National Parks Traveler Podcast

Elephant seals are not your small, cuddly marine mammals. They are behemoths. Males, known as bulls, can reach 5,000 pounds, while females, known as cows, routinely clock in at around 1,000 pounds or so.   If you’re a wildlife watcher, now is the time to check elephant seals off your life list. Between December and March, they come en masse to Point Reyes National Seashore in California to give birth and mate again. But they don’t come ashore to simply laze about and soak up the sun when it’s shining. Males are building their harems much like bull elk do, and that can sometimes lead to fights between these ponderous animals.   To learn more about elephant seals, how they spend their days, and where you can see them at Point Reyes, we’re joined today by Sarah Codde, a marine ecologist at the national seashore.

Most, if not all of us, have bucket lists. Places we want to visit…but don’t always get the opportunity.   This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. One of the destinations on my bucket list is Gates of Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Noatak River that runs through it. A week or two floating the river sounds pretty ideal to me.   While it’s debatable whether I’ll cross that off my bucket list remains to be seen, today’s guest has floated the river more than once and backpacked all over Gates of the Arctic. And Jon Waterman returned from those trips with incredible stories of the places he saw, the people he met, and the wildlife that came in range of his eyes.   But over the course of several decades Jon also has witnessed the impact of climate change to the region, and it hasn’t been good. It’s the main thread of a story he lays out in his latest book, Into the Thaw.

Change happens…and sometimes it doesn’t.   Change certainly is underway in Washington, where the incoming Trump administration is putting its players in position with promises of changing, or maybe upsetting, the status quo.    Against that, the National Park Service continues to face long-standing problems with not enough staff or funding, compounded by National Park System damage from hurricanes, tornadoes, sea level rise, wildfires, just about everything under the sun.   We’re going to explore those topics today with Phil Francis from the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks and John Garder and Chad Lord from the National Parks Conservation Association.

As the calendar runs down on the current session of Congress, there are a number of pieces of legislation that would involve or possibly impact the National Park System if they find their way into an omnibus lands bill that gains passage before the session adjourns.   While we haven’t seen exactly what might find their way into an omnibus lands bill, among the candidates are legislation that would turn Chiricahua National Monument into a national park, one that would create a “designated operating partner” to oversee the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, and another that calls for a Benton MacKaye National Scenic Trail feasibility study.   There’s also pending legislation that would approve expansion of Big Bend National Park by about 6000 acres, one that would transform Apostle Islands National Lakeshore into Apostle Islands National Park and Preserve,  and one that, if passed, would forbid any official wilderness designation to be bestowed on Big Cpress National Preserve.   We’re going to take a look at the Big Bend, Apostle Islands, and Big Cypress measures today with Bob Krumenaker, who, during his 40+ years with the National Park Service, was superintendent of both Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and Big Bend National Park and served a stint as acting superintendent of Everglades National Park, which adjoins Big Cypress National Preserve.

The vulnerable red-cockaded woodpecker is known to be found in national park units throughout the southeast.  Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park in Florida, Cumberland Island National Seashore in Georgia, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee are just a few of the parks that either are, or once were, home to the woodpecker. Recently the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved to downlist the red-cockaded woodpecker from being an endangered species to being threatened. While that normally would be welcome news, the decision has been criticized as being premature and ignorant of climate-change threats to the species.   This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick discusses this decision with the southeast program director of Defenders of Wildlife…and the thinking behind that organization’s belief that this decision comes at a questionable time.

Humans like to play, right? We play cards, we play baseball and basketball, we go fishing or take a hike into the mountains. It’s our play time, time to recharge, refocus, relax.   Did you know animals like to play, too? And many times, our playgrounds infringe on wildlife habitat. But how does that affect their behavior? Does it affect their behavior? Today’s guest, Dr. Joel Berger, a wildlife biologist based at Colorado State University but who considers the world’s wild places as his playground, joins us today to talk about our human recreation and the impacts it has on wildlife.

Whether this is your first listen of our weekly podcast or number 299, welcome and thank you for listening. We hope you find these episodes interesting and present information or a side to the parks that you previously didn’t know about. Frankly, that’s the approach that we try to take at the Traveler. Not only to provide newsworthy information, such as National Park Service funding for hurricane impacts, but also to highlight aspects of the National Park System that you may not have been aware of. For example, take Jennifer Bain’s story from Oregon Cave National Monument and Preserve, and its collection of purely American Monterey furniture, or Barbara Jensen’s article from Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Ohio and Eerie Canal Towpath there. Or Sharon McDonald’s piece on the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site in California.  Today, we’re joined by contributors Kim O’Connell and Lynn Riddick to talk about the unusual, and at times eclectic content that you’ll find on the Traveler.

The Natchez Trace Parkway is a scenic byway that rolls 440 miles through Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee. A unit of the National Park Service,  the trace winds its way through lush landscapes, diverse ecosystems and interesting historical sites.    Originally the trace was a foot path for Native Americans and later used by early pioneers and traders. Today it’s popular for motorists, cyclists and others seeking adventure, tranquility and a peek into America’s past.     Most recently, it was the chosen location for a remarkable initiative by four women interested in promoting living kidney donations. All living kidney donors themselves, these women tackled the parkway’s entire 444 miles, beginning in Nashville, Tennessee, and finishing in Natchez, Mississippi….and did it in only four days.     This week the Traveler’s Lynn Riddick visits with these donor athletes to learn about their journey that they call ”4Women 4Kidneys 444Miles 4Days” and also to get a sense of what the Natchez Trace Parkway can offer to everyone.

The National Trail System in the United States spans many thousands of miles of foot trail. The crown jewels of that system, of course, are the Appalachian National Scenic Trail, the Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail. While the adventurous might look at those long trails and set their sights on hiking one end from end, not all manage to complete the journey. Many become disillusioned after days spent hiking in the rain, or because they become homesick, or because of the blisters that sprout on their feet. And some simply vanish. Today we’re joined by New York Times Bestselling author Andrea Lankford to talk about her book, Trail of the Lost, the Relentless Search to Bring home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail. It’s an incredible story Andrea has researched and woven together around three young men seemingly determined to go end to end on that trail. 

Crime happens, even in national parks, national forests, and other public lands. There are murders, thefts, robberies and all sorts of crime that we’d hope to escape by heading into the kingdom of public lands.   It can be hard to accept that national parks are not immune from criminals and crimes. Just this past Fourth of July there was a horrific incident in Yellowstone National Park when a concessions employees armed with an automatic rifle threatened to go on a killing spree. Law enforcement rangers who responded prevented that from happening, killing the man in the process, but it really underscored the reality that parks are not immune from crime.   To learn more about “crime off the grid,” we’re joined today by Tara Ross and Nancy Martinz, former law enforcement rangers in Yellowstone who these days work to educate the public about crime on public lands via their podcast, Crime off the Grid.