The Ranger PamPaw Podcast

After nine episodes of stories, insight, and earned perspective — one question remains.   In the Season 1 finale of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel gives the honest, specific answer to the question that has been building all season: given everything it cost, everything it asked — would you do it all again?   You'll hear the story of the third day that redirected an entire career, w...

The three most common wildlife mistakes visitors make in national parks are feeding, rescuing, and getting too close. Most people who make them think they're doing something harmless. Some think they're helping.   In this episode, Ranger PamPaw draws on nearly four decades of National Park Service experience to explain what actually happens when wildlife gets conditioned to human food, w...

What does a park on fire look like? Or a river reclaiming its floodplain after a century of dams? Or a glacier you could touch in 2010 that's now out of sight up the mountain?   In this episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel talks about fire, flood, and ecological change the way a ranger who lived it would — through direct field experience, specific stories, and the long view t...

Every national park has an official story — the one on the signs, the plaques, the brochures.    This episode tells the other stories. After five episodes building context and credibility, Ranger PamPaw steps back from explaining how parks work and does something different: he sits down and tells stories. The funny ones — including the number one question asked at every park in America, a visitor...

Most park visitors want to do the right thing. But wanting to and knowing how aren’t always the same.   In this episode, host Mark Tezel — Ranger PamPaw — delivers the practical, honest advice that rangers wish they could give every visitor: what Leave No Trace actually means beyond the slogan, the real stories behind the rules that seem arbitrary, and why some of the most obvious-seeming rules ar...

Ask ten people to describe a park ranger, and you'll get ten different answers. A tour guide. A law enforcement officer. Someone who fixes trails. Someone who works in the visitor center.   Here's the thing — they're all right.   In this episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, host Mark Tezel brings you inside a full day in the life of the National Park Service: the early mornings, th...

Ranger PamPaw takes listeners behind the scenes of the National Park Service to explain how America’s parks really work. Drawing on decades of experience, Mark Tezel explores why parks operate so differently under the same mission, who actually works in a park, and why planning, compliance, and limited budgets often make change slower than visitors expect. This episode helps visitors better unders...

In Episode 2 of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, Mark Tezel (Ranger PamPaw) shares how a lifetime connected to America’s national parks changes the way you see them—and the responsibility that comes with that perspective. This episode is story‑forward (not a résumé): from growing up around the San Antonio Missions to serving in the National Park Service, traveling across the system, and discovering how...

In this opening episode of the Ranger PamPaw Podcast, retired National Park Service ranger Mark Tezel introduces the journey ahead—one shaped by a lifetime in America’s national parks. From a first visit to Big Bend National Park at just one year old to a career that began in 1989, Ranger PamPaw reflects on how these places shaped his values, perspective, and sense of stewardship. Now retired, he...

Welcome to the Ranger PamPaw Podcast—a storytelling podcast about America’s national parks, told from a lifetime of experience. Hosted by retired National Park Service ranger Mark Tezel, this show shares park stories, behind‑the‑scenes perspective, and the kind of wisdom you only gain after years on the trail. Support the show Thanks for joining me on the trail today. If you enjoyed this episode,...