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

Bown Island, Canada's Newest National Park?

This idea has finally taken its first step to becoming a reality with the Bowen Island council unanimously voting to endorse the idea in principal of merging existing provincial and regional parks with private land to create the new national park. Should a new park be created it would bring the total number of National Parks and National Park Reserves in Canada to 43.

The idea was brought forward in an assessment by Parks Canada to see if it would be feasible to place a new park on Bowen Island. Mayor Bob Turner says that it is important for Parks Canada to see the island as being in support of the project and the unanimous vote shows the start of the backing the community will have.

The item that was voted on is just the beginning of the process and did not include any recommendations as to how to go ahead with the project. It gives the upper management at Parks Canada information on whether or not to go ahead with the development of a park on the island. The assessment looks at provincial crown land, regionally owned land, and private land which would all be included in the park.

The model for considering this new development was based on the southern Gulf Islands and if the project is to go ahead land will have to be purchased to make it work. Turner says that it is now up to Parks Canada to decide what they want to do with the information they have and the final decision will come down from them.

Firearms Allowed in Parks

John Muir may very well be spinning in his grave after new law allowing people to carry concealed firearms into national parks, including to the Muir Woods National Monument, came into effect on February 22nd. The beginning for this law to come into effect was under the Bush administrations which overturned a law put in place 25 years before during Ronald Regan's time in office. It was overturned by the Supreme Court which said that Americans have a constitutional right to possess a firearm.

The new law allows visitors to carry a concealed weapon, as long as they follow the laws of the state that the park is located in. Visitors are being strongly encouraged to do their research ahead of time so that they encounter no problems upon arriving in the parks.

There is some criticism of the new laws though. John Waterman, the President of the U.S. Park Rangers Lodge, Fraternal Order of Police has spoken out against the law on the basis that allowing untrained and unlicensed people to carry firearms into the parks is an "invitation to disaster." He also says that the change in the law will affect the family friendly image that parks portray.

The NRA has welcomed the change and says that it will help to enhance the self-defense rights of "Law abiding Americans"

The old laws were put into place by the Regan Administration to counter poachers in parks and all evidence shows that they worked. Visitors will now be able to carry a gun into all but 20 of the 392 park services locations, including Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Rocky Mountain National Park.

Only time will tell if these new laws are going to work out as supporters are hoping for, but it will be an interesting news topic to monitor.

National Parks Conservation Association

Today's post will focus on the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) which operates in the United States. The NPCA's mission is "To protect and enhance America's National Parks for present and future generations." The belief of the NPCA is that National Parks are a huge part of the history of the US and that they represent everything about America. The NPCA has been around for over 85 years and now has over 325000 members through their Washington DC home base and 23 offices around the country. It is the only private, non profit organizations dedicated to protecting America's park system.

The NPCA is involved politically by fighting for stronger laws to protect parks as well as fighting against attempts that would weaken laws protecting parks. The major undertaking of the NPCA right now is to restore the wildlife, air quality and historical sites by the centenial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016.

The NPCA regional offices form partnerships and work together with local governments and activist groups and organizations on the front lines to help preserve the parks in the areas they are located. These bonds are part of what make the organization an effective tool in preserving the parks for the future generations of tourists to enjoy

BC Protects Glacier National Park

With the Flathead Valley being one of the topics that we are going to be discussing after reading break, I thought that I would start my first blog post with a story about it.






Feb. 9th marked a day that many hoping for the protection of the Flathead had been waiting for. British Columbia's Lt. Gov. Steven Point announced that a new plan would be worked on with the state of Montana in which "mining, oil and gas development and coalbed gas extraction will not be permitted in British Columbia's Flathead Valley". This new plan effectively kills any future plans for mineral and energy exploration in the area.

This plan also halts any future development of the "Crowsnest" gold deposit. This was started in 2009 when MAX Resource Corp. found gold in the valley. President Stuart Rogers says that he is disappointed in the announcement after the great results they had seen in the past year, he also stated that they will be seeking compensation.

This news has been welcomed with open arms by environmental groups, but are waiting to see the full details of the plan. They are happy though that this plan signals a shift away from the original plan which had a huge focus on mining. Their hope for the future of the Flathead Valley is to see it become a National Park