The Secret Lives of Parks National Parks Conservation Association

What does life on the front lines of climate change look like? For the residents of the tiny island of Aunu’u in American Samoa, it means watching the ocean wash away more of their land each year.

As temperatures and sea levels continue to rise, could the struggle to preserve the Samoan way of life hold a lesson for the rest of the world?

Photojournalist Pete McBride spent nearly 20 years returning to the Colorado River again and again to document its magnificence — and its decline.

In his new book, McBride shows the effects decades of drought and overuse have had on the river, and he offers ways to help it heal.

What happens when a really important place doesn’t seem important to the people in charge?

In 1978, Judy Hart was driven to create a new national park, even though people told her the places she wanted to save didn’t look like a national park. By recognizing the need to interpret women’s history, Hart changed the way the Park Service approaches the concept of national significance.

In 1965, civil rights activists made history by marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, overcoming vicious attacks by police and winning voting rights for Black citizens throughout the South. The route they walked is now a national park site, but the rural camps where marchers found shelter are not — and they’re falling into disrepair. Can these lesser-known pieces of history be saved?

A significant new fossil discovery at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area could deepen our understanding of ancient mammal-like reptiles that lived among some of the earliest dinosaurs. A team of scientists shares how they found this unprecedented trove of ancient remains and what it could teach us — including corollaries to our own modern experience of climate change.

The Chesapeake Bay is a storied waterway where the Atlantic Ocean meets a series of rivers. It is home to Native American history, early European settlements, maritime traditions and rich Civil War history. After years of work, new legislation could soon preserve many of the region’s distinctive sites and stories as a new national recreation area.