Unlike in the past, a young girl’s future role in taking over the family farm in Texas is accepted and welcomed.

A mother’s tasks in a Texas farm family shows how the role of women in agriculture is now vitally important in managing the business of farming and using best practices to conserve soil and water.

For more than half a century, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund has been supporting the purchase of land for public ownership and recreational access. The Appalachian Trail is just one of the beneficiaries. In Colorado, where climate change means less snowmelt and higher temperatures in rivers like the Yampa, residents are determined to do what they can to save the river by cooling it down. Unlike in the past, a young girl’s future role in taking over the family farm in Texas is accepted and welcomed. Scientists study spadefoot toads to learn more about the role of “plasticity” in evolution.

With fast population growth in the Denver area and fierce competition for water, investors are behind a plan to import water from a Colorado mountain valley hundreds of miles away, a plan largely opposed by farmers and ranchers who depend on water in that valley. A mother’s tasks in a Texas farm family shows how the role of women in agriculture is now vitally important in managing the business of farming and using best practices to conserve soil and water.

Another good example of how the Land and Water Conservation Fund enables protection of iconic landscapes nationwide: the Blue Ridge Parkway stretching 469 miles through breathtaking scenery from Virginia to North Carolina. Researchers explore the role of tiny marine animals in the movement of ocean waters.

Taking advantage of open areas in crowded cities like Dallas, urban farmers are growing healthy foods and making profits.

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico use individual fishing quotas to manage red snapper catches sustainably and with far less risk.

With new water rights and a major irrigation project under construction, the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona is gearing up for a revival of an agricultural heritage that sustained them for centuries before white settlers arrived. Public-private partnerships in national parks are saving taxpayers money while supporting critical services, maintenance and repairs. With individual fishing quotas for red snapper, charter boat captains on the Gulf Coast adopt new sustainable practices that provide them with more income and safety.

On the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a wildlife-rich wetland and vital industries are threatened by creeping erosion and tidewater flooding.

Protecting the Chenier Plain: On the Gulf Coast in Texas and Louisiana, a wildlife-rich wetland and critically important industries are threatened by erosion and tidewater flooding. Cattle and bobwhite quail manage to coexist on grazing lands in south Texas – how does that work? Residents in Virginia have a plan to create protected wilderness and scenic areas in the George Washington National Forest, allowing a variety of recreational activities including mountain biking, hiking and fishing.

Managing public lands: the evolution of the Bureau of Land Management and its role in protecting vast areas of federal land across the nation. Saving the bobwhite quail: the first in a series on protecting vital native grassland habitat for a declining species – this story from the pine savannas of South Carolina. Local communities in northern New Mexico press their case for expanding the Pecos Wilderness to protect a watershed essential to a broad landscape stretching into southern Texas. Scientists study how butterflies use an elegantly efficient organ to sip nectar.