National Parks Traveler Podcast

You likely know that Dry Tortugas National Park houses Fort Jefferson, which served as a Civil War-era prison with a community for soldiers, civilians, and slaves.   Were you aware that hidden remnants of a hospital and graveyard have been found nearby — offshore — adding to the puzzle of life and death in the Civil War era?   Lynn Riddick dives into that topic with Joshua Marano, a maritime archaeologist for the National Park Service...

It’s summer. Not officially, but close enough. Many schools have already taken the next few months off, others will soon join the summer break. Summer for many is the peak travel time. Parks are a great destination, whether in summer or just about any other month of the year. To help you come up with some ideas of which parks to visit and why, we’ve invited two members of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks – Maria Burks and Phil Francis – who collectively have spent more than eight decades working in the National Park System to discuss their favorites.

Horses can be found in many corners of the National Park System. You spot them running wild at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, splashing in the surf at Cape Lookout National Seashore in North Carolina and at Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia, and of course as pack animals and tireless steeds that carry both rangers and visitors to the parks.   But wild horses are somewhat of a conundrum in the National Park System. They’re a conundrum because they technically are not wild, but rather feral, meaning they descended from domesticated horses. As such, they technically are not native wildlife, and that has become an issue.    At Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the National Park Service has raised the question of whether the horses there, as livestock, not native wildlife, should be removed from the park. A recent comment period on that proposal drew more than 7,000 comments, just 45 of which supported removal of the horses.   Where the Park Service will come down on horses at Theodore Roosevelt remains to be seen.   Across the country, at Cumberland Island National Seashore along the coast of Georgia, there also are feral horses, and their plight has surfaced in the form of a lawsuit that claims that animals not only are damaging the seashore's environment and two federally protected species but are not being humanely managed by the National Park Service and should be removed from the seashore.   We’re going to explore that issue today with Hal Wright, who brought the lawsuit, Patty Livingston, president of both the Georgia Equine Rescue League and the Georgia Horse Council, and Jessica Howell-Edwards, executive director of Wild Cumberland, an advocacy group for the seashore. 

There are external and internal influences that can impact units of the National Park System. Urban sprawl can strangle parks and their natural resources. Wildfires can sweep across boundaries and into parks. Rivers can flood and wash out trails and roads, as we saw last June at Yellowstone National Park. Today we’re going to be talking about looming threats to Yellowstone and Cape Hatteras National Seashore.  In the case of Yellowstone, it’s a gold mine proposed to be sunk into a mountain towering over the park’s northern entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs. At Cape Hatteras, it’s the Atlantic Ocean and the natural dynamics of barrier islands, which were not designed by nature to remain in one place. Instead, they shift as the ocean erodes beaches and moves sand about. In both of these cases, there are solutions in sight. The question is whether they’ll succeed. 

While spring is slowly giving way to summer in many parts of the country, with visitors gaining more and more access to the National Park System, a stand-off in Washington over the country’s debt ceiling very likely would greatly disrupt operations in the parks. It was just a decade ago that a federal budget sequestration, that is a forced cut across all federal agencies budgets as part of the Budget Control Act, led to closed campgrounds, Sunday closures of National Park System units, and 900 permanent positions that went unfilled. For the National Park Service, the sequestration led to a 5% budget cut that also led to a reduction in invasive plant control at the parks, a reduction in maintenance of fences and building repairs, science and research activities, and natural resource monitoring. In Washington today, House Republicans want to see some pretty stiff budget cuts in return for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling. According to the New York Times, one outcome, if the funding cap’s proposal put forth by the Republicans is approved, would be a 51% reduction in the Interior Department’s budget. How devastating might that be to the National Park Service and the National Park System? We’re going to explore that question with Mike Murray, chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and John Garder, senior director of Budget and Appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association. 

National parks are not alone in grappling with crowds. Many gateway communities surrounding our national parks are notable for their own amazing offerings -- natural beauty with tranquil spots for solitude and reflection…and nice venues for dining, listening to live music and pursuing year-round outdoor recreational and leisure activities.  But when the management of visitation in these areas is unchecked, and the very resources that make these places highly desirable destinations are strained, can anything really be done?   The community of Jackson, Wyoming, hopes so.  Recognizing that residents, business owners and visitors all share in the responsibility of preserving the area’s unique character and allure, stakeholders throughout Teton County have put together a comprehensive sustainable destination management plan. The goal is to protect the beauty of the area, preserve a healthy environment and, at the same time, enhance visitor experience, business growth and quality of life for residents.   This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick talks with Crista Valentino of the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board to find out what’s in the plan and how it will help.

It's easy to take the status of national parks for granted. We read wonderful beckoning stories about them in magazines and newspapers. And we watch gorgeous travelogue pieces about them on television. But how much do we know about the operational status of the national parks? How much do we know about the health of the natural resources, the condition of historic structures, the state of the workforce that operates and manages the national parks? In short, we know really very little about those things. But at Yellowstone National Park, staff has been preparing "State of the Park" reports for some years. These reports provide some insights into the overall health of the park, if you will. Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly sat down with Traveler Editor Kurt Repanshek to discuss this year's report.

Across the National Park System, there are incredible sights that explore American history. There’s a robust mix of cultures reflected in the parks, and breathtaking vistas that, well, will take your breath away. But there also are seemingly countless needs, from backlogs of maintenance projects, interpretation for history, wildlife and science that needs to be crafted, and unique issues that can range from climate change impacts to helping inner city youth visit a park. Helping the National Park Service tackle these myriad issues and challenges is the National Park Foundation, which Congress created back in 1967 to be the official charitable organization for the parks. Through the years, this organization has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for the parks. Today, with National Parks Week underway, we’re joined by Will Shafroth, the Foundation’s CEO to discuss not only the needs of the park system, but the successes the Foundation is recognizing in tackling some of them. 

Travel extensively through the National Park System, and you’ll quickly come to realize that the park’s restaurants try to reflect the local culinary trends, or at least use local ingredients in crafting their menus. For instance, visit national parks in Alaska and you can pretty much count on salmon in the dinner offerings. Travel through the parks in the Rocky Mountains, and elk (and sometimes bison) will appear on the menus. Explore parks in the southwest, and you can almost predict that cacti will show up in some form. You can be amazed at the menus that chefs in the National Park System roll out. Even more amazing is how they feed hundreds of people at meal time, and largely maintain consistency with what they put in front of you. This week we’re going to explain how you can mimic some of these chefs in your own kitchen. Our guest is Linda Ly, author of “The National Parks Cookbook.” We’ll see if we can inspire you with new home menus, from beverages and appetizers, to entrees and desserts.

Over the years there have been more than a few units of the National Park System that have been head-scratchers. Why were they added? What redeeming value did they bring to the park system?  James Ridenour who was director of the National Park Service from 1989 through 1993, was well familiar with these units. As he once put it, “I’m in complete agreement that the National Park Service has units that are unworthy of National Park Service status. That was my motive for coining the term ‘thinning of the blood’.” Members of Congress trade votes to get their local favorite on the NPS teat, usually to attract tourists. Then they don’t add money to the budget to run these units. So you have two things - you thin the quality of the system, and you thin the ability of the National Park Service to run the system. We’re going to explore some of these units, at least some of the ones that were pushed out of the National Park System, with none-other than Traveler Professor Emeritus Dr. Robert Janiskee. Bob was the one who quite some years ago started the “Pruning the Parks” series on the Traveler, and we’ve momentarily  pried him out of his retirement to discuss some of these parks with us.