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Requiem for an Advisory Board

As 2018 began, a lesser-known but impactful component of America’s national park system, the National Park System Advisory Board, drew national media attention when 10 of its 12 members resigned to protest the refusal of the secretary of the interior to meet with them. Although the board and its activities do not often draw public attention, the mass resignation still “came as a shock,” reported the Los Angeles Times, explaining that “few groups have been closer and more involved in Interior Department policy and management than the National Park System Advisory Board, an appointed and nonpartisan group established 83 years ago to consult on department operations and practices.”

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Reimagining the History of the (Inter)National Park Service

The National Park Service has a long history of international engagement with ties to other nations, including Canada, dating to the agency’s earliest years. In 1961, during the height of the Cold War, an official Division of International Affairs was created, to advance the aims of conservation and U.S. diplomatic and political pursuits. Learn more about NPS international activities and the significance of the agency’s global ties in this piece by guest observer Joana Arruda.

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Filling Mines with Fish: Rebranding the Mesabi Range as a Recreational Landscape

Post-mining landscapes often lie. What we see on the landscape today does not necessarily reflect the history in which that landscape was shaped. In this piece, guest observer John Baeten explores the complex story of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, tracing the effects of heritage tourism and environmental reclamation on a region long known as a center of extractive industry

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Schoodic Head: Where Forest meets the Sea

Eastern Maine is the last place on the East Coast where large tracts of forest still meet the sea. On a blue-sky October day at the height of foliage season, I went to explore one such tract – a critical 300-acre parcel that Frenchman Bay Conservancy was considering for purchase. On a landscape scale, conserving it would have been one more step in maintaining the connection between the fabled North Woods and the shores of the Atlantic.

Read More »

Requiem for an Advisory Board

As 2018 began, a lesser-known but impactful component of America’s national park system, the National Park System Advisory Board, drew national media attention when 10 of its 12 members resigned to protest the refusal of the secretary of the interior to meet with them. Although the board and its activities do not often draw public attention, the mass resignation still “came as a shock,” reported the Los Angeles Times, explaining that “few groups have been closer and more involved in Interior Department policy and management than the National Park System Advisory Board, an appointed and nonpartisan group established 83 years ago to consult on department operations and practices.”

Read More »

Reimagining the History of the (Inter)National Park Service

The National Park Service has a long history of international engagement with ties to other nations, including Canada, dating to the agency’s earliest years. In 1961, during the height of the Cold War, an official Division of International Affairs was created, to advance the aims of conservation and U.S. diplomatic and political pursuits. Learn more about NPS international activities and the significance of the agency’s global ties in this piece by guest observer Joana Arruda.

Read More »

Filling Mines with Fish: Rebranding the Mesabi Range as a Recreational Landscape

Post-mining landscapes often lie. What we see on the landscape today does not necessarily reflect the history in which that landscape was shaped. In this piece, guest observer John Baeten explores the complex story of Minnesota’s Mesabi Iron Range, tracing the effects of heritage tourism and environmental reclamation on a region long known as a center of extractive industry

Read More »

Schoodic Head: Where Forest meets the Sea

Eastern Maine is the last place on the East Coast where large tracts of forest still meet the sea. On a blue-sky October day at the height of foliage season, I went to explore one such tract – a critical 300-acre parcel that Frenchman Bay Conservancy was considering for purchase. On a landscape scale, conserving it would have been one more step in maintaining the connection between the fabled North Woods and the shores of the Atlantic.

Read More »