National Parks Traveler Podcast

El Camino Real de Los Tejas is a network of trails that connected Spanish missions, settlements, and military outposts from Mexico through Texas and into Louisiana. Now a national historic trail, this road played a crucial role in the Spanish colonization of the region in the late 1600s. It served as a vital route for communication, trade, and military movement.  Over time, that trail facilitated cultural exchange and interaction between Spanish settlers, indigenous peoples, and later, Anglo-American pioneers. The 2500 mile route is marked by numerous historical sites, including mission ruins, forts, and early settlements. It provides a tangible link to the colonial past and the diverse communities that shaped Texas and the broader Southwest.  The Traveler’s Lynn Riddick takes a stroll along the trail with expert Steven Gonzales, who shares his knowledge about the significance of the trail and the American historical narrative. 

The National Parks Conservation Association is almost as old as the National Park Service. The Service, as you probably know, was established in 1916, and NPCA came along three years later. Through the 106-year history of NPCA, there has been only one woman who held the title of president and Chief Executive Officer. That woman is Theresa Pierno, who has worked for the park advocacy group for more than two decades, and as NPCA’s CEO and president for the past ten years. At the end of this year Theresa will step down from the organization, but she won’t stop advocating for the parks. Theresa is our guest today, and will both look back on her tenure with NPCA and the current political climate that is threatening the National Park Service and the national parks.

Grizzly bears. They define charismatic megafauna. Huge animals that draw both human admiration and fear. Once they roamed the entire country, though that was a long time ago. Today there are pockets of grizzly bear populations in the Rocky Mountains from Yellowstone to Glacier National Parks. Among the questions that revolve around grizzly bears is how many are too many, are they a threat to humans, should they be removed from the landscape, or protected? To explore those issues our guests today are Erin Edge and Joseph Vaile from Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit wildlife advocacy organization.

Morgan Sommerville, the Director of Visitor Use Management for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, dives into the complexities of the Appalachian Trail's popularity. He tackles the pressing issue of overcrowding and its effects on hiker experience. The conversation highlights strategies for navigating peak traffic, including alternative hiking routes. Sommerville also addresses the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and the collaborative efforts to restore the trail. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of sustainable hiking practices to protect this iconic outdoor treasure.

Heading into the National Park System this summer? Going it alone, or have you booked a tour company? What do you think about how the Trump Administration and Congress are treating the National Parks and the National Park Service? Have you reported any park signs to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that disparage Americans, dead or alive?   As you can tell there’s a lot going on in the parks. Some good, some not so good, and some downright bad. It’s a lot to digest, and a lot to discuss.  To help us gauge a sense of what’s going on out there, our guest is Leigh Barnes, President of the Americas at Intrepid Travel, an Australian-based tour company that has been leading trips around the world since 1989. Part of their cache is keeping tour groups small, a dozen or so travelers along with the guides.   The company also recently conducted a survey of Americans to get their sense of how politicians are treating the Parks and the Park Service that we’ll discuss with Leigh.

Anniversaries and birthdays give us time to reflect on individuals, accomplishments, and moments in history. They often refresh our memories and can serve as motivators to do something. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which was established in 1925, just two years after the first sections of the Appalachian Trail opened. To discuss the trail, some of its history, and the challenges it faces today, our guests are Sandi Marra, CEO of the Conservancy, and Brendan Mysliwiec, the Conservancy’s Director of Federal Policy.

There are some in Congress who think we should have a fire sale on public lands. Places across national forests and the Bureau of Land Management that politicians think should be offered for sale, either to try to adopt President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that would continue to offer the biggest tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and corporations or simply because they don’t believe there should be public lands. This legislation, sponsored by U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah, could be the most devastating public lands measure to come before Congress. If passed, it could dramatically reshape the West. While Interior Secretary Doug Burgum says many of the lands that could be affected are often "barren land next to highways with existing billboards that have no recreational value," many others disagree. There’s a hew and cry across the West, that many of these lands are used by hunters and anglers, by birders and backpackers, four-wheelers and by weekend campers. To get into the weeds of this legislation our guest this week is Mike Carroll, director of the BLM program for The Wilderness Society.

Today our guest is Marissa Ortega-Welch, a San Francisco-based freelance journalist who focuses on environmental issues. Last year she generated a series of podcasts surrounding the topic of official wilderness – the history of official wilderness and the idea of wilderness. It’s an interesting series that you can find by searching for How Wild wherever you download your podcasts.

So much is happening so quickly to the National Park Service. There have been staff reductions, hiring freezes, spending freezes, orders from the Interior Secretary to make sure that visitors find national parks welcoming, no matter what it takes.  Every week seems to bring something new, and quite frankly dire to the National Park Service. Most recently we’ve heard about the loss of about 60 employees from the agency’s Alaska regional office, and there are concerns the Trump administration is going to push through even greater reductions in force for the Park Service. How are those moves impacting the parks and the Park Service? Our guest today is Kristen Brengel, the Senior Vice President for Governmental Affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association. 

Is green a red and blue construct? Put another way, is there a political partisan divide over the environment? That’s a particularly interesting question, no doubt more so in recent years as the country seems to have drifted farther and farther apart because of our political beliefs. To that point, a reader reached out the other day to say our stories shouldn’t be negative on the Trump Administration because the national parks are going to need the help of all of us - Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and everything in-between - to survive. But are environmental issues highly partisan? For the Traveler’s purpose, we’ll define “environmental issues” as those focused on public lands, wildlife, clean air, clean water, and of course the national parks. To help us try to answer that question, our guest today is Caleb Scoville, a professor at Tufts University who has received an Andrew Carnegie fellowship to explore that question.