Since its founding in the 1916 Organic Act, the mission of the National Park Service (NPS) has been to preserve, unimpaired, America’s natural and cultural resources for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.[1] Today, national parks draw millions of visitors each year, and are in danger of being loved to death. […]
Making memories of a grand land “Don’t go so close to the edge,” my parents yelled. I rushed to grab my first glimpse of the Grand Canyon. That must be a thousand feet down, I thought. Once I’d seen it in person, I knew why the Grand Canyon was one of the Seven Wonders of […]
Public Land on the U.S.-Mexico Border Picture the public land on U.S.-Mexico border. Perhaps you see a distinct line slicing across the map or a fence enforced by the Border Patrol cutting through a desert wilderness. Or maybe you imagine a port of entry where sister cities straddle the international boundary. While hardly incorrect, such […]
In 2017 and 2018, headlines reading, “Protect our Public Lands,” have become a common sight. The Trump Administration’s goal to increase domestic energy production in America has resulted in renewed pressures to extract natural resources on public lands. The case of Dinosaur National Monument in particular illustrates the need to keep fighting the same battles […]
Introduction In southern Utah, two bear’s ears poke out from the face of the earth. Shash Jáa,[1] as the Navajos call the buttes, graces the horizon from all directions. Beneath their splendor lie cliff dwellings, rock art, and ceremonial sites, the material vestiges of many stories.[2] It is, as the five-tribe Bears Ears Inter-tribal Council […]
Welcome With this post, we are pleased to announce a new blog by Colorado State University’s Public Lands History Center (PLHC). In doing so we take our cue from the five-tribe Bears Ears Inter-tribal Council. Referring to the southern Utah National Monument surrounding a pair of buttes dubbed Bears Ears, the council said that there […]
Trump ‘Salute to America’ Funded with National Park Gate Fees Recently, the Washington Post reported that funding the Trump Administration’s Salute to America on the National Mall on July 4, 2019, involved the diversion of $2.5 million in funds derived from the National Park Service’s (NPS) park fees to fund a more elaborate celebration, including […]
The Endangered Species Act On Friday September 25, 2019 Colorado and 16 other states sued Republican president Trump’s administration. They were attempting to block pushbacks to the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Today the ESA is politically controversial. However, in 1973, Republican president, Richard Nixon, signed the law with bipartisan support.[1] Throughout the 1970s, bipartisan support […]
This blog post is a re-post of Dr. Jared Orsi’s article about the Organ Pipe National Monument in The Conversation from December 4, 2019. To view the original article, click here. Organ Pipe National Monument A few hundred yards from the Mexican border in southern Arizona lies a quiet pond, about the size of two football […]
From Antarctica to the Moon In episode 114 of the NASA podcast “Houston, We Have a Podcast” airing on October 18, 2019, Samuel Lawrence, a scientist in charge of lunar exploration, says that NASA is considering the idea of establishing an outpost on the moon. What was once the realm of science fiction may soon […]
