Court rules Tribe can make traditional use of Valles Caldera NPres under Aboriginal title

A split 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has given the Jemez Pueblo rights to use a portion of Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico as its ancestors did, a ruling that raises the prospect that tribes elsewhere in the United States will seek to regain access to their traditional homelands.

The decade-old case before the 10th Circuit revolved around whether the pueblo had "the exclusive right to use, occupy and possess” the lands of the national preserve under its continuing aboriginal title to the 89,000-acre National Park System unit. A lower court in 2013 had dismissed the claim, ruling that an 1860 act of Congress gave the land to the heirs of Luis Maria de Baca and ended any aboriginal claims to the land.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2023/03/court-rules-jemez-pueblo-can-use-part-valles-caldera-national-preserve

Fire severely damages Wright Brothers factory at Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP

A fire that broke out at a building complex in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday damaged a factory founded by Wilbur and Orville Wright, the brothers who were the first people to successfully fly an airplane.

The fire throws into doubt the future of the factory, where the brothers built planes starting in the 1910s. It became part of the National Park Service’s group of aviation-related sites in Dayton in 2009.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/27/us/wright-brothers-historic-factory-fire.html

USNPS scientists find "critical shortcomings" in plan to mine near Okefenokee Swamp

Federal scientists have delivered their most detailed critique yet of an Alabama company’s plan to mine near the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, casting serious doubt on the claims of the company and state environmental regulators, who have repeatedly said the project poses no harm to the refuge.

The new analysis by hydrologists at the National Park Service (NPS) found ‘critical shortcomings’ in the model the company used, which they say “obfuscates the true impacts from mining on the refuge.” As a result, the scientists say the model cannot reliably predict how water levels in the swamp or surrounding ecosystems will be affected by the mine.

https://www.ajc.com/news/fed-scientists-id-critical-shortcomings-in-plan-to-mine-near-okefenokee/I6WCXCV2AJFLFGLPB2GG2M2PCI/