The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency charged with surveying the nation's navigable waters to help keep mariners off the rocks and out of the shallows will cease printing paper charts after mid-April.Partly as a cost-saving measure, the NOAA's Office of Coast Survey will offer charts only via on-demand printing, as PDFs orelectronic charts.
NH Fire Lookout Tower Quest
New Hampshire is the second most forested state in the nation with 4.8 million acres of forestland. (It's next door neighbor, Maine, tops that list.) To maintain all those handsome trees, the NH Division of Forests and Lands operates 15 fire lookout towers from early spring to late fall. They also have something called the Fire Lookout Tower Quest, which, as you may have guessed, is a challenge to visit all of the towers in the state. What happens when you? Well, you get the pretty little patch pictured above.Download both parts of the Fire Lookout Tower Quest brochure here and here.
Sinclair Ads
Sure, they might not be in line with your "values" (The headline on the Mesa Verde National Park advertisement reads: "America's first apartment houses - today they belong to you!"), but these old Sinclair/National Park ads sure are good looking. And while searching for more on eBay, it's impossible not to think of the last passage in the intro to Desert Solitaire.
Do not jump in your automobile next June and rush out to the Canyon country hoping to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke in these pages. In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll see something, maybe. Probably not.
A bunch more after the jump. Click 'em to read 'em. 
Sally Jewell
Obama has tapped Sally Jewell, CEO and President of REI, to take over the Department of the Interior from the outgoing Ken Salazar. (The DOI oversees much of America’s public lands through the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and other agencies.) Jewell, who is 57 years young, has grown the company's sales from $900 million to $2 billion since taking over the stewardship of REI in 2005. More info over at Adventure Journal:
She grew up sailing and camping and spent five weeks climbing in Antarctica. She’s won numerous awards for conservation and environmental work, including the 2009 Rachel Carson Award for environmental conservation from the Audubon Society, a track record that is sure to be touted by opponents. But prior to joining REI, Jewell worked in the banking industry for 20 years and before that she worked as an engineer for Mobil Oil, experience that should blunt criticism.
That is just...well....awesome.
Pinnacles National Park
Pinnacles National Monument, located just east of California's Salinas Valley, about a two hour drive from San Francisco, is about to come a National Park. The bill passed through the Senate last Sunday and now awaits President Obama's signature.From Gadling.com:
Located in California's Gabilan Mountains, just east of the Salinas Valley, Pinnacles National Monument is the site of an ancient volcanic field. The volcano has long since eroded and moved further north along the San Andreas Fault, but its remnants remain throughout the area today. The landscape features towering rock spires, large boulders, narrow canyons, talus caves and other amazing geological formations, all of which have made it a popular destination for climbers.The 26,000-acre site has also been instrumental to the comeback of the California condor, giving the birds a place to roost amongst its rocky cliffs. The National Park Service has released 32 free-flying condors into the park since 2003, and it has proved to be a safe home for the extremely endangered birds. Elevating the monument into a national park will provide further protections to the condor's habitat, improving their chance for continued recovery in the future.