National Parks Traveler Podcast

The Capitol Reef Reader is not your typical national park guidebook. No trail, dining, or lodging information. Rather, The Capitol Reef Reader offers an incredible wealth of information in the essays Stephen Trimble has pulled together for this collection. Essays by the likes of Clarence Dutton who traveled the Southwest with Major John Wesley Powell, Ed Abbey, and that literary conservation giant, Wallace Stegner. We talk with Trimble this week about how he pulled together the wonderful essays in this anthology on Capitol Reef National Park. Erika Zambello makes a short stop at the Old Post Office Building in Washington, D.C., and we end the show with a look at two wonderful monuments in Arizona, Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano.

Tom Smith, a professor of wildlife sciences at Brigham Young University and a member of the National Rifle Association, discusses how effective guns in backcountry locations are in defending against bear attacks. What he says might surprise you. This episode also looks at the Volcanic Legacy Highway that ties Lassen Volcanic National Park and Crater Lake National Park together.

Burmese pythons long have presented a significant problem for native wildlife in Everglades National Park. Erika Zambello talks to a contractor hired to study and remove these invasive snakes. We also take a look at Acadia, Shenandoah, and Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and review Ramble On: A History of Hiking.

Using national park settings as a backdrop for these programs can serve double duty – the resources are the perfect educational tool,  and the settings can really connect youth to nature. These settings seem to resonate with students', teachers', and adults' innate thirst for nature. Saul Weisberg, who helped found the North Cascades Institute in 1986, has seen students from every walk of life positively affected by their experiences in North Cascades National Park and other public lands that the Institute uses as outdoor classrooms. Saul joins us today to talk about the benefits of these outdoor programs. Erika Zambello also checks in with Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters and their work in the national monument.

Kim Titchener, the founder of bearsafety.com, discusses how humans can stay safe in bear habitat, while Erika Zambello visits Washington, D.C., and tracks down some of Thomas Moran's famed paintings of national parks. Host Kurt Repanshek suggests that the National Park Service be pulled out of the Interior Department and set up as a freestanding agency.

Independent filmmaker Tom Huang discusses his new project, Find Me, a movie that uses national parks as a backdrop for a story about personal reflection and rejuvenation in nature. It also touches on the issue of cultural diversity in park visitors. With the official start to summer on June 21, we also offer some tips for staying safe in parks, and look at the gateway town of Estes Park, Colorado.

Are you familiar with Sooty terns? It’s an interesting seabird species with mysterious travels. In this week's National Parks Traveler podcast episode, Erika Zambello speaks with Dr. Ryan Huang about a decades-long research study on Sooty Terns in the Dry Tortugas. After they nest in the spring, where do they go? What do they eat? What will they face in the future? We also spend a little time with Becky Lomax, author of Moon USA National Parks, The Complete Guide to All 59 Parks, and take a look at Horseshoe Bend National Military Park in Alabama.

Jacob W. Frank is one of the photographers who frames Yellowstone National Park's wildlife, geysers, lakes and forests for you to enjoy. How did he get his job with the National Park Service, and how many parks has he captured with his cameras? He discusses his job with host Kurt Repanshek. You'll also find an overview of visiting South Dakota's national parks, monuments, and memorials in this episode.

Phil Francis, chair of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, and Kristen Brengel, vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, join host Kurt Repanshek for this special roundtable discussion about current events in the National Park System.

What is the state of wildlife in the National Park System? Defenders of Wildlife President Jamie Rappaport Clark discusses the health of wildlife in the national parks. Steve Markle of O.A.R.S. provides a forecast for the upcoming white-water season in Utah and California on the Green, Colorado, Merced, and Tuolumne rivers, and Erika Zambello tours Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site and Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site.