Photo of the Day 308

Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Montana, 2007

Photograph by Michael Medford

A common goldeneye duck paddles past a snowy bank—and toward the reflection of a gnarled tree stump—in Lake McDonald, part of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

For 75 years the combined 1.14 million acres (0.6 million hectares) of Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park and the U.S.'s Glacier National Park have been designated, and jointly managed, as a transboundary conservation area—the world's first international peace park.

(Text adapted from and photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Crown of the Continent," September 2007, National Geographic magazine)

Photo of the Day 301

Lodgepole Pines, Yellowstone, Montana, 1989

Photograph by Jonathan Blair

A stand of lodgepole pine trees in Montana’s Yellowstone Park are backlit by the glow of the 1988 North Fork Fire, which charred nearly 800,000 acres (324,000 hectares) of the park. Such fires are actually good news for lodgepoles, whose pine cones need extreme heat to release their seeds.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "Extinctions," June 1989, National Geographic magazine)