Annual April Fools Day

Well, another year has passed and April 1st is now over.

Will Trump Tower threaten our national park? Let's hope not.

New Trump Tower to Overshadow Grand Canyon

A new Trump Hotel is planned for the Grand Canyon.  Mr. Trump seeks to build a 45 story hotel on the South Rim of the Canyon to expand tourism at the National Park.  He selected 45 since he is the 45th President of the US.  Each room will have a sweeping view of the canyon.  Rack rates start at $999.00 a night and up.

Opponents to the proposal are not so concerned about him promoting tourism on public lands, but are afraid the height of the hotel will block the evening sun so much that the canyon will be in darkness an additional 3-7 hours per day.  For more information visit https://www.trumphotels.com/GrandTrumpCanyon

Recreation, Tourism & Sport, AAG 2019 in DC

Heading to DC shortly?  Check out the papers and posters from the

Recreation, Tourism & Sport Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers.

The facebook page for the group is found here.

For Sessions sponsored by RTS at the Annual Meeting, click here.

Enjoy!

NERR 2019

The program is out for the NERR 2019 next month in Annapolis.

Sunday, April 7 - Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Hotel Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland

The National Environment and Recreation Research Symposium (formerly the Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium) fosters quality information exchange between recreation and travel resource managers and researchers throughout North America. The forum provides opportunities for managers from different agencies, states, and governmental levels to discuss current issues and problems in the field. The Symposium also provides students with the opportunity of presenting their research in a setting that is both positive and constructive. The Symposium is organized by the National Environment and Recreation Research Association (NERRA), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreation research.

Stone Walls and LiDAR

I took Bubba-Doo hiking to day and did a little bushwhacking in the Westfield Wildlife Management Area west of Honey Pot Road.  It is a nice area to hike and even has some old growth forests on the NW edge near Granville Road.

Anyway, on this visit and others, I photographed an old stone wall.  Stone walls are an interesting landscape feature here in New England, and there are estimates of thousands (yes 1,000's) of miles of these walls in the Northeast back country.

I love finding these walls and I am even more excited about the discovery using remote sensing technology with LiDAR.  LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging.

So here are some shots of the stone walls in the WMA.

Visiting NOAA LiDAR data viewer you get this air photo and LiDAR image.

Lastly you can see the wall from LiDAR and then a shot on the ground.

Finally, this white rock (you can tell that I am a geologist) was sniffed by Bubba-Doo today.

Valley of Fire State Park

some shots in the beautiful park about an hour north east of Las Vegas (by car that is).

Red Rock Canyon

Here are some shots in the BLM property in Nevada.

BLM is the largest public land management agency in the US!