Issues facing National Parks

National Geographic had a great post about the top ten issues facing the National Parks.

Here's their list:

1. Untold Stories
2. Crumbling History
3. Wildlife Management
4. Foreign Invaders
5. Adjacent Development
6. Climate Change
7. Water Issues
8. Air Pollution
9. Transportation Problems
10. Visitor Experience

What do you think of their list? And the big question is, do you visit National Parks? If so, which ones?

I mainly visit Mount Rainier National Park. That's because it's close to my location and is an awesome location. I love that park and all that it has to offer. This summer the Northern Rangers will be backpacking the Wonderland Trail around Mount Rainier. Complete with videos and posts.

Complete National Geographic on hard drive

Perhaps you are like Brandon and have saved every National Geographic since the beginning of time. Well, now you can clean out those three rooms full of magazines and recycle all of them. Yes, recycle.

That's because now you can get the complete National Geographic collection on a hard drive.

The hard drive has every issue from 1888 to 2008. That's 120 years of photos, stories, maps and even the advertisements.

This definitive collection of every issue of National Geographic magazine, digitally reproduced in stunning high resolution, brings you the world and all that is in it. Use the advanced interface to explore a topic, search for photographs, browse the globe, or wander on your own expedition.

Additionally, the collection comes on a 160-gigabyte hard drive, but only 60 are used, leaving you 100 gigs for your personal storage. Perhaps of ideas for your own adventures.

You can buy the collection for $200 at the National Geographic shop.

National Geographic Adventure closing

I came across an article today over at the adventure life that was talking about how National Geographic Adventure is closing up shop.

Another victim of the down economy and the shrinking of the journalism industry.

The article states that advertising for the magazine was down about 44%. That is never good news for a publication.

I personally didn't subscribe to the magazine but my dad did. He would pass along the issues when he was done. I enjoyed the articles and really liked the magazine. The main downside I saw with it (compared to Outside which I subscribe to) is that the adventures and trips that were talked about in National Geographic Adventure were usually globally and very expensive a/k/a nothing I could ever actually go on.

Outside and Backpacker (I use these as examples because I actually read these) seem to focus most of their attention on more regionally located trips. These would be trips that ordinary people or weekend warriors could take part in. Instead of having to go to New Zealand for a month long trip.

However, despite this more global focus, I did enjoy reading the articles in Adventure, and they always had some great photos.

With National Geographic Adventure folding, this gives outdoor and travel journalists one less publication to write for. But at the same time, it opens the door for another outdoor magazine to cover some of those trips that would have been focused on in Adventure. I guess we'll see what this means for outdoor journalists within the next year.