Our National Parks are overcrowded. Here's how to fix that.
CBSN
Yellowstone and Yosemite will continue to be overcrowded unless officials implement a reservation system at more national parks and hire additional staff to handle the influx of visitors, federal lawmakers said Wednesday.
Those were two suggestions made by Angus King, a U.S. Senator from Maine, during a Congressional hearing about how to alleviate overcrowding at the nation's 423 national parks. King also floated the idea of steering people to the "lesser known jewels" in the parks system, like Big Bend National Park in Texas, as well as restricting the number of cars the public can bring to a park. After months of lockdown during the pandemic, Americans are now flooding the national parks, leading to 4-hour wait times and increased litter along park trails. King said Wednesday he believes visitors are now "loving our parks to death."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.