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National Parks Traveler Podcast

National Parks Traveler Episode 174: Listening To Park Sounds

As much as a national park’s scenery catches you, the sounds you can pick up during your park visits are just as memorable. And, in the case of a howling wolf, bellowing grizzly, or bugling elk, I would suggest that they’re more memorable. This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. This week, we’re doing away with talking and focusing on listening.

National Parks Traveler Episode 172: What Parks Will You Visit This Summer?

Memorial Day Weekend is the traditional kickoff to summer. Where will you go in the National Park System?

Memorial Day Weekend is the official kickoff to summer. Now, there’s no doubt that many of us have already been to a unit of the National Park System in 2022, but this weekend is the traditional start to venturing into the park system.

If you don’t know where to go, or what to do, I’ve invited Kim O’Connell, a contributing writer at the National Parks Traveler, and Lynn Riddick, the Traveler's masterful podcaster, to help sort through the options. 

National Parks Traveler Episode 171 | Battling Politics In The Parks

National Parks probably have never been entirely immune from political influences, whether they came out of Washington, D.C., or close to a park’s boundaries. But there’s an argument that can be made, one backed up by evidence, that the past 50 years have seen the most attempts to subvert the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect natural resources unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

National Parks Traveler Episode 170| The National Park System's Crippling Maintenance Backlog

National Parks Traveler podcast
In today's podcast we’re taking time to take a look out across the National Park System, and at the National Park Service, to explore how things are on the ground, literally and figuratively. To help me with this discuss, I’ve invited Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president for government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association, and Phil Francis, the immediate past chair of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, to discuss recent events, including a new, somewhat shocking, deferred maintenance figure for the National Park System.

National Parks Traveler Episode 168: A Conversation With Everglades Superintendent Ramos

Everglades National Park
Everglades National Park very easily can be viewed as the poster child for invasive species. It’s infested with non-native Burmese pythons, Argentine black and white tegus are making inroads, there is invasive vegetation like Melaleuca and Brazilian pepper, and nonnative fish are making their way into the park’s ecosystems.

National Parks Traveler Episode 167: Glen Canyon NRA's Thirst For Water

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is being challenged by a long-running drought.

Lake Powell long has been the shimmering heart of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah and Arizona, but it’s not the only asset of the NRA that covers 1.25 million acres. 

This is Kurt Repanshek, your host at the National Parks Traveler. Last year I had the good fortune to visit Glen Canyon NRA twice –- once in May to kayak Lake Powell -- and then in July when I backpacked into the park’s backcountry to not just admire its beauty but watch efforts to reverse the spread of invasive vegetation in the park.

National Parks Traveler Episode 166: Slogging Through A Cypress Dome At Everglades

Exploring a cypress dome during a slough slog at Everglades National Park

I recently had the great opportunity to visit Everglades National Park in South Florida on the tail end of the dry season.

Gazing out across the national park as we drove south from the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center towards Flamingo, my eyes swept across sawgrass prairie that was broken only occasionally by tree islands. Ivory-white egrets and great blue herons were the most obvious birds on this soggy landscape, though a few ospreys cruised overhead.

National Parks Traveler Episode 165: Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, Part 2

Lyndon Baines Johnson National Historical Park

Lyndon Baines Johnson had a staggering impact on the United States during his time as president. Much of his approach to government was instilled during his early life in Texas. In this, part two of her podcast on the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, the Traveler's Lynn Riddick visits the president's boyhood home and ranch.

The LBJ Ranch was where he was born, lived, died, and was buried.

Lynn was introduced to the park by Ranger Brian Vickers.

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