Arizona's Saguaro National Park grows by 48 acres
Why it matters: The national park outside Tucson is visited by about a million people annually and is a sanctuary for a wide array of desert plants and animals, including, of course, the state's iconic Saguaro Cactus.
State of play: Trust for Public Land acquired the 48 acres near the Tucson Mountains to increase the scope of the park, one of five expansions in the past decade.
How it works: Trust for Public Land purchased the acreage using the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, financed by a portion of U.S. offshore oil and natural gas revenues.
Pima County and the Southern Arizona Hiking Club also supported the expansion.
The bottom line:"Saguaro is a truly unique getaway—not only a vast desert backyard for Tucsonans and Southern Arizonans, but also a destination for visitors from across the country and around the world who come to experience the natural wonders of the American Southwest," Trust for Public Land CEO and president Carrie Besnette Hauser said in a statement.
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Finding a little slice of peace and calm in this chaotic world is really all anyone is after. But for those who are serious about finding that zen, they may need to pick up and move to the Centennial State, which is home to the most peaceful place to live in the U.S. In 2023, Insider Monkey revealed its list of the most peaceful places to reside, which it compiled by sourcing destinations with the best quality of life using the Niche screener. "A peaceful place for living offers a calm and serene environment to its residents. Our hypothesis is that a calm surrounding is free from disruptive sounds of traffic and other kinds of noise," the website explained. "Thus, we selected mean noise level as our primary metric," which it sourced from the ArcGIS lights and noise map viewer. Next, it focused on what it means to be a "serene" destination. It used proximity to a park as the metric, based on data from the Trust for Public Land's database. "All locations with more than half of the population being able to access an outdoor park space within a walking distance of 10 minutes, are deemed as places with peaceful surroundings that residents can conveniently access," the website said. It then ranked the most peaceful places in the U.S. based on its average noise levels and access to outdoor space. And Fort Collins, Colorado, a city about an hour north of Denver, came out the winner. "Fort Collins is a top peaceful destination for living in the United States," the findings revealed. It added that the average noise level is 38.03 dBA, which it deemed as "reasonable." In fact, the Hearing Health Foundation says this is about the noise level of rustling leaves or the average room noise. Additionally, the team reported that 73 percent of the population in Fort Collins lives within a 10-minute walk of a park. It noted that both the "Horsetooth Reservoir and Lory State Park are popular outdoor areas near the city." But there's a lot more to love about this city than just these two parks. As Visit Fort Collins explains, the town is also home to "world-class whitewater rafting on the nationally-designated 'Wild and Scenic' Cache La Poudre River," and is home to 20 local breweries that will happily pour you a local pint. And if the historic Downtown looks familiar, that's because it's actually what inspired Disneyland's Main Street USA. Only here, all the adorable small shops and old-school buildings are as authentic as they get. However, Fort Collins isn't the only peaceful spot in the U.S. Nearby Boulder, Colorado, also made the list at the No. 2 spot, followed by Ann Arbor, Michigan; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Green Bay, Wisconsin; rounding out the top five. See the full list of peaceful destinations at
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Nearly 50 acres in the foothills of the Tucson Mountains have been added to Saguaro National Park, bringing its total footprint to over 92,000 acres. Why it matters: The national park outside Tucson is visited by about a million people annually and is a sanctuary for a wide array of desert plants and animals, including, of course, the state's iconic Saguaro Cactus. State of play: Trust for Public Land acquired the 48 acres near the Tucson Mountains to increase the scope of the park, one of five expansions in the past decade. How it works: Trust for Public Land purchased the acreage using the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, financed by a portion of U.S. offshore oil and natural gas revenues. Pima County and the Southern Arizona Hiking Club also supported the expansion. The bottom line:"Saguaro is a truly unique getaway—not only a vast desert backyard for Tucsonans and Southern Arizonans, but also a destination for visitors from across the country and around the world who come to experience the natural wonders of the American Southwest," Trust for Public Land CEO and president Carrie Besnette Hauser said in a statement.
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