Forty years ago, beneath the vast sky of Badlands National Park, a ranger taught me to find the Big Dipper and “follow its arc to Arcturus.” That simple lesson began a lifelong fascination with the night sky.
The H.R. 1 Bill (the One Big Beautiful Bill) passed July 3, 2025 by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Donald J. Trump, will be devastating to our National Parks.
Watch this 10-minute podcast discussion by Richard Olsenius and Christine Olsenius.
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For most of my life I have lived in the wooded Midwest, where sunlight streamed through thick leaf cover and the sky was hidden by tall branches of elm and maple. That is why, once a year, I always drove west across the Missouri River to get my fill of big-sky country.
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It was one of those evenings when the warmth of the day lingered over the land, and a slight breeze murmured through the bluestem and Indian grasses.
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Every day I read articles about climate change and the dire consequences of not addressing it. I worry that the articles are lost on a public that wants easy answers to complex problems and refuses to believe the work of serious scientists. Perhaps people cannot relate to the topic due to the distractions of their busy lives. Maybe there is just something too distant about those Greenland ice sheets.
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It is wild country and I have a chance to lose myself in it for a while. I am thankful for this privilege. In particular, I am thankful for this park,
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The bugling woke me from a sound sleep. It was the last sound I had heard the night before dropping off to sleep and it was the first sound to greet me this morning.
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