Episodes
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Humans like to play, right? We play cards, we play baseball and basketball, we go fishing or take a hike into the mountains. It’s our play time, time to recharge, refocus, relax.
Did you know animals like to play, too? And many times, our playgrounds infringe on wildlife habitat. But how does that affect their behavior? Does it affect their behavior? Today’s guest, Dr. Joel Berger, a wildlife biologist based at Colorado State University but who considers the world’s wild places as his playground, joins us today to talk about our human recreation and the impacts it has on wildlife. -
Whether this is your first listen of our weekly podcast or number 299, welcome and thank you for listening. We hope you find these episodes interesting and present information or a side to the parks that you previously didn’t know about.
Frankly, that’s the approach that we try to take at the Traveler. Not only to provide newsworthy information, such as National Park Service funding for hurricane impacts, but also to highlight aspects of the National Park System that you may not have been aware of.
For example, take Jennifer Bain’s story from Oregon Cave National Monument and Preserve, and its collection of purely American Monterey furniture, or Barbara Jensen’s article from Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Ohio and Eerie Canal Towpath there. Or Sharon McDonald’s piece on the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site in California.
Today, we’re joined by contributors Kim O’Connell and Lynn Riddick to talk about the unusual, and at times eclectic content that you’ll find on the Traveler.
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Episodes manquant?
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The Natchez Trace Parkway is a scenic byway that rolls 440 miles through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. A unit of the National Park Service, the trace winds its way through lush landscapes, diverse ecosystems and interesting historical sites.
Originally the trace was a foot path for Native Americans and later used by early pioneers and traders. Today it’s popular for motorists, cyclists and others seeking adventure, tranquility and a peek into America’s past.
Most recently, it was the chosen location for a remarkable initiative by four women interested in promoting living kidney donations. All living kidney donors themselves, these women tackled the parkway’s entire 444 miles, beginning in Nashville, Tennessee, and finishing in Natchez, Mississippi….and did it in only four days.
This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick visits with these donor athletes to learn about their journey that they call ”4Women 4Kidneys 444Miles 4Days” and also to get a sense of what the Natchez Trace Parkway can offer to everyone. -
The National Trail System in the United States spans many thousands of miles of foot trail. The crown jewels of that system, of course, are the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail.
While the adventurous might look at those long trails and set their sights on hiking one end from end, not all manage to complete the journey. Many become disillusioned after days spent hiking in the rain, or because they become homesick, or because of the blisters that sprout on their feet.
And some simply vanish. Today we’re joined by New York Times Bestselling author Andrea Lankford to talk about her book, Trail of the Lost, the Relentless Search to Bring home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s an incredible story Andrea has researched and woven together around three young men seemingly determined to go end to end on that trail.
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Crime happens, even in national parks, national forests, and other public lands. There are murders, thefts, robberies and all sorts of crime that we’d hope to escape by heading into the kingdom of public lands.
It can be hard to accept that national parks are not immune from criminals and crimes. Just this past Fourth of July there was a horrific incident in Yellowstone National Park when a concessions employees armed with an automatic rifle threatened to go on a killing spree. Law enforcement rangers who responded prevented that from happening, killing the man in the process, but it really underscored the reality that parks are not immune from crime.
To learn more about “crime off the grid,” we’re joined today by Tara Ross and Nancy Martinz, former law enforcement rangers in Yellowstone who these days work to educate the public about crime on public lands via their podcast, Crime off the Grid. -
Who could have predicted that Hurricane Helene would carry her fury from the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida hundreds of miles north into Appalachia? While there were forecasts calling for the hurricane to be downgraded to a tropical storm and drop quite a bit of rain in the region, the extent of damage in western North Carolina has been breathtaking.
Jacqueline Harp had her hands full when she took over as CEO of Smokies Life, a nonprofit organization that works with the National Park Service to develop educational and interpretive materials for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She had barely settled into that job when Helene reached North Carolina.
We’ve invited Jacki to join us today both to learn how recovery efforts are going in the national park, and to discuss her new role and ambitions with Smokies Life.
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The coastal town of Rodanthe, North Carolina is just a small spot on the map, but it’s a big place in the hearts of the people who live, own property, and vacation there. Located along Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Rodanthe has been in the national spotlight because of a succession of houses that have fallen into the Atlantic Ocean due to beach erosion. There have been ten houses affected in the past four years, and five this year alone.
As the Traveler and other national media outlets have reported, every time a beach house succumbs to the sea, it creates a massive debris field that is carried down the shore for miles, posing serious hazards to people, flora and fauna alike. Residents have described the phenomenon as a slow-motion hurricane.
In addition to the ongoing discussions about other at-risk houses, there is the very real issue of cleanup. The National Park Service brings in contractors who take out debris in truckloads, but that doesn’t mean that local residents are just standing idly by. Recently Traveler correspondent Kim O’Connell had the pleasure of interviewing local Tom Brueckner the day before he was set to join a group of residents to do a big beach cleanup as part of the National Park Service’s newly launched Adopt-A-Beach program.
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Concessions are the backbone of the National Park System. True, the National Park Service manages the parks and the wildlife and the visitors, but the concessionaires provide you with a bed, or campsite, to sleep in, restaurants to dine in, and gift shops to browse in.
Xanterra Parks and Resorts is one of the key players in the national park concessions industry. They operate lodges in Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Death Valley, Glacier, Grand Canyon and, until the end of this year, Zion National Park.
A newcomer on the park concessions scene is POWDR Corp., a self-branded adventure company most tied to snow sports. This past January, however, POWDR took over the concessions at Stovepipe Wells Village in Death Valley National Park, and this coming January it’ll be operating concessions at Zion National Park.
To learn more about POWDR and why it’s seeking opportunities in the National Park System, we’ve invited Justin Sibley, the company’s CEO, to discuss the transition. We’ll be back in a minute with Justin.
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The National Park System is an incredible reservoir of wildlife, from charismatic animals such as grizzly bears, bison and wolves, to animals such as moose, and pronghorn and sea turtles that, while not usually labeled as charismatic, are indeed just that.
Wolves certainly fall under the charismatic megafauna classification. They're majestic and mystifying, and perhaps even lend some romanticism to your backcountry adventures if you are lucky enough to hear a pack howling in chorus after sundown.
While it’s well-known that Yellowstone National Park and Isle Royale National Park have wolf populations, you might not know that Voyageurs National Park also has a resident population of the predators. To learn more about the wolves at Voyageurs National Park and their behavior, we’re joined today by Dr. Thomas Gable, the project lead for the Voyageurs Wolf Project. -
It was back in 1967 when the Congress chartered the National Park Foundation to serve as the official charity of the National Park Service, and over the decades it has raised millions of dollars for the parks.
The Foundation is in the midst of its Campaign for National Parks, a billion-dollar campaign that has already raised $815 million. A big chunk of that total came from a recent $100 million grant that greatly moved the foundation closer to its billion-dollar goal.
To discuss the campaign, how the money is raised and where it’s being spent, we’re joined today by Will Shafroth, the president and CEO of the National Park Foundation. -
Have you ever been to Mammoth Cave National Park? It’s really not that impressive, is it. Sure, it’s more than 425 miles long, but only about 10 miles are open to the public.
Mammoth Cave is indeed a big, dark hole in the ground. And apparently there are a fair number of visitors to the national park in Kentucky who are not impressed with the cave and its underground artworks created by dripstones, stalactites, and stalagmites. In fact, a recent survey ranked Mammoth Cave as the third-most disappointing destination in America.
Really? To get the park’s response, we’re joined today by Molly Schroer, the park’s management analyst. We’ll be back in a minute with Molly.
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From Maine to Florida, coastal units of the National Park System are being impacted in various ways by the changing climate. Some of the impacts affect wildlife, some natural resources, and some the human populations who either live in or come to visit these beautiful areas.
At the National Parks Traveler. We’ve been working on a series of stories looking at these changes that are showing up.
In recent shows we’ve discussed impacts to manatees that live in the waters of Everglades and Biscayne national parks as well as Cumberland Island National Seashore, and how sea level rise is impacting salt marshes that are vital for wildlife and which serve as buffers to hurricanes and tropical storms.
At Acadia National Park in Maine, the impacts are materializing in various ways.
Rainstorms are becoming heavier and more damaging, invasive species such as the Asian shore crab are showing up in the waters of Frenchman Bay, and the number of bird species that winter on Mount Desert Island have decreased.
To take a closer look at these changes, we’re joined by Nick Fisichelli, the president and CEO of the Schoodic Institute, a nonprofit science center based on the national park’s Schoodic Peninsula to discuss some of the impacts that have arrived and the research being done to better understand them.
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When you hear the word volcano, where in the world do you think of? Mount Vesuvious in Italy? Mount Fuji in Japan? Maybe Cotopaxi in Ecuador? Do you ever think of Lassen Peak?
The National Park System is full of volcanoes. Some active, some dormant, some extinct. They all have fascinating stories to tell.
There was a series of eruptions of Lassen Peak in Northern California between 1914 and 1917, with the 1915 eruption largely playing a role in the establishment of Lassen Volcanic National Park.Today we’re going to be discussing Lassen Peak and its volcanism along with Andy Calvert, the scientist-in-charge of the California Volcano Observatory, and Jessica Ball, the observatory’s volcano hazards and communication specialist.
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It’s hard to believe, but it’s been four years since Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act and President Trump signed it into law. Under that legislation, the National Park Service has been receiving $1.3 billion a year to pay for tackling the National Park System’s maintenance backlog.
When the Great American Outdoors Act was passed, it was given a five-year life. That means it will have to be reauthorized next year to keep the program going. It’s had wide-ranging impacts, paying for things like roadwork on the Blue Ridge Parkway, new bridges at Yellowstone National Park, improved campgrounds in the park system, and new interpretation.
But will the GAOA get renewed, and what’s the process to get there? To examine the benefits of the legislation, and talk about the steps being taken to reauthorize the legislation, we’re joined today by Eric Stiles, president and CEO of Friends of Acadia, Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.
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Manatees are some of the most unusual looking wildlife creatures that you’ll find in coastal units of the National Park System, places like Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and Cumberland Island National Seashore.
They are huge – the largest on record reportedly tipped the scales at 3500 pounds and was 13 feet long – and rather bulbous looking.
But manatees are also an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act. There are many threats to manatees along the Southeastern coastline of the United States, from power boaters to shrinking shorelines, and even climate change impacts.
To learn more about these interesting mammals and the struggles they face to build their populations, we’re joined today by Tiare Fridlich, a manatee biologist with the Save the Manatee Club. -
What is it about grizzly bears that intrigues us, or scares us? They are magnificent apex predators that long have been vilified by some while admired by others.
Enter the National Park System and you often will find yourself in a landscape with bears. In the East you’ll find black bears in Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Acadia national parks, just to name three destinations with the bruins.
Head west and many parks have black bears roaming the countryside, with a few parks also being home to grizzlies.
In today’s show we’re going to be talking bears, mainly grizzly bears, with Kevin Grange, a Wyoming writer who has a book coming in September called Grizzly Confidential. It’s an interesting read that opens many windows into bears and their mannerisms and how they interact with humans. -
One of the most troublesome aspects of heading out into national parks, national forests, and other federal lands for camping, paddling, or climbing – as well as many other recreational pursuits – is the rising tide of fees to do so.
There are reservation fees, cancellation fees, fees to change the date of your trip, even fees to gain a priority position to pay a fee for a permit.
Are these fees, generated through your use of the recreation.gov website that handles most, if not all, of the transactions, reasonable? It’s a question the Traveler has followed for a good number of years now, and it doesn’t look like a satisfactory answer will be coming soon.
Recently a U.S. senator from California, Alex Padilla, introduced legislation calling for an investigation into the fees these reservations cost the American public. Among the groups hoping that legislation eventually is signed into law is American Whitewater, which advocates for the protection and preservation of whitewater rivers and works to enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely.
Joining us today is Evan Stafford, American Whitewater’s communication’s director, to discuss recreation.gov and explain his organization’s interest in this legislation.
At the end of the show, if you’re interested in seeing Sen. Padilla’s legislation move forward, here’s the link to the Easy Action page Evan mentioned for contacting your senators.
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Along 1,600 miles of the Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida, sea level rise, subsidence, and more potent storms are challenging the National Park Service to figure out how best to protect wildlife and their habitats, as well as historic structures, archaeological sites, modern infrastructure, landscapes, and, of course, visitors.
In the coming months, the National Parks Traveler will be examining impacts tied to climate change and how the National Park Service is responding to them. We’ll bring you the concerns of residents and communities that are left with the damage from hurricanes and the loss of tax revenues from tourism and trace the strain these events have on the Park Service staff and budget.
We’ll also talk to experts about how natural landscapes, such as barrier reefs and salt marshes, and wildlife are being impacted. We’re going to have one of those conversations today with two experts from The Nature Conservancy: Dr. Alison Branco, TNC’s Climate Adaptation Director, and Dr. Nicole Maher, the organization’s Senior Coastal Scientist. -
There is never a shortage of stories to follow across the National Park System, whether you’re in the West at Olympic National Park, the Northeast at Acadia National Park, or the Southwest at Grand Canyon National Park.
This week, Contributing Editor Kim O’Connell is down in North Carolina to spend a few days at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, which has no shortage of news to report on, whether it’s leatherback sea turtles nesting, the restoration of Cape Hatteras Light, or the collapse of houses into the Atlantic Ocean at Rodanthe.Kim is working on a number of those stories for the Traveler, and we’re going to check in with her today to learn what she’s discovering.
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In the remote wilderness of the Brooks Mountain Range in Alaska, where untamed rivers wind through vast expanses of tundra and towering mountains, a peculiar and alarming phenomenon is taking place. Since 2017 at least 75 pristine waterways, which once shimmered with crystalline clarity, have taken on a haunting hue of orange and now contain very concerning toxic metals and minerals.
As speculation gives way to investigation, a team of researchers has been looking at the region's rapidly thawing permafrost—a phenomenon they suspect may hold the key to unraveling this disturbing transformation.
This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick talks with key scientists with the National Park Service and the University of California Davis on their new study that investigates these altered headwater tributaries, including ones in five national parks and a number of other protected areas. Among their findings are impacts to aquatic life, ecosystems, drinking water and the locals who rely on fishing for subsistence.
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