Dan Chu

On Monday, my teenage daughter and I attended a powerful dedication of our nation’s newest addition to the National Park System, the Stonewall National Monument.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail in Northern Virginia one soggy morning I encountered a thru-hiker who started on the trail in Georgia months ago and is heading up to the northern end of the Trail in Mount Katahdin, 1,200 miles away, in Baxter State Park. A spectacular wilderness area in Northern Maine that is home to lynx, loons, moose and bear, the 200,000 acre Baxter State Park is remote and pristine.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently proposed removing endangered species protections for Yellowstone grizzly bears. When the bear was first placed on the Endangered Species list 40 years ago, the population was less than 140 bears. Now in 2016, due in large part to endangered species protections, the grizzly bear population is estimated to be about 700 bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

This week, the Sierra Club and lands activists across the country scored a major win when the U.S. Senate unanimously joined the House of Representatives in passing a bill that designates the Boulder–White Clouds in Idaho as our nation’s newest wilderness area.