In preparation for the upcoming tidepool season (October through June), California’s Cabrillo National Monument will hold an introductory orientation and training conference for new and returning Tidepool Protection, Education and Restoration Program (TPERP) volunteers on September 13 and 27. Field experts, monument staff and volunteers will introduce new volunteers to the fauna, flora, geology and ecology of the beautiful, wild coastal environment of Cabrillo's rocky intertidal, which has been called the best protected rocky intertial area on the Southern California mainland coast. Volunteers will learn to provide informal interpretation of tidepool resources to families, children and the general public. Contact the park for further information.

On this day in 1992, legislation was signed establishing the Marsh-Billings National Historical Park in Woodstock, VT. The 555-acre park was the boyhood home of George Perkins Marsh, the author of Man and Nature, an important mid-19th-century book that helped to inspire the early conservation movement. Renamed Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, it is Vermont’s only national park unit other than the section of the Appalachian Trail that passes through the state

This week in 1933, President Roosevelt established Cedar Breaks National Monument near Cedar City, Utah. The 6,155-acre park features a three-mile-long canyon of rock walls, fins, spires and columns that is more than 2,000 feet deep. Park visitors can enjoy auto touring, hiking trails, and a variety of ranger-guided programs. Although the park's scenic drive is closed by deep snow during the winter months (late November to mid-May) and no visitor services or facilities are available, winter access into the park by skis, snowshoes, or snowmobiles is a wonderful way to experience the sub-alpine beauty of the park.

The second largest member of the cat family in North America goes by a number of different names, including mountain lion, cougar, puma, catamount, Florida panther, and screamer, to name a few. Though it has the largest range of any wild land animal in the Americas, this elusive carnivore is rarely spotted, particularly among any of the frontcountry trails at the national parks. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos of these big cats.