This announcement comes after the National Parks Service purchased 3600 acres of former Hancock Timber land to add to the Big Thicket National Preserve. The new land, which is located in the southeast of Texas is an important area that contains diverse wildlife and plant life. It is full of many different geographic areas such as forests, river corridors, wetlands, plains and sand hills. The Big Thicket National Preserve (the first in the United States) adds this land to offer more area for hiking, kayaking and other recreational activities for its visitors.

The acquisition of the land has been in the works for 8 years with The Conservation Fund to expand Big Thicket and preserve as much important area as possible. A Texas Congressional delegation was key in obtaining $5 million dollars from the federal government to pay for the land. The other major player in the deal, The Conservation Fund, has helped to protect over one hundred thousand acres of land in Texas, including 32000 others in Big Thicket. They have also launched an ecotourism and economic development program in the area.

Theodore Roosevelt NP to begin Culling Elk

In an effort to manage the number of elk located in the park, park officials and volunteer hunters may soon be able to take the number down. They will be cutting the population in half once the park's Elk Management Plan get final approval later this month. The plan is to bring down the elk population to protect resources in the park.

The audit of the elk population in the park this year shows that there are around 950 animals, more than double the 200-400 that the management plan calls for. Though the number is this high, there is not extensive changes in the parks vegetation or environment yet. The environmental impact statement is waiting to be pushed through and the plan is to have park employees lead a group of volunteer hunters through the park to cull the animals. If that doesn't work it suggests alternatives that they can fall back on. The earliest that the culling could begin will be in the fall of 2010.

North Cascades National Park Ends Fish Stocking

Every year a group volunteers carry buckets full of baby trout to add to the alpine lakes for visiting anglers. That was until 2009 when they were told that it wasn't going to happen. Park officials are no longer allowing this practice, which has been around longer than the park. They may also kill the remaining fish unless Congress tells them otherwise.

The issue at hand is what it means to be "natural" in the park and that introducing fish to these lakes that never had them to begin with runs counter to the parks mission to "maintain and preserve ecosystems in their natural state". The argument about whether there is need for it to be legislated is ongoing between anglers and groups that help to stock the lakes and the park itself. Stocking lakes was previously done in Yellowstone, Mt. Rainer, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, but is no longer allowed. Park officials have been trying for years to phase out the stocking and get in line with national parks policy.

Congress is working on a bill to give the park control over the issue, but it is unsure when the issue will be resolved. Until that happens the stocking will be stopped. The argument by anglers is that it is a legitimate recreational activity such as hiking, since the area has had a stocking program in place for over 40 years and has had such activity dating back to the late 1800's. Until Congress acts it will be a waiting game for the volunteers to see if they will once again hike into the lakes and stock them, or if the program is finished for good.

Bringing Bison Back to Banff

A new study from the University of Calgary shows that there is much work that needs to be done before Bison will once again be able to live on plains in North America. The powers moving to get bison as a wildlife species has been growing strongly over the past 5 years says Cormack Gates, one of the co-authors of the study.

500 years ago the number of bison in North America were from 30 to 50 million, today that number has almost vanished and is down to 493,000. Most of these animals are in commercial herds though with only 31,000 animals living in the wild. Most of which are in carefully managed "conservation" herds in national parks.

The biggest problem facing the bison being re-introduced into the wild is the fact that the public no longer view them as wildlife, rather as livestock that produces meat. Kevin Van Tighem, Superintendant of Banff National Park says that bison basically shape the landscape and not having them in a Canadian National Park is something that you need to pay attention to. With that being said it will not be an easy species to re-introduce because they are a roaming animal and won't adhear to the boundaries of a park. Van Tighem says that while they are very interested in getting bison back in the park, they want to do it properly and will be a long, slow process. He also added that it will be a long time before we see bison in the park.

The study gives Harvey Locke, a trustee with the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation in Banff hope that one day the bison will return to the park. He says one of the biggest goals of the 21st century is to right the relationship humans have with nature, and untill there are once again bison in Banff National Park, the relationship isn't fixed.

Mexican Gangs Use U.S. National Parks as Pot Fields

Not far from Yosemite National Park in Sequoia National Forest, Mexican drug gangs are using American public land to grow their marijuana. Pot has always been gown on public lands but these gangs are taking it up a notch and are using armed guards and tripwire, booby-traps to protect their crops. Some of these fields contain tens of thousands of plants and can yield more than 30 tons of weed a year.

The risk for the gangs is significantly less as they don't have to smuggle the drugs over the boarder. They are grown and dried in the remote locations within the US and are then more easily transported to dealers in nearby cities. Experts say that the only risk to the Mexican growers would be for a hiker or hunter to stumble across the operation. This is a large risk to the visitors to these parks as there is a large potential for conflict should they happen upon a field.

Sequoia National Forest, as well as Yosemite, Sequoia, and Redwood National Parks are all covered in patches of these fields. They are located far away from hiking and other trails and are often hidden along creeks and streams in the mountains. The farmers also use animal poisons to protect their crops which can contaminate nearby streams and other sources of water, hurting wildlife.

Poaching in National Parks

While none of these animals live in the wild in North America, their numbers continue to decrease on the other side of the world. Even in national parks the rare Indian Rhinoceros is still being driven closer to extinction by poachers. In the world famous Royal Chitwan National Park in Nepal, 24 of these animals have been poached since the last census in 2008. This brings the number of Indian Rhinos down to approximately 372 animals with that number declining.

The largest population of Indian rhinos are located in Kaziranga National Park in India and number just under 2000. Already this year, five have been killed by poachers bringing the total in the past year and couple months to 19. Along with these poachings, there have been eight white rhinos killed in Africa recently bring their number to a 3 year total of 93 animals poached.

Indian rhinos are classified as vulnerable with their primary threat being poachers. They have been poached for their horn which has traditionally been used in Asian medicines, although no study's have shown any benefit from them. As of May 2007, there were 2575 Indian rhinos remaining in the world.

Labrador Gets New National Park

Just a quick entry today about the creation of a new National Park. Its creation was announced on February 5tht he Mealy Mountain National Park would be created in Labrador. The new park will stretch from Happy Valley-Goose Bay to the coast and will protect around 10 700km of the island. This will be the largest National Park in Eastern Canada.

The area of land is of important cultural value to many people in that area of Labrador. The plan is to move forward so that the history and culture of the area is used as it traditionaly has been, including by the First Nations in the area. There is also talk that the government will try to create a waterway provincal park to help create more protected area next to the new park bringing the total protected land to over 13 000km