Recreation

COMMENTARY
A climber at The Grotto, a popular rock-climbing area in California. (Casey Batchelder/Bureau of Reclamation, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

Wilderness areas need restraint, not climbing hardware

BY: - June 12, 2023

We humans want the most out of life, so why shouldn’t we push to get more of what we want?  That’s what some rock climbers must be thinking. They want to enter designated wilderness areas in order to drill permanent anchors into wilderness rock faces, turning these wild places into sport-climbing walls.  When the Wilderness […]

COMMENTARY
A view of the Black Hills from Black Elk Peak. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Eight supervisors, seven years: The ‘challenging’ Black Hills National Forest

BY: - May 25, 2023

The Black Hills National Forest has its eighth supervisor in the past seven years, and if recent history is any indication, he probably doesn’t fully recognize what he’s up against. Carl Petrick, most recently the supervisor of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, won’t stay long in his new Black Hills post. He’s an acting supervisor, […]

A portion of the Black Hills National Forest near Mystic. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

USDA to use outdoors recreation to boost economy around national forests, grasslands

BY: - January 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture began planning this month to develop outdoor recreation opportunities near national forests and grasslands, part of a broader Biden administration push to help communities reap economic rewards from the growing recreation sector. Three USDA agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and […]

A portion of the Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills. (Seth Tupper/SD Searchlight)

New lifetime pass for veterans provides free entrance to national parks and other public lands

BY: - November 11, 2022

Starting today, on Veterans Day, military veterans and Gold Star families can get a free lifetime pass to the nation’s 400 million acres of public lands, national parks, wildlife refuges, and forests. Lifetime access for veterans was part of the  Alexander Lofgren Veterans in Parks Act, which passed in December 2021. The bill authorized free […]