Newly drafted legislation would combine swaths of land in Virginia and Maryland to create the Chesapeake National Recreation Area.

Although it's been in the works since the 1980s, it could come to fruition within the next year. The new recreation area would include parks and visitor centers that would be managed by the National Park Service.

Keisha Sedlacek, interim federal affairs director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said she's glad to know the project's becoming a reality. She said there's more to it than just the region's natural splendor. It also would help protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

"Not only does it focus on the people," she said, "but it also focuses on protecting habitat, which of course is one of the things the National Park Service is known for."

Sedlacek said she finds the biggest issue with the new bill will be ensuring it gets bipartisan support. Both of its chief sponsors, Rep. John Sarbanes and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, are Democrats from Maryland. They're seeking
public comment that they say will help finalize the legislation.

While the recent elections altered the dynamics of Congress, Sedlacek notes the committee working on the legislation includes both Republicans and Democrats. The real battle, she says will be getting congressional leaders to see a new recreation area as a top priority.

"I'm looking forward to the opportunity for folks in our region and those visiting to be able to have additional areas that they can get out to and experience nature."

She feels a new Chesapeake National Recreation Area would also help cultivate future generations of environmental stewards.

This is the last weekend to get involved in a photo competition designed to encourage Montanans to explore the wilderness with their pets.

There are 30 million acres of publicly owned land in Montana - nearly a third of the state.

As part of an effort designed to get people in touch with public lands, conservation groups are holding a photo contest that encourages people to enter photos of themselves with their dogs in the great outdoors and post them to the competition website.

Becky Edwards is a contest judge for Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund and said given how much of life happens on social media these days, a photo competition seemed only natural.

"We live in a world of visual media," said Edwards. "Instagram, TikTok, even Facebook. There's a lot of photo sharing going on. So, it's fun to be able to combine something that we're doing anyway in our normal life with something that means so much to Montana families and Montana residents."

The top 12 dog photos - as judged by a panel of conservationists and outdoor writers - will be part of Montana Conservation Voters' Pups for Public Lands Calendar. The contest entry is at mtvotersedfund.org/pups.

While Edwards and others are encouraging Montanans to hit the trail with their dogs and post their photos, she said it is important to clean up behind your dog - not just for aesthetic reasons, but for environmental ones, too.

Dog feces can have negative impacts on plants and animals, but also on waterways that are near so many of Montana's trails.

"Which are feeding humans, feeding wildlife, feeding livestock," said Edwards. "S,o the more that we can clean up after our pets, the happier everyone will be - human and four-legged alike."

Edwards said domestic animal feces can also leave behind the scent of a predator, habituating prey and making them more vulnerable. Or, the scent may keep sensitive prey species away from the area, limiting their habitat.




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Three conservation groups have sued to stop a large logging project near Yellowstone National Park they say threatens endangered species in Montana.

The South Plateau Project would clear-cut 5,500 acres of trees, burn more than 16,000 acres, and carve 56 miles of logging roads into the Custer-Gallatin National Forest near Yellowstone Park, close to the Continental Divide.

Mike Garrity, executive director of the Helena-based Alliance for the Wild Rockies, which worked with the Center for Biological Diversity to file the suit, said the logging project would be genetically devastating for grizzlies near Yellowstone, because it proposes to slice through a corridor which allows Yellowstone grizzlies to mix with bears further north as they work their way back from the endangered list.

"Grizzlies, once again, need one connected population so they have healthy genetic interchange," Garrity emphasized. "Grizzlies that are isolated are at risk for inbreeding. Once inbreeding sets in, they are sunk."

Garrity added most grizzlies are killed within one-third of a mile of a logging road - evidence, he said, that humans are threatening the already threatened species in the state. The U.S. Forest Service, which would oversee the logging project, has declined to comment due to the pending litigation.

Beyond providing vital habitat for grizzlies and Canada lynx, which are known to avoid forest clear-cuts for as long as 50 years, Garrity pointed out halting the project would preserve close to 17,000 logging trucks worth of timber, and prevent a devastating ecological impact on the climate.

"Forests are tremendous carbon sinks," Garrity stressed. "National Forests absorb about 12% to 15% of all the carbon the United States produces in a year. They're going to cut down all these trees and disturbing all the soil because trees also pump carbon into the soils, and bulldozing all these new logging roads is going to release a ton of carbon into the atmosphere."

Garrity argued the Forest Service has not analyzed the environmental impacts of the project, which is required under the National Environmental Policy Act.

Imagine reaching your favorite Grand Teton National Park trail in half the time because of new pull-outs that clear traffic on arterial roads.

Or driving into Moose Junction, parking your car, and hopping on an electric-assisted bicycle to explore the park on a dedicated path that connects with a ferry across Jenny Lake to Hidden Falls.

These are the types of ideas that park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said he hopes to gather from visitors to help officials map out the iconic park's future.

"We're trying to get information from people," said Jenkins, "about the kinds of experiences that they would like to have at Grand Teton 10, 15, 20 years from now."

He said because National Parks belong to all Americans, it's important for people to have a say in how they're managed.

You can add your vision for improving the visitor experience at Grand Teton through October 10 online at 'parkplanning.nps.gov.'

The number of people from Wyoming and across the U.S. visiting Grand Teton National Park has swelled over the past three decades, reaching nearly four million in 2021.

But Jenkins said visitation data isn't like a thermometer going up or down, it's more like a balloon where people are doing different things on the landscape in a different way.

"So, while the overall total number of visitors in 2022 was similar to 2014," said Jenkins, "we had over a 50% increase in the number of people who were hiking on our trails."

Park officials have been adapting to visitation trends for over 100 years. In the 1920s and 30s, Highway 89 was created to help people reach Dubois and Riverton.

In the 1950s and 60s there was massive investment in Colter Bay to support increases in overnight stays. Jenkins said more recently, there has been a growing interest in experiencing the park by bicycle.

"It's just a wonderful way to be able to be out on the landscape," said Jenkins. "You'll see many many people like to do it as a family getting together or a group of friends getting together. Of course, E-bikes are opening up all sorts of opportunities for folks."