USNPS plans to stabilize alcove above Spruce Tree House cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde NP

Rock bolts and reinforced concrete supports are among the tools the National Park Service wants to employ to stabilize the alcove in which Spruce Tree House stands in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. The plan, developed over the past year as the agency debated how to keep the sandstone arch from further collapse, could be implemented in September and continue through next winter.

The popular attraction, which houses the third-largest cliff dwelling in the park, with 130 rooms and eight kivas, has been closed to the public since October 2015 because of concerns that layers of sandstone could peel away from the arch at any time and fall on bystanders below. Spruce Tree House may be seen, however, from an overlook near the Chapin Mesa Museum.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2023/03/mesa-verde-national-park-has-plan-save-spruce-tree-house

Supreme Court spurns appeal, keeps bear-baiting ban in place on Kenai NWR

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a state attempt to overturn the federal ban on bait-assisted hunting of brown bears in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal, made jointly by the state and by Safari Club International, keeps the ban in place in the 1.9-million-acre refuge. It also upholds a rule put in place in 2016 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and affirmed by a U.S. District Court judge in 2020 and by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022.

https://alaskapublic.org/2023/03/07/u-s-supreme-court-lets-stand-a-ban-on-baiting-of-brown-bears-in-alaskas-kenai-refuge/

Citing safety, Nepal will no longer allow foreign tourists to hike solo in NPs

Solo hiking will be banned from Nepal’s national parks starting next month, a move that the country’s tourism board said would reduce the risks for the tens of thousands of adventure seekers who travel to the Himalayan country each year.

The decision, announced last week by the Nepal Tourism Board, comes after incidents in which tourists became lost and sometimes died while hiking alone, the board’s director, Mani R. Lamichhane, said on Tuesday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/world/asia/nepal-solo-trekking-ban.html