June has been an especially newsworthy month across the National Park System. The U.S. Senate passed what has been called the most important public lands bill in decades, and more national parks have reopened areas to the public. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is proposing a large oil and gas lease auction for lands near Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef national parks, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a natural gas pipeline could be tunneled beneath the Appalachian Trail. Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, discusses the news events.
