National Parks Traveler Podcast

Kurt Repanshek
  • 4.6 (112)
  • PLACES & TRAVEL
  • UPDATED WEEKLY
National Parks Traveler Podcast

National 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.

  1. National Parks Traveler Podcast | Covering the Parks

    4D AGO

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | Covering the Parks

    There are more stories to be found in the National Park System than one could write in a lifetime. Or several lifetimes. Sometimes those stories can be hard to spot. How many were aware of the factoid from Great Smoky Mountains National Park that Jennifer Bain dug up, that if you stacked up all of the park’s salamanders against its roughly 1,900 black bears, the salamanders would weigh more? Talk about national park trivia. We’re going to talk about stories in the parks today with Kim O’Connell and Rita Beamish, two long-tenured writers for the Traveler. The ones they’re currently working on are pretty interesting.

    52 min
  2. National Parks Traveler Podcast | A Little Volcanic Levity

    MAR 16

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | A Little Volcanic Levity

    In this week’s podcast we thought we’d take a break from the unsettling news happening in and around our national parks and federal lands regarding park staff reductions and threats of reducing park boundaries to make way for mining.   Instead, the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick catches up with a former scientist who’s now a comedian to hear about his experiences during his artist-in-residency program at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Selected for the residency by the National Parks Arts Foundation, Ben Miller spent a month with park staff and scientists to absorb as much as possible about Hawaiian culture, landscapes and history. The end result was a comedy routine designed specifically for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park.

    39 min
  3. National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Park Service Upheaval

    MAR 9

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Park Service Upheaval

    There is, across the country, some upheaval going on as the Trump administration works to reduce the size of the federal government. Whether you support that effort or oppose it, you can’t deny there’s not upheaval going on. That upheaval has hit all federal government agencies. At the National Park Service, seasonal ranger job offers were rescinded back in January. Roughly 1,000 probationary employees were fired on Valentine’s Day. Another 700-1000 Park Service employees took up the administration’s offer to resign now, but stay on the payroll through the end of the fiscal year. And this week the Park Service and other government agencies are expected to send their plans for a reduction-in-force to the administration. To discuss these developments, we’ve invited Rick Mossman, president of the Association of National Park Rangers, to join us.

    50 min
  4. National Parks Traveler Podcast | Threatened Lands

    MAR 2

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | Threatened Lands

    Across the United States there are hundreds of millions of acres of public lands. Indeed, there are more than 500 million acres of federal lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service, just to name the three largest land managers in federal government. A majority of those lands, the 245 million acres managed by the BLM and the 193 million managed by the Forest Service, are managed for multiple use. Logging, mining, recreation, and even official wilderness. The National Park Service lands, of course, are primarily managed for conservation of natural resources and enjoyment by you, the visitors. But the Trump administration has an eye on some of those lands for energy development and mining, whether that’s oil and gas production or hard-rock mining. To better understand what’s at stake under that strategy we’re joined today by Dan Hartinger, the senior director of agency policy at the Wilderness Society.

    43 min
  5. National Parks Traveler Podcast | NPS Cast Aside

    FEB 23

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | NPS Cast Aside

    It was just over a week ago, on Valentine’s Day, that the Trump administration wiped 1,000 employees off the National Park Service staff without any apparent strategy other than that they were dispensable staff still on probation and so lacking any real protection for being fired without cause. Those cuts swept across the 433 units of the National Park System, taking custodial workers, scientists, even lawyers. Today we’re joined by one of the 1,000 who lost their jobs, Angela Moxley, who was just ten days shy of clearing probation when she lost her job at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in West Virginia. Angela was a botanist, one of the many Park Service employees who you’re not likely to encounter in a park, but as you’ll hear, one whose job is just as vital as that of the park interpreter who takes you for a hike.

    44 min
  6. National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Parks in Crisis

    FEB 16

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | National Parks in Crisis

    The Trump administration’s determination to reduce the size of government regardless of the cost is having a hard impact on the National Park Service.   Last month the agency was forced to rescind job offers to seasonal workers, saw a hold placed on millions of dollars distributed through the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act to address climate change, been told to prepare a reduction-in-force list of employees, and ordered  to "hire no more than one employee for every four" let go.   There was a wee bit of good news late last week, with the decision Friday to allow the Park Service to hire 5,000 seasonal workers. But at the same time, the agency was told to fire 1,000 probationary workers.   Discussing these developments and their impact on the parks and the Park Service are Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

    43 min
  7. National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Ghost Forest

    FEB 9

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | The Ghost Forest

    National parks are home to many iconic trees. Bristlecones pines, Whitebark pines, Sequoias, even mangroves. And, of course, redwoods. These trees hold many stories. The size alone of redwoods and sequoias are enough to hold your attention. But there are backstories, as well. In the case of redwoods along the Northern California coast, the backstory can be heart breaking. There are chapters of logging fever, of course, as well as of political machinations, and stories of loss. Greg King presents the stories swirling around Redwoods in his book, The Ghost Forest: Racists, Radicals, and Real Estate in the California Redwoods. One particularly interesting chapter for national park lovers is that Newton B. Drury, the 4th director of the National Park Service, actually worked against the creation of Redwood National Park.

    51 min
  8. National Parks Traveler Podcast | Keeping Cape Lookout Above Water

    FEB 2

    National Parks Traveler Podcast | Keeping Cape Lookout Above Water

    Rising sea levels, stronger storms, eroding shorelines, and sinking terrain are taking a toll on the fragile ecosystems and historic resources at Cape Lookout National Seashore on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  A new study by the U.S. Geological Survey takes a close look at these threats and predicts how they will impact the national seashore over the coming years.   Climate change impacts are happening across the country, reaching into most, if not all, units of the National Park System. Sea level rise is particularly concerning because you just can’t up and move a park, and if that park is on an island, well, high water is coming.   This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick talks with Cape Lookout Superintendent Jeff West and authors of the USGS study about the challenges the National Park Service faces in creating sustainable coastal management practices for Cape Lookout.

    52 min
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    4.6
    out of 5
    112 Ratings

    About

    National 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.

    Information

    • Creator
      Kurt Repanshek
    • Years Active
      2019 - 2025
    • Episodes
      333
    • Rating
      Clean
    • Copyright
      © Copyright 2005-2022 - National Parks Traveler
    • Show Website
      National Parks Traveler Podcast

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