National Parks Service

The National Park Service is launching a study of sites in California and other states associated with the life and work of labor leader Cesar E. Chavez for possible designation as a national historic landmark or addition to the national park system. "The life of Cesar Chavez and people like him who have worked to make this country a better, more perfect union deserve to be recognized as part of the history of America," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday. "As stewards of the history of this great nation we look forward to working with the Chavez family, the United Farm Workers and communities throughout California and Arizona to determine how best to preserve this great legacy."

One day deep in the administration of George W. Bush — a time of tumult among environmentalists and conservationists — Roger Kennedy found himself shaking his head and sighing. The Endangered Species Act was in the cross hairs of a Republican Congress and his beloved National Park Service, which Kennedy directed from 1993 to 1997, was under assault. Kennedy was disgusted by the partisan bickering. When had stewardship of the environment become a political football, he asked, posing a rhetorical question to a reporter.

Visitors to Yosemite and other national parks this summer will find fewer campgrounds open, shorter visitor center hours and fewer rangers on patrol, according to a spokesman for the National Park Service. Cutbacks are being ordered because of a budgetary shortfall of more than $40 million--the result of decreased federal funding, expenses from major storm damage to several northeastern parks, and winter storms in Appalachia that required large search-and-rescue expenditures.

Re "Parks vs. profits," editorial, Nov. 3 National parks shelter spectacular examples of natural and cultural history. Diverse landscapes, such as the red rock canyons of Zion and the alpine lakes of Glacier Park, offer myriad opportunities for recreation and study. Misguided efforts by Deputy Assistant Interior Secretary Paul Hoffman and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Tracy) to change the National Park Service's management policies and to jettison park units countermand public opinion and defy common sense.

The National Park Service on Tuesday reversed decisions by three national parks to permanently ban personal watercraft from their waterways. Those parks--Gulf Islands National Seashore in Florida and Mississippi, Padre Island National Seashore in Texas and Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina--are among eight parks that will temporarily prohibit access for personal watercraft (known by trade names such as Jet Ski, Wave Runner and SeaDoo) beginning Monday.

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service, offers the following tips for springtime hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains: * Water is life. Carry plenty of water and drink it. One quart or more for short walks. More for longer hikes. Alcohol is not a good substitute for water. * Sun protection. Wear sunscreen, hat and sunglasses. Long-sleeved shirts are recommended on sunny days. * Never hike alone; use the buddy system.

In a ceremony punctuated by bagpipe music and blue skies, a state parks agency turned over 2,434 acres of Santa Monica Mountains parkland to the National Park Service on Monday. The cornerstone of the $11-million land sale by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was the site of the ceremony, the 1,655-acre Circle X Ranch in southeast Ventura County. The ranch and 779 acres in Zuma Canyon were added to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

Conrad L. Wirth, 93, longest-serving director of the National Park Service. The son of a park administrator, Wirth was born in a city park in Hartford, Conn., and brought up in another one in Minneapolis. He studied landscape architecture at the University of Massachusetts and was in private practice for five years as a landscaper and town planner, and then worked for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission in Washington.

The National Park Service , the agency that overseas 397 national parks, battlefields, monuments, historic sites, seashores and even scenic byways, turns 96 on Saturday. Some parks are older than that -- Yellowstone, the nation's oldest park, was created in 1872 -- and some are much younger. Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve , for example, is little known even though it stretches 8.4 million acres in Alaska's Brooks Range. It became a national park and preserve in 1980.

The National Park Service filed objections to federal plans for oil and gas drilling alongside Capitol Reef National Park, saying the rigs would spoil landscape views and bring machinery noise, dust and lights to a backcountry prized for its solitude. Albert J.