National Parks, Monuments and Seashores

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    Thousands Gather at National Parks Across U.S. to Protest Job Cuts

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    Thousands of people gathered on Saturday at national parks from California to Maine to protest the Trump administration’s firing of at least 1,000 National Park Service employees last month.A group called Resistance Rangers — consisting of about 700 off-duty rangers, including some who were fired from the National Park Service — tried to organize protests at each of the country’s 433 national park sites on Saturday to stand up against what they see as threats to public lands, including the job cuts. By the afternoon, there were protests at at least 145 sites, according to Nick Graver, a 30-year-old graduate student who helped organize the demonstration at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California.Protests were held in popular spots like Yosemite in Northern California, the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Acadia in Maine, Yellowstone in the Northwest, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and Great Falls Park in Virginia, as well as lesser-known places like Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeastern Iowa. Tensions have been particularly high at Yosemite, where employees have unfurled upside-down American flags in protest across iconic sites like Yosemite Falls and El Capitan.Mr. Graver said his group was concerned not only about the firings but also about resource extraction on public lands and possible threats to national monuments, such as a proposal to remove the president’s power to designate national monuments.The National Park Service said it was working with protest organizers to allow people to “safely exercise their First Amendment rights,” while protecting its resources.Joshua Tree National Park in Twentynine Palms, Calif., last week.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Hundreds in Park Service Have Opted to Quit, Agency Memo Says

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      More than 700 National Park Service employees have submitted resignations as part of Elon Musk’s “fork in the road” offer, according to an internal agency memo that critics of the plan said would diminish staffing ahead of the busy summer tourism season.The news of the resignations comes after a decision earlier this month at the Department of Interior to fire more than 1,000 full-time national park employees. According to the new memo sent on Tuesday and viewed by The New York Times, the additional 700 workers who agreed to the resignation plan would not be permitted to work after March 7.The staffing cuts have sparked a public outcry. Conservationists, outdoor enthusiasts and park rangers have warned that the reductions threaten to leave hundreds of national parks understaffed during the busy summer season, and already are causing some parks to reduce hours, cancel tours and close visitor centers.The national park job losses are part of a chaotic effort by President Trump to delete thousands of federal jobs. Adding to the confusion, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said the park service also plans to rehire thousands of workers — albeit as temporary, summer positions.“The National Park Service is hiring seasonal workers to continue enhancing the visitor experience as we embrace new opportunities for optimization and innovation in work force management,” Elizabeth Peace, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, said in a statement.“We are focused on ensuring that every visitor has the chance to explore and connect with the incredible, iconic spaces of our national parks,” she said.Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, a nonprofit group, has said the temporary positions are not a substitute for the employees with years of full-time experience now lost to the park system.She also noted that about 2,000 prospective seasonal employees had their job offers rescinded when Mr. Trump, during his first days in office, imposed a hiring freeze across the government. That freeze compromised the ability to accelerate the process of rehiring those people.During the warm-weather months, as many as 325 million people visit the nation’s 63 national parks and hundreds of historic sites and other attractions managed by the park service.Federal workers received the Trump administration’s resignation offer in an email last month entitled “A Fork in the Road.” Under the offer, employees who accepted it would leave their jobs, but continue getting paid through September — and those who did not accept it risked being fired. According to the Office of Personnel Management, about 75,000 workers across the government have accepted the offer. More

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      Trump Targets Agency Overseeing the Presidio, a Cherished San Francisco Park

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      President Trump moved to drastically shrink the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that oversees the Presidio of San Francisco, a national park at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge and one of the city’s most cherished public spaces, in an executive order issued Wednesday evening.The order, which calls for “dramatically” reducing the size of the federal government, said the Presidio Trust was an “unnecessary governmental entity.” The order also targeted three other agencies — the Inter-American Foundation, the United States African Development Foundation and the United States Institute of Peace — by requiring them to reduce their work and personnel “to the minimum presence and function required by law.”The Presidio Trust was established by Congress in 1996 to help oversee the Presidio, a 1,500-acre former military base that today includes hiking trails, museums, schools, campgrounds, restaurants, a golf course and a hotel, according to its website. The National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, a nonprofit group, also help to oversee the park.The trust is led by a board of directors — six of whom are appointed by the president — and employs a staff of ecologists, building stewards, utility workers, tech professionals and others.It wasn’t immediately clear what effect the executive order would have on the park. The Presidio Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Thursday.Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House and a frequent critic of Mr. Trump’s, played a central role in the creation of the trust, and the park is in her district. Ms. Pelosi’s office told The San Francisco Standard that it was reviewing the order.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A National Park Guide Was Flying Home From a Work Trip. She Was Fired Midair.

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      Helen Dhue was flying home after a work trip to Ajo, Ariz., for the National Park Service on Friday, she said. But when she landed in Dallas for a layover, she found out she had been fired. She tried to log on to her work email, but her access was already cut off.Turns out, Ms. Dhue, a 23-year-old park guide at Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, was one of 1,000 National Park Service employees affected by the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal work force, according to groups that represent public lands and parks workers.“The department determined that you have failed to demonstrate fitness or qualifications for continued employment because your subject matter knowledge, skills and abilities do not meet the department’s current needs,” read the email, which was sent to Ms. Dhue while she was in the air. (She later obtained a printed copy of the email from her boss.)The department did not immediately provide comments for this article on Saturday.The National Park Service firings came as the Trump administration escalated its efforts to cull the federal work force. Workers were also fired at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Agriculture Department and the Energy Department, among other agencies, on Friday.Many of the dismissals have targeted the roughly 200,000 federal workers who were on probationary status, generally because they had started their positions within the last year. Some fired employees, including some at the National Park Service, have already indicated that they will appeal.Mr. Trump and his supporters have backed the moves as a way to cut what they see as unnecessary government spending. “President Trump was elected with a mandate to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans, and we are doing just that,” said a spokesperson for the E.P.A. after that agency announced layoffs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ruth Glacier in Alaska Hides America’s Deepest Gorge

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      As his bush plane circled the craggy peaks of the Alaska Range, the explorer Bradford Washburn peered down and had a burning thought.Coursing down the southern slopes of Denali and Mount Silverthrone were the accumulated snows of thousands of winters, compacted under their own weight into colossal rivers of ice that filled the valleys for miles in every direction. At one particular spot in the white wilderness, Washburn noticed from above, all this glacial mass was somehow squeezing through a granite-walled corridor just a mile wide.Washburn became convinced, he wrote, that beneath the ice lay a secret: The corridor was deep. Deeper, perhaps, than any other gorge on the continent, and maybe even the planet.That was 1937. Nearly 90 years later, a team of scientists set off into the windswept mountains to measure the glacier with snowmobiles and ice-penetrating radar. It wasn’t easy: The Great North does not surrender its mysteries readily. The researchers almost didn’t think they’d found anything of interest.The Ruth Glacier originates beneath the summit of Denali and flows through deep granite valleys.Now, thanks to some clever analysis, and a bit of luck, they have put forth the most conclusive evidence yet that Washburn was right — that the area could be the deepest gorge in North America.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Plane Crash Near Wright Brothers Memorial Leaves ‘Multiple’ Dead

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      A single-engine plane was trying to land when it crashed into a wooded area near the memorial in North Carolina on Saturday, the National Park Service said.Multiple people were killed after a small plane crashed at an airport in North Carolina on Saturday near the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, the National Park Service said.The single-engine airplane was trying to land at the First Flight Airport when it crashed into a wooded area nearby.The plane then caught fire, the Park Service said. It did not specify how many people died or where the flight originated.The Kill Devil Hills Fire Department responded to the fire and extinguished it, officials said.The First Flight Airport, established in 1928, is a single-runway, public-use airport that commemorates the site where Orville and Wilbur Wright made their first powered flight in 1903.The site is managed by the National Park Service.Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.The Wright Brothers National Memorial will be closed on Sunday, the Park Service said. More

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      Cat Missing in Yellowstone Returns Home to California After an 800-Mile Journey

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      The owners of Rayne Beau, the 2-year old Siamese cat, have no idea how their cat made it back, but call his return a “miracle.”When a cat dashed into the woods of Yellowstone National Park during a camping trip in June, his California owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, thought they’d never see him again.The couple searched for five days through the woods near their campground at Fishing Bridge R.V. Park but never found their 2-year-old male Siamese cat, Rayne Beau, pronounced “rainbow.” Mrs. Anguiano said that Rayne Beau’s sister, Starr, started to meow through the screen door of the trailer. Eventually, when the couple made the tough decision to drive home to Salinas, Calif., Starr, who had never been away from her brother, meowed all the way back.“Leaving him was unthinkable,” Mrs. Anguiano said. “I felt like I was abandoning him.”But almost two months later, Rayne Beau was found wandering the streets of Roseville, Calif., three hours north of where the Anguianos live and more than 800 miles away from Yellowstone National Park, as first reported by the news station KSBW.When a worker from a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals notified the couple that rescuers had identified Rayne Beau from his microchip, Mr. Anguiano said they were shocked that the cat had made it back to California.The couple met Rayne Beau and his sister when they were 11 weeks old and decided to foster and then adopt them. Rayne Beau, who at first seemed timid compared with his playful sister, quickly adjusted to his new home and developed an adventurous streak. Mrs. Anguiano described him as being like a “dog cat” who played fetch and came to her when she called his name.She said he was also clever. One night he climbed over the fence in their backyard, but he returned home the following morning.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Man Dies During River Trip in the Grand Canyon

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      His death is the seventh reported in Grand Canyon National Park since July 31.A Colorado man was found dead in Grand Canyon National Park on Saturday, according to the National Park Service. It is the seventh death reported there in less than two months.The man, Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colo., was on a self-guided river trip with a group along the Colorado River when he was found dead by others in the group, the Park Service said in a statement.The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center, the dispatcher for emergency operations in the area, received a report around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday of a death in an area known as Poncho’s Kitchen, near River Mile 137 along the Colorado River, the Park Service said. Park rangers arrived to find Mr. Horton dead at the scene, the agency said.Mr. Horton died on the 10th day of a private, self-guided river trip, which requires a river permit that is won through a lottery system, the Park Service said.A cause of death has not been released. The Park Service said it was investigating the death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office.Representatives for the Park Service and the medical examiner’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday evening.The Grand Canyon National Park, in northern Arizona, attracts millions of visitors each year, many of them hikers who descend thousands of feet from the rim of the canyon to the Colorado River below. According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, about 5,000 of the 27,000 people who travel along the river through the Grand Canyon each year do so on private trips with the appropriate park permits.The death is the seventh reported in Grand Canyon since July 31, according to previous news releases from the Park Service. Others include a 60-year-old hiker from North Carolina who was on a multiday backpacking trip when he was reported missing by a relative; an unidentified 80-year-old man who died after his boat flipped over in a river; Chenoa Rickerson, a 33-year-old woman whose body was found after a flash flood; and Leticia A. Castillo, 20, whose body was found 150 feet below an overlook.There have been at least 15 deaths in Grand Canyon so far this year, including six fatalities reported over two separate weeklong periods this summer, The New York Times reported.The park averages about 17 deaths per year, with the most common cause being cardiac arrest, according to data from the last decade. More

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      Hiking Trail in Hawaii Closes After Norovirus Outbreak

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      Four people tested positive for the virus, which causes a highly contagious gastrointestinal illness, officials said. The trail was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19.A popular hiking trail on the island of Kauai in Hawaii was closed this week after more than three dozen people fell ill in what officials said was a “rare occurrence” of the highly contagious norovirus.The Kalalau Trail, a 22-mile round-trip stretch within the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, was recommended to remain closed until at least Sept. 19 while Department of Health officials assessed the ongoing risk of transmission and as stations along the trail were cleaned and disinfected.The Health Department received reports of illness from at least 37 hikers and campers over the last several weeks, though the actual number is expected to be higher, officials said.“This is a very concerning and rare occurrence, magnified by the extreme remote nature of the Kalalau Valley,” Curt Cottrell, an administrator for state parks, said in a statement.The trail was closed on Wednesday after health officials received numerous reports of gastrointestinal illnesses from hikers, and on Thursday the Health Department said that test results from four patients confirmed that they had contracted norovirus.The state’s Department of Land and Natural Resources said in a statement that dozens of backpackers along the trail had reported gastrointestinal illness, and that one person had been evacuated but no one had been hospitalized.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More