National Parks Traveler Podcast

Frederick Swanson is a Salt Lake City writer who long has studied public lands issues in Utah, and his latest book delves into the history of the state's national parks and monuments. In our show he discusses the motivation that spurred "Wonders of Sand and Stone, A History of Utah's National Parks and Monuments."

Gulf Islands National Seashore is developing a Commercial Services Strategy for Crab Island due to the raucous partying that goes on there. Lynn Riddick discusses the matter with Gulf Islands Superintendent Dan Brown.

Estee Rivera, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Conservancy, discusses the damage wildfires inflicted on Rocky Mountain National Park and the role the conservancy is taking in helping park staff rehabilitate areas impacted by the fires and interpret the intense fire season. And Kurt Repanshek visits with Kim Heacox, a former park ranger turned writer and photographer at Glacier Bay National...

Dr. Bryan Watts, an authority on bald eagles, discusses his research that indicates that bald eagles that utilize national park lands around the Chesapeake Bay may have a slight advantage over those that use the bay's other estuarine systems. 

How might the 2020 presidential election impact the National Park Service? Former Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, Kristen Brengel from the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, discuss that question.

National Parks Traveler's Lynn Riddick connects with Dr. Tracy Romano of Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut to discuss the plight of beluga whales in Cook Inlet in Alaska and the threats they face, including the threats posed by the proposed Pebble Mine project.

This week we look at a nonprofit organization whose sole existence is to acquire, from willing sellers, private lands surrounded by official, or proposed, wilderness in national parks, national forests, and other publicly owned lands. Once those lands are acquired and transferred to federal land managers,  The Wilderness Land Trust will put itself out of business. But that's not going to happen ov...

In this week's show, we look at one of the hottest places on Earth,  Death Valley National Park  in southeastern California and western Nevada. And this summer was especially hot. The park broke records in a number of categories as it experienced some of the hottest days ever recorded on Earth.   August was particularly brutal, with record temperatures reached  12 times  for both the daily high an...

Life in the National Park System doesn't pause for presidential elections. Indeed, there have been many issues across the parks to pay attention to and discuss. To help us with that task, we've invited Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, and Sheridan Steele, a Park Service veteran who sits on the executive council of the Coa...

In this week's show, we look at a national park site that celebrates distinctly American music -- the Blue Ridge Music Center near Galax, Virginia. Traveler's Lynn Riddick visits with Richard Emmett, director of the center, to find out what's happening in the interpretation, presentation, and promotion of traditional American mountain music. We'll kick it off with a clip from the Chatham Rabbits,...

In this week's show, we welcome you to fall with a conversation with lodging experts David and Kay Scott on where best to relax and enjoy the fall foliage in the National Park System. And Lynn Riddick catches up with Seth Benz, the bird ecology director at the Schoodic Institute, to discuss fall migrations at Acadia National Park.  

We're going to dream a little bit about places in the National Park System we'd like to visit with hopes we can help you discover a new park destination. To launch this audio bucket list, we're looking towards Arizona and Parashant National Monument, which despite its more than 1 million acres seems to fly below most park visitors' radar. Following that, we're going to continue to ponder the topic...

This week we take a look at the outdoor recreation industry and how it has been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. We also take a look at the upcoming fundraiser for Outdoor Afro.  Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson will host the fundraiser for the organization that inspires and facilitates the connection of Black Americans to natural spaces everywhere. 

In this week's show, we question whether national parks can serve as a barrier to slow the sixth mass extinction.  But first, what can turn a five-day trip to Yosemite National Park into a one-day trip to Assateague Island National Seashore? Covid can. In this lighthearted and informative story of their trip to the beach, the Traveler's Lynn Riddick and her friend Michele Hogan demonstrate that it...

In this week's show, we're focusing on the current coronavirus pandemic as well as the 1918 flu pandemic and how those diseases impacted national park visitation. After discussing those two pandemics with Professor Terence Young from California Polytechnic State University, we visit with contributing writer Rita Beamish, who tried to escape the current pandemic by taking to the John Muir Trail for...

National parks offer a variety of treasures: spectacular views, scenic trails and waterways and vast ecosystems of plants and wildlife. And what would these things be without accompanying soundscapes -- wind howling through a canyon on a scorching afternoon… or the "wall-of-sound" created by insects as soon as the sun sets… or birds singing so loudly outside your tent, they wake you up before you...

An early detection of a wildland fire in  Denali National Park  in June brings to light how enhanced satellite technology is catching smaller fires sooner, providing better detail and more accurate fire predictions and assessments.  As a result, fire managers are better able to determine needed actions and resources to meet the unique conditions of Alaska's landscape. National ParksTraveler's   Ly...

We look back at the top news stories from the National Park System in July. There was the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act by Congress, the ongoing issue of the coronavirus pandemic and how parks have been dealing with it, and news that the renowned Sea Turtle Science and Recovery Program at Padre Island National Seashore is to be greatly scaled back. Joining host Kurt Repanshek to discu...

Residential environmental learning centers are nonprofit facilities that connect people to nature. But they are tasked with serving a greater good -- to foster the development of better global citizens. Lynn Riddick speaks with Catey McClary of the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont to better understand this organization whose roots in outdoor learning go back some 50 years.

Nature is an incredibly powerful and successful teacher. Of course, students need teachers to deliver the lessons. That's where Residential Environmental Learning Centers come into play in national parks. Organizations like NatureBridge, the Cuyahoga Valley Institute, the Yellowstone Institute, The Great Smoky Mountains Institute. And the North Cascades Institute. These nonprofit organizations use...

Have you ever stopped to listen during your national park vacation? What do you hear? We share some of the sounds in this week's episode with hopes they inspire you to let your ears play a greater role in your enjoyment during your national park visit.

The survival of Residential Environmental Learning Centers in national parks is in jeopardy. As the president of one such center says, "the impact of coronavirus is an 'extinction-level event.'" Listen to how they are working to keep their doors open.

June has been an especially newsworthy month across the National Park System. The U.S. Senate passed what has been called the most important public lands bill in decades, and more national parks have reopened areas to the public. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is proposing a large oil and gas lease auction for lands near Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef national parks, and the U.S. Supreme...

We take a look at the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's move to offer more than 110,000 acres in Utah for oil and gas development. How might that proposal impact Arches ,  Capitol Reef , and  Canyonlands national parks? Erika Pollard from the National Parks Conservation Association joins us to explain some of the issues in play. After listing to our conversation, take a look at this story that look...

There's always a lot of shaking, rattling, and occasional rolling going on in Yellowstone National Park. Keeping track of it is the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, one of five such observatories under the purview of the U.S. Geological Survey. It keeps real-time tabs on volcanic, hydrothermal, and earthquake activity in the Yellowstone Plateau volcanic field. Lynn Riddick speaks with the scientis...