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Yosemite National Park is expanding:
Yosemite National Park in California is to gain a 400-acre addition, its largest expansion in nearly 70 years. Ackerson Meadow features wetlands and rolling hills that are home to endangered wildlife, park officials quoted by AP news agency said. The land, on Yosemite's western boundary, was bought for the park by conservation group the Trust for Public Land for $2.3m (£1.7m).
Yosemite National Park covers about 1,200 sq miles of mountainous scenery. It attracts millions of visitors every year and celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2015. The new addition, which was traditionally used for logging and grazing cattle, will be preserved as habitat for wildlife including the endangered great grey owl, the largest owl in North America, the officials said.
(Score: 2) by aclarke on Friday September 09 2016, @05:27PM
It would be really good if people submitting stories used international measurement standards, but if it's an American submitting they often just don't know any better. It would require a bit of extra effort by the submitter or editor for stories with measurements based in the US.
For your edification though: "Square miles" is generally typed as "sq.mi", "sq. miles", or something along those lines, not mi^2, at least by those who use miles. Land in the US is usually bought and sold in acres, so the measurement of 400 acres in the purchase is consistent with how land purchases are written. Large acreages, at some point generally start to be denominated in square miles vs. acres. There's no rule for this, but I rarely see areas denominated in acres over around 30k.