U.S. Park Service

The eccentric West through the eyes of Seattle's British expat author is a landscape of strange customs, forlorn towns, and back roads. His mantra: "To be alone is to be safe."

Historic preservation: There's no gold in them thar hills

Posted Tue, Sep 27, 5:57 p.m.

Seattle's landmark George Carmack House, a gold rush icon, is in jeopardy again. Finding a savior is proving tough in this recession.

A trail not a tunnel

Posted Fri, Jan 28, 2 a.m.

While Pioneer Square is being buffeted by big projects and tough economic times, work is proceeding on an urban trail network to make the historic district more connected and foot-friendly.

Heritage Turkeys of the Year

Posted Tue, Jan 4, 2 a.m.

The worst developments in Northwest heritage and historic preservation for 2010.

City budget shines a light on Magnuson Park decay

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 2 a.m.

Some worry that the city is practicing "demolition by neglect" at Sand Point. But a budget disagreement between the mayor and City Council over Building 30 could show why investing in historic structures is valuable to a city in need of revenues.

On a summer road trip: Call of the not-so-wild

Posted Mon, Oct 4, 2 a.m.

Welcome to our national parks, home to non-native elk and mountain goat, invasive plants, stocked rivers and lakes, spraying programs for plague, and yearly genetic tests for buffalo. It can take a lot of work to keep parks "natural."

Greening access to Seattle's nearby national parks

Posted Fri, Sep 17, 2 a.m.

We live in a beautiful place surrounded by gorgeous parks, but our wilderness, including national parks, are mostly accessible only by car. Can we fix this?

9-11 anniversary: Lessons from the Last Stand

Posted Thu, Sep 9, 2 a.m.

From Walla Walla to the Little Big Horn, America is fascinated with its massacre sites, which offer some perspective on 9-11.

What's Obama got against historic preservation?

Posted Tue, Feb 16, 2 a.m.

The Great Recession and federal and state budget cuts are creating hurdles for heritage advocates who see historic preservation and urban revitalization as a way out of the economic doldrums. Obama's budget is a major setback because it slashes cherished programs.

Score one for Seattle's historic nuke site

Posted Sun, Oct 4, 7:10 p.m.

The University of Washington's Nuclear Reactor Building has won a place on the National Historic Register, a key step in saving this wonderfully designed structure from demolition.

Denali: The best park of 'America's Best Idea'

Posted Wed, Sep 30, 6 a.m.

By Seamus M. Young

A memorable stay at a wilderness lodge in Denali National Park shows a rare example of faithfully carrying out the Park Service's mission of conserving wildlife unimpaired. For now.

We need to enlarge the 'American Alps'

Posted Thu, Aug 13, 6 a.m.

By Ken Wilcox

When the North Cascades National Park was created in 1968, key lands were left out for reasons that no longer apply. There's a new push to add to the wildlands.

Climbing Rainier: Once is enough

Posted Tue, Jul 21, 6:03 a.m.

By Gardiner Davis

The author's toes still ache, 22 years later. And there was that Volkswagen-sized boulder speeding down the slope at 80 miles an hour.

Celebrating the Northwest's floating world

Posted Wed, Jun 24, 4 a.m.

Maritime advocates are looking to have Congress declare most of Washington's coastline, including Puget Sound, a National Heritage Area. It could be a boon for tourism, preservation, and the marine industry itself.

The lasting impact of the New Deal's CCC

Posted Fri, Apr 10, 6 a.m.

By Brian D'Ambrosio

A new book looks at one spectacular legacy in the Colorado Plateau

The Cascadian Dream

Posted Thu, Apr 9, 6 a.m.

Can a Pacific Northwest utopia be shaped on the shared belief that nature is sacred? This latest installment in a series on regional identity looks at the patron saint of the environmental movement, John Muir, and how his thinking informs the desire for a new, greener, and elusive entity some call Cascadia.

No (Gold) Rush to judgement

Posted Tue, Apr 7, 6 a.m.

Seattle nominates the old home of the Klondike strike's originator as a landmark, but the debate over George Carmack's place in local history is far from settled, and landmark status is not assured.

A desert town's dusty soul

Posted Fri, Feb 27, 6 a.m.

By Daniel Jack Chasan

A feisty newspaper that carried on the Edward Abbey tradition in Moab, Utah, is closing. It's a sign, along with too much good coffee, of change in the West.

Obama acts fast to rescind Bush's midnight rules in the West

Posted Fri, Jan 23, 6 a.m.

By David Frey

A quick freeze puts a hold on such last-minute regulations as removing the grey wolf from the endangered list, lifting ban on guns in national parks, and expanding oil shale programs.

Reframing Northwest environmental issues

Posted Mon, Dec 15, 6 a.m.

By Floyd McKay

Lacking top figures in the Obama administration from the region, area environmentalists are linking forest and salmon issues to a cause Obama understands better: climate change.

U.S. Park Service Blog posts

Getting around: Bicycles, canoes heighten our experiences

Posted Sun, Aug 28, 11:20 a.m. 2011

by Sam Newberg

An urbanist who loves walking finds that pedaling and paddling have their own benefits.

Is this the killer goat?

Posted Mon, Oct 18, 3:52 p.m. 2010

A hiker captured pictures of a aggressive Hurricane Ridge goat a few days before a fatal attack on the same trail.

Death by mountain goat

Posted Sun, Oct 17, 2 p.m. 2010

Reports of an "aggressive" goat at Hurricane Ridge prove fatally true.

Climate change comes to our National Parks

Posted Fri, Jun 5, 6 a.m. 2009

by Pete Jackson

The problems (frequent 100-year storms, closed roads, vanishing glaciers) are straining the systems. Some conferences begin to grapple with the immense consequences and trade-offs.

Dear Barack: Here's your handy green agenda

Posted Thu, Dec 18, 6 a.m. 2008

by Daniel Jack Chasan

A large group of environmental organizations send Obama suggestions for his first 200 days or undoing Bush policies and getting serious about modern forest protection.

Can Ken Salazar clean the stables at Interior?

Posted Thu, Dec 18, noon 2008

by Floyd McKay

The office has attracted scoundrels who shamelessly favored private resource interests. Also, it's become a chance for presidents to make a political statement.

The Nuke Building could get nuked

Posted Thu, Sep 11, 5 p.m. 2008

You may have read in late August that Hanford's B reactor was granted National landmark status by the U.S government. The B reactor was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor and it helped drive the famed Manhattan Project. It produced the plutonium used for the first atomic test blast and for the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The deserved designation offers a hook to check on what's going on with the University of Washington's own historic Nuclear Reactor Building (More Hall Annex) in Seattle. It was slated for demolition this summer while it was also up for national register consideration. So, what happened?

A Seattle gold rush house is endangered

Posted Sun, Aug 31, 5 a.m. 2008

There's little question that Seattle was put on the map by the Klondike Gold Rush. The man credited with setting off that rush, George W. Carmack, spent the last dozen years of his life living in a big Colonial Revival home in what is now Seattle's Central District. The National Park Service says the George Carmack House is fit for the National Register, but it may be too late. A for sale banner hangs on it today touting the property as a 4,800-foot lot ripe for redevelopment.

Was we 'robbed' by nature?

Posted Mon, Aug 11, 5 p.m. 2008