Much of the western United States was once blanketed in hundreds of feet of sand. The unforgiving sun beat down on the landscape for 20 to 30 million years during the early Jurassic period. Thin layers of rock allowed water to collect even in the dry desert, though sometimes it was hidden a few inches below the surface. Dinosaurs and other animals were able to survive the harsh conditions, and as the sand slowly turned to sandstone, traces of these animals were caught and preserved in the rock, creating fossils.

More than 150 million years later, a man named Earl Douglass was born in Medford, Minnesota in 1862. He didn’t know it yet, but his fate was already entwined with the dinosaurs that once roamed the earth.

This week on America’s National Parks: Earl Douglass and Dinosaur National Monument.

It's time for this month's "news from the parks" episode. Today, we cover President Biden's new executive order requiring masks-wearing on federal lands, and a landmark ruling from a judge striking down the National Park Service's commercial film permit rules. 

With wolves decreasing at Isle Royale, the moose population could decimate the forest and vegetation communities. Neither species is native to the island, but a multi-agency wolf translocation strategy may save Isle Royale. 

Swirling between the borders of Canada and Minnesota is a vast maze of interconnected water highways – a wild space comprised of lush forests and isolated islands. Its history is fueled by the Native Americans who called it home, and the french fur traders known as Voyageurs. Peaceful islands dot the waters, but they also hold a secret. A golden secret. On this episode of America's National Parks - the story of Voyageur's National Park's Little American Island and the 1890's Gold Rush.

In the heart of our nation lies a riverway that has been federally protected for more than 50 years and stewarded by Native Americans for thousands of years before that. ItThis river carried logs piled so high they caused jams two miles long. It witnessed the first steamboats, a Minnesota firestorm, and even a briefly booming pearl button factory. The onset of the fur trade, European settlement, and urban development began to threaten these once-pristine waters. The unique habitat for aquatic life and recreational opportunities such as fishing and paddling was enough cause for people to rally for the water’s protection.

This week on America’s National Parks: the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway.

If you take the time to stop in West Virginia's New River Gorge, our newest national park, and listen, you may hear intertwined within the sound of birdsong, flowing water, and the wind billowing through the trees the whistle of a train. Today on America's National Parks, the legend born from the Gorge that would echo through generations to come. A man named John Henry. 

New Lava eruptions in Hawaii have people doing dangerous things, a harrowing evacuation of the records of two national parks in danger of being lost to wildfire, and our 63rd National Park. 

This week on America’s National Parks, we journey to Gates of the Arctic, Yellowstone, and Glacier for three stories of survival from the wildlife that call them home: Arctic Ground Squirrels, Bison, and Clark’s Nutcrackers.

Should the whitebark pine be listed as a threatened species? The USFWS will consider public comments received by Feb. 1, 2021. Comments may be submitted electronically at www.regulations.gov by searching under docket number FWS–R6–ES–2019–0054 and clicking on the “comment now” button.

Shortly after midnight on June 12, 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was assassinated in the carport of the home that he shared with his wife Myrlie and their three young children in Jackson, Mississippi. His death, the first murder of a nationally significant leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, heightened public awareness of civil rights issues and became a catalyst for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Today on America's National Parks, our newest National Park Service Unit, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument in Jackson, Mississippi.

Mountains that tower over beaches, temperate rainforests, ice fields, tidewater glaciers, and marine depths welcome the visitors that make the trek to visit this off-the-beaten-path destination. These habitats provide homes for mountain goats, moose, shorebirds, salmon, and bears, but the easiest way to get around in this national park is not by foot. Nearly 1200 miles of shoreline curve around inlets and islands. One endangered animal has thrived in this environment, swimming here to feed for the summer before returning to tropical waters near Mexico and Hawaii every winter. This week: the humpback whales of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.