Category Archives: National parks

Feral horse numbers surge in Kosciuszko national park after pause in aerial culling, survey shows

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Conservationists say population rebound demands rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of the animals to remain in the park

Feral horse numbers in the Kosciuszko national park have surged, with new survey data estimating populations climbed by thousands after the New South Wales government paused aerial culling in 2025.

Conservation advocates say the rebound in numbers demands an urgent rethink of retention zones that allow thousands of horses to remain in the park.

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Trump administration relaxing hunting restrictions in US parks and refuges

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After January order from US department of the interior, managers across 55 sites have lifted prohibitions

Donald Trump’s administration is quietly pushing national park, refuge and wilderness area managers to dramatically scale back hunting restrictions, raising questions about visitor safety and the impact on wildlife.

Doug Burgum, the US Department of the Interior secretary, issued an order in January directing multiple agencies to remove what he termed “unnecessary regulatory or administrative barriers” to hunting and fishing, to and justify regulations they want to keep in place.

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Two hikers injured in US bear attack on Yellowstone trail

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National park closes areas near Old Faithful after attack by one or more bears, with incident under investigation

Two hikers were injured in a bear attack on Monday on a trail in Yellowstone national park, park officials said.

The National Park Service said in a statement on Tuesday that the hikers sustained injuries on Monday by “one or more bears” on the Mystic Falls trail near Old Faithful in Yellowstone national park. Officials did not specify which species of bear.

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US triples national park fee for non-residents, amid ‘new’ fee for Americans

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Interior department, which has defunded conservation organizations, claims fee hike is for conservation

The interior department announced today new “America-first” entrance fees for national parks, commemorative annual passes featuring Donald Trump and “resident-only patriotic fee-free days for 2026” including Trump’s birthday.

Starting next year, entrance fees for international visitors will more than triple.

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National parks facing ‘nightmare’ under Trump, warns ex-director of service

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Jonathan Jarvis, who led the agency from 2009 to 2017, laid out the dire consequences of not closing parks in shutdown

Americans should “raise hell” to protect US national parks through the “nightmare” of Donald Trump’s presidency, according to a former National Park Service director, amid alarm over the impact of the federal government shutdown.

Jonathan Jarvis claimed the agency is now in the hands of a “bunch of ideologues” who would have no issue watching it “go down in flames” – and see parks from Yellowstone to Yosemite as potential “cash cows”, ripe for privatization.

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Green groups criticise plans to weaken protections for English national parks

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Exclusive: Letter from 170-plus organisations calls on government to drop proposed changes to planning law

Plans to water down protections for national parks such as Dartmoor and the Lake District in a “kneejerk bid for growth” will be devastating for nature, more than 170 organisations have told the prime minister.

The Treasury is understood to be pushing for a weakening of protections for England’s national parks and national landscapes in changes to planning law to make it easier for developers to build houses and infrastructure projects.

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Non-binary park ranger fired for hanging trans pride flag in Yosemite

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Shannon ‘SJ’ Joslin among group who hung 66ft flag on El Capitan as others could face prosecution under protest laws

A Yosemite national park ranger was fired after hanging a pride flag from El Capitan, while some park visitors could face prosecution under protest restrictions that have been tightened under Donald Trump.

Shannon “SJ” Joslin, a ranger and biologist who studies bats, said they hung a 66ft-wide transgender pride flag on the famous climbing wall that looms over the California park’s main thoroughfare for about two hours on 20 May before taking it down voluntarily. A termination letter they received last week accused Joslin of “failing to demonstrate acceptable conduct” in their capacity as a biologist and cited the May incident.

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Trump’s move to sanitize US history gets little support with national park visitors

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Exclusive: Public comments show that a crackdown on signs ‘disparaging’ Americans is not popular

As part of his administration’s war on “woke”, Donald Trump has asked the American public to report anything “negative” about Americans in US national parks. But the public has largely refused to support a world view without inconvenient historical facts, comments submitted from national parks and seen by the Guardian show.

Notices have been erected at every National Park Service (NPS) site, which spans 433 national parks, monuments and battlefields, following an order from May entitled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History”, issued by Trump’s department of the interior (DOI). The president had demanded a crackdown on any material that “inappropriately disparages Americans”.

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Neolithic long cairn in Yorkshire given extra protection after walkers remove stones

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Dudderhouse Hill in dales is thought to be one of first structures in UK to be communally constructed by humans

A rare and remarkable 5,000-year-old monument that is an example of one of the earliest visible structures in England is to receive extra protection because walkers, sometimes innocently, have been removing and moving stones.

The Dudderhouse Hill long cairn in the Yorkshire Dales has been granted “scheduled monument” status by the government, making it a site of national importance with greater legal protection.

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‘Hero’ father pulls four-year-old child out of mountain lion’s jaws in Washington state

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Family was hiking when big cat attacked child, who was later airlifted to hospital and is in satisfactory condition

A mountain lion bit a four-year-old child on Sunday while the child hiked with family on Hurricane Ridge in Washington state’s Olympic national park, authorities said.

The child’s father reportedly saved the minor’s life by pulling the child from the creature’s jaws.

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Wildfires destroy historic lodge on Grand Canyon’s North Rim, park says

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Grand Canyon Lodge consumed by two wildfires that have burned more than 45,000 acres in area

The historic Grand Canyon Lodge on the monument’s North Rim has been destroyed by a fast-moving wildfire, the park said on Sunday. The blaze has forced officials to close access to that area for the season.

The Grand Canyon Lodge, the only lodging inside the park at the North Rim, was consumed by the flames, park superintendent Ed Keable told park residents, staff and others in a meeting Sunday morning. He said the visitor center, the gas station, a waste water treatment plant, an administrative building and some employee housing also were lost.

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Runaway kangaroo on the loose named Sheila shuts down Alabama interstate

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Marsupial spotted hopping along side of interstate before police surrounded area and owner used dart to tranquilize it

A runaway kangaroo named Sheila shut down a stretch of interstate in Alabama on Tuesday before state troopers and the animal’s owner wrangled the wayward marsupial.

The Alabama law enforcement agency said the kangaroo was spotted on Tuesday hopping along the side of Interstate 85 in Macon county, which is between Montgomery and Auburn.

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Endangered greater gliders recorded in proposed great koala national park in NSW as logging continues

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Conservation groups call for immediate action to protect wildlife as two-year wait for Labor’s promised creation of park continues

Government surveys have found tens of thousands of endangered greater gliders could be living within the proposed area for a great koala national park in New South Wales, prompting new calls for the area to be quickly protected from logging.

Data from aerial drone and ground-based surveys at 169 sites within the proposed park were used to model the likely presence of Australia’s largest gliding possum across the entire 176,000 hectares the NSW government is considering for protection.

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UK adventurer apologises for record trek claim after Inuit backlash

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Camilla Hempleman-Adams, who says she is first woman to traverse Canada’s Baffin Island solo, accused of ‘privilege and ignorance’

A British adventurer has apologised after her claims to be the first woman to traverse Canada’s largest island solo were dismissed by members of the Inuit population who criticised her dangerous “privilege and ignorance”.

Camilla Hempleman-Adams, 32, covered 150 miles (240km) on foot and by ski while pulling a sledge across Baffin Island, Nunavut, in temperatures as low as -40C and winds of 47mph during the two-week expedition last month.

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Charity faces legal action after relocated elephants in Malawi allegedly kill 10 people

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People living near Kasungu national park say they are living in fear after translocation of 263 elephants by International Fund for Animal Welfare

People living on the edge of a protected area in Malawi are taking legal action against an NGO that moved more than 250 elephants into the area, which they say have killed at least 10 people.

Villagers near Kasungu national park, which is Malawi’s second largest and crosses the Zambian border, say they are living in fear for their livelihoods and safety after 263 elephants were introduced in July 2022, causing a sharp spike in human-wildlife conflict. Ten people claiming to be affected by the translocation from Liwonde national park have begun legal action against the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), demanding that the conservation NGO construct adequate fencing to protect the 167 villages around the park and compensate local people for the damage caused by the elephants.

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Hawaii observatory to be evicted amid federal cuts as volcano shoots 700ft lava

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Hilo office, with scientists and their volcano-monitoring equipment, may have lease cancelled from Doge cuts

As Hawaii’s most active volcano shot out fountains of lava on Thursday, some of them reaching as high as 700ft, scientists from the US Geological Survey have been posting regular updates on the scale and pace of the eruptions.

But those same scientists, along with their volcano-monitoring equipment, may soon be evicted from their office because of Elon Musk’s federal government cost-cutting, the Honolulu Civil Beat reported.

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US Forest Service and National Park Service to fire thousands of workers

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Agencies say Trump’s latest push to trim government could impede firefighting efforts and create crises at national parks

The US Forest Service is firing about 3,400 recent hires while the National Park Service is terminating about 1,000 workers under Donald Trump’s push to cut federal spending and bureaucracy, according to a report on Friday.

The terminations target employees who are in their probationary employment periods, which includes anyone hired less than a year ago, according to Reuters, and will affect sites such as the Appalachian trail, Yellowstone, the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr and the Sequoia national forest.

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K’gari at risk of being ‘destroyed’ by overtourism, world heritage advisory committee warns

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Exclusive: The new Queensland government reversed Labor’s decision to set limits on visitor numbers

K’gari’s world heritage advisory committee (KWHAC) has advised the Queensland government the island’s ecology risks being “destroyed” by “overtourism”, putting pressure on the LNP’s promise not to cap visitation to the island.

The recommendation was contained in the body’s world heritage strategic plan released on Friday and contradicts the policy adopted by the new government.

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Logging in forest earmarked for koala national park increasing under NSW Labor, analysis finds

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More than 7,000 hectares logged in planned park area since Chris Minns won 2023 election with commitment to deliver new sanctuary, conservationists say

Logging of native forest in the proposed great koala national park (GKNP) in northern New South Wales has intensified since the Minns government took office, according to new analysis by conservation advocates.

The report, which the state’s forestry corporation disputes, found 7,185 hectares (17,700 acres) were logged within the promised park in the 21 months since the March 2023 state election.

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Hadi Nazari: hiker missing in Kosciuszko national park since Boxing Day found alive

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Hadi Nazari, 23, found after going missing two weeks ago, discovered two muesli bars at a hut while lost, police say

A 23-year-old hiker missing since Boxing Day in the remote Kosciuszko national park has been found alive.

Hadi Nazari stumbled into the path of a group of hikers at about 3.15pm on Wednesday, on the circuit walk near Blue Lake, police said.

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