Natural sounds are an integral, yet often overlooked, part of the way we experience national parks and other public lands. “We have really good research that shows how important natural sounds are for humans,” said Buxton, who fell in love with natural sounds listening to seabirds on the Aleutian Islands. A National Park Service staff member sets up an acoustic recording station in the Hoh rainforest of Olympic National Park in Washington. (National Park Service)The model could even simulate a scenario in which there were no cars, no airplanes and no people. This map shows the amount that anthropogenic noise increases sound levels above the natural level -- or noise exceedance -- in protected areas across the United States.

Source: Los Angeles Times May 04, 2017 20:55 UTC