National Parks Traveler Podcast

There is a wide acceptance that we have drifted too far away from nature, and that we need to pull closer. Many have called for 30 by 30 - conserving 30% of nature by 2030. The 2022 State of the Birds Report pointed out that more than half of bird species normally found in habitats as diverse as forests, deserts and oceans in the United States are in decline. Climate change is a major factor in those declines, but human development also plays a key role by chewing into wildlife habitat and creating biological islands.  How do we reverse declines in wildlife and in wildlife habitat? Can we prevent Yellowstone, Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Parks, and other large Western landscape parks from turning into biological islands? Today we’re going to explore the problems, and possible solutions, with Elaine Leslie, who was the National Park Service’s Chief for Biological Resources before retiring, and Bart Melton, who leads the National Parks Conservation Association’s Wildlife Program. 

Exceptionally well-preserved fossils of Columbian Mammoths and other Ice Age animals are found at the Waco Mammoth National Monument in Waco, Texas.  In this unit of the National Park System, you can see the only recorded evidence of a nursery herd of Columbian mammoth mothers and their offspring and get a rare glimpse into the behavior and ecology of these immense extinct giants.   This week, the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick travels to Waco, to see what else she can unearth about this unique unit of the National Park System that permanently protects the remains of Columbian Mammoths.

National parks offer some of the best birding in the country. From Acadia National Park to Big Bend National Park and over to Haleakalā National Park, you could spend days looking overhead for a species to add to your life list. But as rich as national parks are in bird life, that’s not to say it’s business as usual in the birding world. At Acadia National Park, dramatic changes have been noted in the wintering bird populations. American Tree Sparrows, once fairly abundant, have been on the decline, while Northern Cardinals and Wild Turkeys, two species that normally aren’t linked to the park, have been on the rise lately. To better understand what’s going on at Acadia, we’ve reached out to Kyle Lima, a Schoodic Institute data analyst who analyzed bird observations collected as part of the National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count.

When unprecedented flooding roars through a national park, shredding major roads that access that park, it rightfully could be pointed to as the top story in the National Park System. And while Yellowstone National Park was that park, not only the flooding, but the lack of human casualties, and rapid recovery rank that story as arguably the top one in the National Park System in 2022. But that wasn’t the only major story that came out of the parks this year. Today we’re looking back at some of the top stories across the National Park System in 2022. To help us identify them, we’ve asked Kristen Brengel, the National Parks Conservation Association’s Senior Vice President for Government Affairs, and Mike Murray, Chairman of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks to join us.

We’re just about to close the books on 2022 and what a year in the National Park System it has been. We’ve seen catastrophic flooding, drought, and crowds, lots of crowds. Today though, we’re going to focus on some of the positives about being out and about in the parks. We’ve asked contributing editors Lynn Riddick and Kim O’Connell to join us today to point to their favorite adventures and stories from the parks this past year. 

Andrew Revkin, noted journalist, author, and educator, has been reporting on climate change for the better part of 35 years. In a conversation with the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick, he shares stories of his experiences, and how he is adapting his work to foster conversations rather than the traditional form of interrogative storytelling. He regards today’s communication climate as an inseparable part of the Earth system, and vital in our response to real climate issues. He also has some thoughts about our National Parks, and the landscapes we are enjoying at this particular moment in time. 

It’s been quite a year in the National Park System when the subject turns to unexpected bills. There was the historic flooding that hit Yellowstone National Park in June, monsoonal flooding that struck Death Valley National Park and Mojave National Preserve later this past summer, and even flooding at Vicksburg National Military Park that caused significant damage.  It’s well known that the National Park Service doesn’t have the financial resources and staffing that it needs on a daily basis to keep the National Park System not just running, but well maintained. As a result, we shouldn’t be too surprised when natural disasters such as flooding, wildfires, and even droughts strike and generate repair bills in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Dollars that the National Park Service doesn’t have just sitting in a bank account, ready to pay for repairs.  Today we’re going to explore the unexpected costs that have descended on the National Park Service, and how to pay for them, with John Garder, the National Parks Conservation Association’s senior director for budget and appropriations. 

Across the National Park System, national parks fortunate enough to have friends groups helping them out have been leaning a little bit harder on those non-profit organizations than in the past. In some cases a lot harder as federal funding has not kept up with the increase in park units, or the costs of maintaining and operating those parks.  It seems the National Park Service can never get ahead of the costs of operating the park system. That’s where national park friends organizations come into play. They raise charitable dollars to help cover the costs of programs and initiatives that the parks wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation has been doing this kind of work for 25 years. Today we’re going to take a look back at the foundation’s many successes with Jordan Calaway, the foundation’s chief development officer.

National Parks Traveler correspondent Jennifer Bain visits Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southwestern Arizona. Jessica Pope, the park's interpretation, education and community engagement programs manager, gives Bain a tour of Quitobaquito Springs, a lush oasis in the middle of the Arizona desert.

Freeze-dried meals long have been the go-to food source for many backcountry travelers, but only because they didn’t know other options existed for meal time. And not everyone easily stomachs those meals. To explore the possibilities of home-made dehydrated meals, we are joined by Chef Glenn McAllister, who decided that a 315-mile hike on the Appalachian Trail would be a great shakedown trek for experimenting with dehydrated meals. Chef Glenn runs the website BackpackingChef.com, which is the go-to source for how to dehydrate meal ingredients, and what to do with them.