National Parks Traveler Podcast
284 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★★ - 99 ratingsNational Parks Traveler is the world's top-rated, editorially independent, nonprofit media organization dedicated to covering national parks and protected areas on a daily basis.
Traveler offers readers and listeners a unique multimedia blend of news, feature content, debate, and discussion all tied to national parks and protected areas.
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Episodes
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Music Inspired by the Parks
March 31, 2024 12:00 - 46 minutes - 108 MBWith March madness down to the Sweet 16, and Opening Day of Major League Baseball having arrived, we’re going to take a break this week and dive into our podcast archives for this week’s show. This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. My NCAA bracket was busted the very first day, and while the Yankees won their opening day game against the Houston Astros, I don’t think they’ll go undefeated this year. While I ponder the sports world, we’re going to let Lynn R...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Padre Island's Sea Turtles
March 24, 2024 12:00 - 45 minutes - 105 MBOne of the most popular public events in the National Park System was the release of sea turtle hatchlings, shuffling off into the Gulf of Mexico at Padre Island National Seashore. I say was, because the number of those public events has been drastically scaled back in recent years. The programs featuring the release of Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings at Padre Island offered young and old a crash course in conservation of a species that has narrowly avoided extinction, and remains hig...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Polluting the Parks
March 17, 2024 12:00 - 42 minutes - 97.2 MBAir pollution and climate change impacts can have outsized effects on the National Park System, as well as lesser noticed but just as concerning effects. But are those impacts spread across the entire park system, or clustered around a few? Back in 2019 the National Parks Conservation Association looked at how air pollution and climate change were impacting parks. They have updated that study with the latest data from the National Park Service, and the current state of affairs remains conc...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | State of the Parks 2024
March 10, 2024 12:00 - 47 minutes - 110 MBWhile most visitors to the National Park System view the parks as incredibly beautiful places, or places rich in culture and history, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes within the parks, and with the National Parks Service. Traveler editor Kurt Repanshek has closely followed the parks and the Park Service for more than 18 years. Over that timespan, he’s seen a lot of changes in the parks, and the agency itself. In today’s show we are going to offer a sort of “State of the Parks”...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Park Guidebooks
March 03, 2024 13:00 - 47 minutes - 109 MBWith nearly 430 units in the National Park System, of which 63 are National Parks, we all probably could use a little help in planning our adventures into the park system. But do you simply visit a park’s website to plan your trip? Find an online guidebook? Buy a hardcover guidebook? Or simply wing it when you reach your destination? This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. I must confess, I’ve taken all three approaches, and I’ve even written a guidebook to the pa...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Staying Safe At Hawai'i Volcanoes
February 25, 2024 13:00 - 44 minutes - 101 MBHawai’i Volcanoes National Park is such a unique destination in the National Park System. Located on the Big Island, it’s surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, it has rainforests, and it boasts two active volcanoes in Mauna Loa and Kilauea. A visit to Hawai’i Volcanoes comes with a number of options. Do you simply hope to catch an eruption of Kilauea and head somewhere else in Hawaii, do you explore the backcountry with its more than 160 miles of trails, or you try to soak in the Hawaiian cul...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Vanishing Treasures
February 18, 2024 13:00 - 48 minutes - 112 MBFrom the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast and up to Alaska, there are thousands of historic structures and archaeological sites on National Park System landscapes. They range in variety from homesteader cabins to pre-historic cave dwellings. Taking care of these buildings and archaeological sites is a valuable job for the National Park Service, as they speak to the country’s history and its prehistory. But it hasn’t always been easy for the agency’s Vanishing Treasures program, which was ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Coming to the Aid of Giant Sequoias
February 11, 2024 13:00 - 52 minutes - 121 MBStand before a giant sequoia tree in Sequoia or Kings Canyon national parks or nearby Yosemite National Park and you’re overwhelmed by their size, and assume they’re impervious to anything that might be thrown at them. But as we learned from wildfires in 2020 and 2021 in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks, that’s not the case. The Castle Fire in 2020 and then the KNP Complex and Windy fires in 2021 that burned through the two parks destroyed thousands of giant sequoia trees. Estimates...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | California Mountain Lions
February 04, 2024 13:00 - 40 minutes - 94.2 MBMountain lions are an incredibly charismatic animal on landscapes within, and adjacent to, the National Park System. But they’re seldom seen because of their nocturnal tendencies. There recently was a new report that focused on a comprehensive estimate of mountain lions in California, and the number is much smaller than many had thought it was. To discuss California’s mountain lion population, and efforts to protect that population, our guest today is Dr. Veronica Yovovich, conservat...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Manassas Battlefield Threats
January 28, 2024 13:00 - 46 minutes - 106 MBManassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia protects one of the defining battlefields of the Civil War. It was there that the first battle of the war was waged, in 1861, it was the scene of a second battle a year later, and it was where Confederate General Thomas Jonathan Jackson got his Stonewall nickname. Despite the significance of Manassas, the Prince William County supervisors in December agreed to rezone 2,100 acres adjacent to the battlefield to allow for the world’s largest data...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Park Reservation Systems
January 21, 2024 13:00 - 44 minutes - 103 MBMount Rainier National Park is the most recent unit of the National Park System to announce that you’ll need a reservation to enter the most popular areas of the park during the busy summer months. At the same time, Shenandoah National Park has announced that a pilot program it’s been running for two years for access to Old Rag will be permanent going forward. Reservation systems to get into national parks are controversial. Many folks argue they hinder spontaneity in travel, others like t...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Future of the Endangered Species Act
January 14, 2024 13:00 - 51 minutes - 119 MBWhen Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, it said that species of fish, wildlife, and plants in the US have been rendered extinct as a consequence of economic growth and development untampered by adequate concern and conservation. Other species of fish, wildlife, and plants have been so depleted in numbers that they are in danger of, or threatened with, extinction. These species of fish, wildlife, and plants are of the aesthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreation...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Golden Spike National Historical Park
January 07, 2024 13:00 - 28 minutes - 65.2 MBAs a young boy growing up in New Jersey, a year-end holiday treat was setting up our model railroad. It gave me and my two brothers hours of fun and an opportunity to learn a little about the steam age of railroads. Our first railroad featured Lionel O gauge locomotives and cars. Later we moved into HO gauge trains, and many years later I had an N gauge layout. That boyhood love of model railroads drove me to visit Golden Spike National Historical Park in northern Utah not far from the Gr...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | 2023 Park System Year in Review Part 2
December 31, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 153 MBWe’re closing out the year with a look back at some of the top stories around the National Park System, and involving the National Park Service. We opened this look back a week ago, with Kristen Brengel from the National Parks Conservation Association, and Mike Murray from the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, discussing issues involving the National Park Service, and outside impacts affecting the National Park System. Today, in the second half of this discussion, we’re focusi...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | 2023 Park System Year in Review Part 1
December 24, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBThe past year has been a trying one for the National Park Service, and for many of the units in the National Park System. For the agency, employee morale continued to be a major issue as housing, pay, and leadership remained sore spots for many who worked for the Service. On the ground, climate change continued to impact parks, from sea level rise and more potent storms, to wildfires, and hotter and dryer conditions that adversely affected vegetation, wildlife, and facilities. With time ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | An Underwater Ecological Disaster
December 17, 2023 13:00 - 1 hour - 146 MBWho wouldn’t like to visit a tropical paradise? Virgin Islands National Park in the Caribbean is one such paradise. It resides on the island of St. John, and features beaches sparkling white and lined with palm trees and other tropical vegetation. Those beaches are washed by warm, turquoise waters that provide habitat for sea turtles the size of trunks, colorful fishes like blue tang and parrot fish, and even menacing barracuda. While the national park might seem idyllic from above water, ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Support Keeping the Lights On
December 10, 2023 13:00 - 37 minutes - 85.4 MBWhen Kurt Repanshek launched the Traveler back in August of 2005, it was primarily to find stories that he could pitch to magazines. But the magazine world took a nosedive, while at the same time readership on the Traveler continued to grow. Today, between 2.5 and 3 million readers and listeners a year turn to the Traveler to learn more about the National Park System, both its wonders and how it’s being managed. Unfortunately, the Traveler hasn’t been financially sustainable, and can’t con...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Speak Up For The Swamp
December 03, 2023 13:00 - 45 minutes - 105 MBIt’s been six years since an oil company headed out across the marl prairie of Big Cypress National Park with vehicles weighing as much as 30 tons to search for oil reserves. Signs of that work continue to show on the prairie, despite stringent National Park Service requirements for restoring the landscape after the searching was completed. Located to the north of Everglades National Park, Big Cypress is a “split estate” – the Park Service owns the surface of the more than 720,000-acre lan...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Exploring Arches National Park
November 26, 2023 13:00 - 36 minutes - 84.6 MBUtah has five spectacular national parks, and Arches is one of them. It’s a relatively small park. The scenic drive is only 18 miles long, ending at the Devil’s Garden area, but you’ll have incredible views of the reddish rockscape the entire way right from your vehicle. Of course, it’s always better to get out on the trails and take in as much off-road as your timetable and legs will allow. Two of the park’s most impressive arches – Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch – are well worth th...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Cape Hatteras Shorebirds and Sea Turtles
November 19, 2023 13:00 - 39 minutes - 89.8 MBThroughout history the barrier islands that today are home to Cape Hatteras National Seashore have been attractive to wildlife. A variety of sea turtle species come ashore to lay their nests, and a variety of shorebirds settle there, too, to lay their eggs. But the thing with wildlife nesting on the beaches of Cape Hatteras is that one great season can be followed by a poor one. Influencing the outcome can be human disturbances, storms, and predation. How was 2023 for piping plovers, a...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Budgetary Blues
November 12, 2023 13:00 - 44 minutes - 103 MBIt was just over a month ago when the federal government was staring at the possibility of a shutdown. Well, little seemingly has changed in the ensuing four weeks, other than that the House of Representatives has a new speaker in Mike Johnson from Louisiana, and the full chamber has settled on its budget numbers for fiscal 2024…which started back on October 1. While most national parks likely will close if there is a government shutdown on November 17, what is more pressing for the Nati...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Search for WPA Park Posters
November 05, 2023 13:00 - 45 minutes - 106 MBWhen a young park ranger was asked by his supervisor to clean out an old barn at Grand Teton National Park in the early 1970s, he discovered a dusty and stained blue, grey, and green poster inviting folks to “Meet the Ranger Naturalist at Jenny Lake Museum. This young ranger, Doug Leen, soon discovered that it was one in a series of posters created by the Works Progress Administration to put artists to work and promote visitation to the national parks during the late 1930s. This week the Tr...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Extinction is Forever
October 29, 2023 12:00 - 47 minutes - 109 MBThere are more than 2,000 species currently listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. And while species that gain protection under the act have a great chance to survive, not all do. Just recently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that 21 species – birds, fish, mussels, plants, and even a bat – were officially declared extinct. We’re going to discuss that news, and the role of the Endangered Species Act in striving to prevent extinction, with Noah Gre...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Footprints in Time
October 22, 2023 12:00 - 59 minutes - 136 MBAs you walk through the white gypsum sands of White Sands National Park in southern New Mexico, your footprints will likely be quickly erased by shifting winds. So it’s somewhat of a phenomenon of nature that the oldest footprints ever discovered in North America are not only found here — in perfect form, having withstood time and weather — but show that ancient humans lived here much earlier than previously believed. A research team from the U-S Geological Survey earlier this month streng...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Salmon, Cedar, Rock and Rain
October 15, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 108 MBThe Olympic Peninsula of Washington state is a wild and wooly place, even now in the 21st century. That’s no doubt largely because the heart of the peninsula is taken up by Olympic National Park, a more than 900,000-acre jigsaw puzzle of glaciers and peaks, rainforests, rivers, and Pacific coastline. You might view Olympic National Park as three parks in one: The coastal area battered by the Pacific Ocean, the inland rain forests that cloak the Hoh, Quinault, and Sol Duc areas, and the high...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Canadian Rockies
October 08, 2023 12:00 - 43 minutes - 99.7 MBSnow has fallen in the upper reaches of Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, and fall weather in general is making a national park trip in the northern half of the United States not terribly appealing. October is a season of transition across the National Park System. Cooler, and in some cases colder, weather is sweeping across the northern states, while southern states are not as blazingly hot as they were just a month or two ago. But school is in session throughout the country, so if ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | 2023 Government Shutdown
October 01, 2023 12:00 - 48 minutes - 112 MBFor the second time in five years, and the third time in the past decade, the United States government was poised to shut down this weekend because of an impasse in the House of Representatives over how to fund the government. And, as a result, the National Park System was poised to shut down. Indeed, by the time you’re listening to this episode, the parks might already have been closed and visitors already in them being told how soon they must exit. Different administrations in Washington...
National Parks Traveler Podcast Episode 241 | Guns, Bears, and Mammoth Cave
September 24, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 170 MBFor the past 240 weeks, the National Parks Traveler has brought you weekly podcasts examining life, news, and exploration of the National Park System. It’s been a long-running series that has never lacked for topics. We hope you’ve found those episodes as informative and interesting as we have. For this week’s show, we’re diving into shows from past years to bring you two we think you’ll find fascinating. One revolves around the question of whether a gun can keep you safe from bears...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Grand Teton State of the Park
September 17, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 108 MBGrand Teton National Park is an incredible place, rich in wildlife, mountaineering history, pioneer history, and Native American history. And, rightfully so, it’s one of the busiest parks in the National Park System. In 2021 the park saw nearly 4 million visitors, as the public rushed back out into nature after the worst of the Covid pandemic. Last year it counted 2.8 million visitors. How many visitors are too many? How has that growing visitation impacted the health of the park, the tas...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The American Buffalo with Dayton Duncan
September 10, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 146 MBBison have been in the news recently. The Interior Department this past week released $5 million to help fund both bison restoration and grasslands rehabilitation. And next month Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan will release their latest documentary, The American Buffalo. The American Buffalo documentary traces the history of how bison nearly went extinct, and how they came back. It will be delivered in a two-part, four-hour series on public television. Earlier this summer I talked to Dayton Du...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Flooded Death Valley
September 03, 2023 17:51 - 43 minutes - 101 MBIt’s been nearly eight years since a storm of historic proportions pounded Death Valley National Park and did extensive damage in Grapevine Canyon in the northeastern corner of the park where Scotty’s Castle stands. The popular tourist attraction still has not reopened as repair work continues. That storm was described as a once-in-a-thousand years storm. A year ago, rainstorms again pounded Death Valley. In roughly three hours 1.5 inches of rain fell on the park and did considerable...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | 17,000 Mile North American Road Trip
August 27, 2023 12:00 - 33 minutes - 77.3 MBIf you were to plan an extended trip through the National Park System, how would you do it? Where would you go first? How would you prepare? In this week’s podcast, the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick talks with Cristian Garza, who recently returned from a four-month jaunt through the parks. He clocked some 300 hours of driving across 17,000 miles of the U.S. and Canada and shares some of his experiences and perspectives with Lynn.
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Wilderness Watch
August 20, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 119 MBIn 1964, passage of The Wilderness Act promised Americans that there would be lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition. It was a promise from Congress that the American people of present and future generations would be able to enjoy the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.” When President Johnson signed the act into law, he said that “If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them a glimpse of...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Hot Waters Wash Florida’s National Parks
August 13, 2023 12:00 - 41 minutes - 95 MBThe New York Times recently summed up one of the biggest climate change stories of the year so far. The planet’s average sea surface temperature spiked to a record high in April, and the ocean has remained exceptionally warm ever since, the paper reported. In July, widespread marine heatwaves drove temperatures back up to near record highs, with some hot spots nearing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In late July, water temperatures off the southern tip of Florida surpassed 100 degrees Fahrenheit....
National Parks Traveler Podcast | South Florida Wildlands Association
August 06, 2023 12:00 - 53 minutes - 123 MBMajestic wildlife abounds across the National Park System. You can see wolves, grizzlies and bison in Yellowstone, California condors at Pinnacles and Grand Canyon, moose in Voyageurs, and sea turtles at Cape Hatteras and Padre Island, and elephant seals at Point Reyes National Seashore, just to name some of the possibilities. Another charismatic species in the park system, but one you’re not likely to see, are panthers. Also known as mountain lions, or cougars, depending on the region of ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Parks Expansion For Biodiversity
July 30, 2023 12:00 - 38 minutes - 89.2 MBWhy expand the National Park System? That can be a controversial question. There are many folks who would love to see additional units added, and there are just as many who say the National Park Service does not have the staff or funding to adequately maintain the existing park system. We’ve been exploring that question in recent weeks and months, and an argument can be made that since national parks carry the highest protection of natural resources in the country, we should expand the par...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Heat Week In The Parks
July 23, 2023 12:00 - 53 minutes - 123 MBThis summer has been one of the hottest for the entire world, with temperatures rising above 100 degrees Fahrenheit quite frequently. Here in the United States, there are many places where the heat has gone well above 100 degrees. And at Death Valley National Park, the temperature this past week attracted crowds hoping to see it reach 130 degrees. In the National Park System, there are places where summertime heat is routine, something the rangers have become accustomed to and know how to ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Stone Road Press and The National Parks
July 16, 2023 12:00 - 50 minutes - 117 MBThere are seemingly endless guides to exploring the national parks: Moon, National Geographic, Lonely Planet, and various other corporate publishers. Indeed, it’s rare these days that you find a writer who takes on the role of both guidebook author and publisher. Most of these guidebooks take the same approach: a nice overview of the park in question, followed by a breakdown of places to stay, where to eat, things to do, nearby attractions. Mike Oswald is swimming against the current with...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Mobile-Tensaw River Delta Conservation
July 09, 2023 12:00 - 48 minutes - 112 MBWhen you talk about expanding the National Park System, any expansion should be strategic. Whether it’s to protect a cultural or historical site, or one rich in natural resources. Today, if you want to protect natural resources, it should be done with an eye towards protecting biodiversity. There is too much at stake today to expand the National Park System just for the sake of adding units. The country is losing too much of nature to development, bird populations have been plummeting, and...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The American Buffalo
July 02, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 147 MBOnce upon a time, there might have been 60 million bison on the North American continent. The herds were so large that they covered prairies like immense horizon-stretching black cloaks, and their annual migrations carved such wide paths into the landscape that some were turned into roads by human travelers. As vast as bison herds were, the species came extremely close to extinction. By the end of the 19th century, there might have been two dozen bison left in the wilds, and they were dee...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Summer Wildfire Outlook in the Park System
June 25, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 84.2 MBA winter heavy in snowfall has slowed the start to the wildfire season across parts of the West, although the return of the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean could reverse that start and contribute to another smoky summer in the National Park System west of the Continental Divide. Climate change, coupled with the departure of the La Niña weather pattern over the Pacific Ocean and the arrival of the El Niño pattern, are making it more challenging to predict fire seasons and fire ...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Expanding the National Park System
June 18, 2023 12:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBThere always seem to be calls to expand the National Park System. And those calls always spur a number of questions. Why does the National Park System need to be expanded? What sites might be considered for expansion? Can we even afford to expand the system? After all, as the Traveler frequently points out, the National Park Service doesn’t have the resources in human capital or financial capital to properly manage the park units it has. There have been a number of stories recently in oth...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Lost Hospitals and Underwater Graves at Dry Tortugas
June 11, 2023 12:00 - 40 minutes - 94.8 MBYou likely know that Dry Tortugas National Park houses Fort Jefferson, which served as a Civil War-era prison with a community for soldiers, civilians, and slaves. Were you aware that hidden remnants of a hospital and graveyard have been found nearby — offshore — adding to the puzzle of life and death in the Civil War era? Lynn Riddick dives into that topic with Joshua Marano, a maritime archaeologist for the National Park Service...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Hidden National Park Gems
June 04, 2023 12:00 - 59 minutes - 137 MBIt’s summer. Not officially, but close enough. Many schools have already taken the next few months off, others will soon join the summer break. Summer for many is the peak travel time. Parks are a great destination, whether in summer or just about any other month of the year. To help you come up with some ideas of which parks to visit and why, we’ve invited two members of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks – Maria Burks and Phil Francis – who collectively have spent more tha...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Horses of Cumberland Island
May 28, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes - 108 MBHorses can be found in many corners of the National Park System. You spot them running wild at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, splashing in the surf at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina and at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia, and of course as pack animals and tireless steeds that carry both rangers and visitors to the parks. But wild horses are somewhat of a conundrum in the National Park System. They’re a conundrum because th...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Yellowstone’s Gold and Cape Hatteras’s Shifting Sands
May 21, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 84.7 MBThere are external and internal influences that can impact units of the National Park System. Urban sprawl can strangle parks and their natural resources. Wildfires can sweep across boundaries and into parks. Rivers can flood and wash out trails and roads, as we saw last June at Yellowstone National Park. Today we’re going to be talking about looming threats to Yellowstone and Cape Hatteras National Seashore. In the case of Yellowstone, it’s a gold mine proposed to be sunk into a mounta...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Debt Ceiling Crisis and the Parks
May 14, 2023 12:00 - 43 minutes - 101 MBWhile spring is slowly giving way to summer in many parts of the country, with visitors gaining more and more access to the National Park System, a stand-off in Washington over the country’s debt ceiling very likely would greatly disrupt operations in the parks. It was just a decade ago that a federal budget sequestration, that is a forced cut across all federal agencies budgets as part of the Budget Control Act, led to closed campgrounds, Sunday closures of National Park System units, and 9...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | Jackson Hole Sustainable Destination Management Plan
May 07, 2023 12:00 - 47 minutes - 110 MBNational parks are not alone in grappling with crowds. Many gateway communities surrounding our national parks are notable for their own amazing offerings -- natural beauty with tranquil spots for solitude and reflection…and nice venues for dining, listening to live music and pursuing year-round outdoor recreational and leisure activities. But when the management of visitation in these areas is unchecked, and the very resources that make these places highly desirable destinations are strain...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | The State of Yellowstone National Park
April 30, 2023 12:00 - 50 minutes - 117 MBIt's easy to take the status of national parks for granted. We read wonderful beckoning stories about them in magazines and newspapers. And we watch gorgeous travelogue pieces about them on television. But how much do we know about the operational status of the national parks? How much do we know about the health of the natural resources, the condition of historic structures, the state of the workforce that operates and manages the national parks? In short, we know really very little about...
National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Park Foundation CEO Will Shafroth
April 23, 2023 12:00 - 44 minutes - 103 MBAcross the National Park System, there are incredible sights that explore American history. There’s a robust mix of cultures reflected in the parks, and breathtaking vistas that, well, will take your breath away. But there also are seemingly countless needs, from backlogs of maintenance projects, interpretation for history, wildlife and science that needs to be crafted, and unique issues that can range from climate change impacts to helping inner city youth visit a park. Helping the Nati...